The library has vendo-coffee, and books there are written above an 8th grade level. It also helps with space efficiency, not having piles of books everywhere.

“One coffee a day which costs $1.50 at a local coffee shop is worth $547.00 from your pocket.
———————————————————–Lets give up the coffee habit and go for the gold!”

I think this is one of the most true quotes or articles available to the finance world. Only one coffee a day at a mesely $1.00 is $365.00 per year… I don’t remember the last time I found a good cup of coffee for only $1.00.

The key is to look at how much utility coffee really gives you.

You could say that about anything. Don’s rules of finance.

1. Anything you do once a year or less, unless it is obviously huge, doesn’t really count. 1 x not much = not much

2. Anything you do once a month should be looked at a bit harder. 12 x not much = might be something. Some of your monthly bills (like cable?) are probably also a little more than “not much” also…

3. Anything you do every week you should think about. 52 x something = a good bit of something.

4. Anything you do every day should be scrutinized. You probably get the gist of the math at this point.

That’s why what you choose to do for lunch every day and where you choose to buy your groceries are such important choices. You eat every day, and 365 times even a small amount matters to most people.

If you buy a latte once a month, you can probably buy it anywhere in town guilt-free. If you want coffee every day, then care and consideration matter. Once a week? Well, everyone has priorities and you might prioritize coffee. But you might not.

Of course the pitfall of Don’s method is lying to yourself about what things are rare once-a-year kinds of choices. If I splurge on something kind of big every month, but it happens to be a different thing each time, that pattern doesn’t qualify as once a year.

But other than that, I’ve lived pretty happily by looking at relative frequencies like that. I can occasionally splurge and be pretty guilt-free about it.

Get out of Barnes and Noble and find some local used book shops. Same books for a fraction of the price. I recently went back to B&N and I couldn’t bring myself to pay $30 for a book.

At used bookstores you can get a fiction paperback for a couple bucks (compared to $8-12 at a regular store).

With these price increases you’d at least think they could get some cups and lids that didn’t send hot coffee dripping down your fingers and on your clothes. I’m sick of driving with a half-dozen napkins wrapped around my cup. If it wasn’t out of my way most of my trips, I prefer the local coffee shop since their cups don’t drip, and I can usually continue to reuse it the rest of the day at the office and it still not drip.