Skip to main content

Coffee or Freedom?

I'm back off Dunkins. Well, sort of. Since things were going so well lately in terms of finances, I found myself getting a little bit too comfortable with my morning coffee routine. If you add it up, its about an extra 10-12 dollars per week that I was spending on my morning cuppa. Then in the afternoons, I might run down and get a starbucks as well. Another 6-8 bucks per week. All told, I was spending close to 20 dollars per week just on coffee or tea! This seemed ridiculous to me even without any of the latte factor hype.

In the end, I've decided that I will try to switch back to my old ways of making coffee at work. I use the coffee-single "tea-bag" type coffee. Its not as good as Dunkins, that is for sure. But, I think that in the long run I will be happier knowing that I didn't waste 20 dollars a week on something that I really didn't need to have every day.

I think that once I get rid of all my non-mortgage debt, I will be more relaxed about these things, but for me, getting out of debt is something that makes me much happier than a cup of coffee.
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
That one was a big one for my wife and I as well. We'd pick up breakfast together on the way to work at our local (and most excellent) coffee shop, Open Eye Cafe.

The problem was that we spent $12-13 a day for two mocha lattes, a muffin, bagel, and a donation to the tip jar.

$12. 5 days a week. 50 weeks per year.

THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS

We came to our senses (eventually). I bought a coffee pot for my office at a neighbor's garage sale and take my breakfast and lunch every day now.

No wonder we've paid off so much debt in recent months...
9:52 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Suze Orman Goes Too Far!

I've been a fan of Suze Orman for years. When I first started working after graduating college and then I started to make some money, my experience with other members of my family, mostly my grandparents, showed me that I needed to figure this money thing out. So, I set out to understand how money works and I found Suze. Many financial gurus are out there and for the most part, much of the advice overlaps, but Suze really seemed to be right along my line of thinking.  I bought the books, watched the show, and despite the fact that I feel like I've largely outgrown it so long as I follow the lessons, I really wanted to check up on how things were going. I went to the CNBC website and found an interview where she said this: "I do really live within my means. I have absolutely no debt. If I don't have the money to write a check, then I can't afford it. I never, ever, ever spend old money, so I'm only allowed by my own standards to buy something new with new mone...
Post a Comment
Read more

Do Better With Your Time

Recently, I've been extremely busy with some work commitments. The interesting thing for me is that this increased work activity has really helped crystallize some of my feelings with regard to time. And these ideas are a critical part about my view on personal finance. I'm curious to know if others feel similarly. Time is money. That is, Time, in some way, contains energy. Money, is also energy. In the act of working, I am able to compound and increase the amount of money that I have. I am exchanging my time and effort and thought which are components of my work, for the productivity that I produce. And this production gets me money from my employer. However, the first dollars that I make each day, week, or month are the most valuable. Then the ones that I make at the end are the most valuable. (Forget about taxes for a minute.) The reason is, the first ones help me have a place to live and food to eat. And the last ones are the ones that I can use to really improve my life lo...
3 comments
Read more

Credit Report Review

So, one of the things that I've started doing is trying to pull my credit reports at regular 4 month intervals so that I get a free one frequently to make sure that things are progressing as I'd like them to and also as a safeguard against identity theft. Of course, the part that I don't like is that these reports don't include a fico score - the key number when it comes to determining if you are going to be extended credit and at what interest rate. This time, I got the report from Equifax - I went to the end of the process and for 8 dollars more I could get my credit score. And the Equifax gave me a credit score of 742. This of course is not even close to the perfect score of 850 when it comes to fico score nirvana, but 742 is still a respectable fico score. Things to improve are basically lowering my balances on my credit cards and loans, which I already have a plan for. And also I noticed that the amount that I paid off on one of my loans is actually still being rep...
4 comments
Read more