Trying Something New

You know how people talk about a "Starbucks Factor"? The silly little thing you keep doing with your money that adds up to real money over the long term. The first one I identified for myself was magazines. I would buy one every single time I was at the grocery store. Sometimes more. So I bought a subscription to Vanity Fair, the one that I liked best, and put a moratorium on the grocery store magazines. I have done no math on how much money that has saved, but I expect it is a lot.  In the interest of full disclosure, my mother will tell you there is an enormous pile of unread Vanity Fair magazines in my house.

I discovered, rather recently, that particularly in the wintertime, my Starbucks Factor is actually Starbucks. I have been buying hot chocolate at the coffee cart in my building every day that I am at work. I just decided that I should stop. Bring something from home, since I can't manage to do so for lunch. But instant hot chocolate doesn't taste right to me. So I bought a shiny new coffee mug to keep at the office and a few boxes of French Vanilla Cafe.

I am not entirely sure this experiment is going to work. The hot chocolate is primarily milk, which has a lot of protein. Chocolate milk is the perfect breakfast food. This fake coffee really doesn't substitute in that area.  But it is hot and it tastes fine and three dollars goes a lot farther.

We'll see how it goes.