Ok, so would you rather spend $8 for two Starbucks drinks or about 300 (yes 300!) Folgers drinks? Pretty simple question, but one that took me two years and more than $3,000 to figure out on my own. For a while there I was convinced Starbucks was putting some sort of addictive ingredient in their coffee because my car was on auto pilot every morning and automatically drove to Starbucks. I had to have it everyday and then it got to a point where I would sometimes have it twice in a day.
Fast forward 2 years to the end of 2009. It finally hit me and I realized how much I was spending on coffee and I had to stop. I had a coffee maker at home, but it was stuffed in the back of the cupboard somewhere. I decided to clear off a special spot on the counter for the coffee maker and decided to start making my own coffee. I didn't even know how to make coffee, so I had to ask my Dad for advice. He makes very good coffee, so I took notes on how he makes coffee.
I still felt a bond with Starbucks, so I went and bought a fancy Starbucks coffee measuring spoon. In the beginning I even bought Starbucks beans and ground them myself. I was weird, too because I had to buy my beans at Starbucks which meant I was going to Starbucks once a week to buy more beans. I was still spending quite a bit of money on coffee and the temptation of going there was killing me.
I saw that Costco sold the large Folgers container as shown in my picture for about $8, so I decided to try it. Even when I went to Starbucks I would never get plain coffee. I always had to get the fancy Caramel Machiatto. So, there was no way I could drink plain Folgers coffee. I noticed that Coffee Mate makes all kinds of fancy creamers, so I bought a few.
For three months straight I didn't go to Starbucks. My daughter, who was 8 at the time, was so surprised that I wasn't going to Starbucks anymore. She loves to draw and made me a certificate to congratulate me on not going to Starbucks for three months. I thought that was just adorable.
It's been almost two years since my Starbucks addiction and I'm still very happy with my daily cup of coffee from Folgers. Since I'm making my coffee at home I can also leave the house 15 minutes later in the morning, which is a big deal to me. I love my coffee and I love the fact that I'm saving so much money on it.
Yes, I still go to Starbucks occasionally. This year I've gone about 5 times, but I'm using my Christmas gift cards for my coffee. My goal is to see if I can go all year only using gift cards at Starbucks. I figure with all the money they got from me during 2007-2009, I can afford to take a year off paying them.
For those of you that still want fancy coffee drinks at home, may I suggest the Nescafe Dolce Gusto coffee machine. I won one of these for my work and it is great. There are many different flavored capsules for fancy drinks.
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