Friday, December 21, 2007

Liberate yourself, Starbucks slave!


Starbucks is an evil temptress. It's cold. She has warm coffee. She beckons to you. And you go. You do it. You plop down $4.10 and walk out the door happy happy with your Christmas joy in a cup that is the Peppermint Mocha. Of course, your debit card is in your wallet saying, "Bitch did what?" My debit card is, evidentally, from the ghetto. In reality, yours may be much more polite about the transaction.

Let it be known that The Little Dough Girl is all about treating ourselves special. I firmly believe in frugal luxury. You read that right. If you want to spoil yourself and drink fancy lattes four times a week, go right ahead. It's just stupid to do that at Starbucks. Let me break it down. 4 lattes a week at $4.10 costs you $16.40 a week and a whopping $852.80 a year. Do you see why your debit card has an attitude problem? I know. I know. I love them too. Today, in order to feel good about some financial decisions, I broke down what I consider a triumph.

Two years ago, I made the decision that I did not want to give my lattes up nor did I want to waste almost $900 a year. I compromised. I did about two months worth of research on Whole Latte Love. I wanted to find an espresso machine that made incredibly high quality coffee for a decent price. I read everything I could about espresso machines and read reviews and finally decided on a Gaggia Classic. Then I waited for it to go on sale, which it did. They changed out their logo and I bought an "older" one for $400. People cannot believe I spent $400 on a coffee maker. They miss the big picture.

I have not had to abandon my latte habit at all. I still have 4 a week. The coffee is more costly at $12.99 a half pound but I get 20 cups out of that. Each cup, therefore, costs me $.65. The coffee is much better than Starbucks and I can replicate the Peppermint Mocha perfectly. Factoring in my costs for the coffee, that's a savings of $3.45 each time I have a latte. The espresso maker paid for itself after 7 months. Now, that $3.45 becomes money much better spent. To put it in perspective, I can pay my cell phone bill for a whole year and have money left over on the money I'm not spending at Starbucks. Think about that next time you step in line.

5 comments:

Louise said...

Hi little dough girl :) will be reading and cheering you on with your finance adventure in 2008!

Book Calendar said...

Starbucks is an incredible yuppie ripoff. Find yourself a hole in the wall which you like for $1.25 for a large coffee. Then if you must go out to lunch if you are really cheap, find out where you can get a large soup and a roll cheap. Soup is always cheaper than sandwiches.

Even better get in the habit of packing your own lunch. I am terrible with this. I always go to the corner diner. It is one of my weaknesses. People admire you for thriftiness if you can pack a lunch. You'll find more managers pack lunches than line workers.

Learn the habits of people with money and follow them. Your line worker usually has bad money habits.

People who have money don't waste money. They also most of the time don't flaunt it.

Little Dough Girl said...

You hit the nail on the head, book calendar! That is so high on my lost of New Year's resolutions. I just cannot afford to go out to eat for lunch. Living my myself, I want to have more fun cooking and taking leftovers from the night before.

Louise - Thanks!

JesieBlogJourney said...

Sometimes we are paying for the established name. Drink less of it, and save more. Cheers to you new year resolution! Thumbs up!

Rudy said...

Great write.. slap me right on my face :D I'm one of the SB lover.

Aniway....

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

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Wish all the best
Susanno