As I’m in the final weeks (12 days) of my teaching job for which I commute 40 minutes each way and drive between 3 schools each day, I’m looking ahead to my future working at home and am SO excited about the gas money we’ll save with me not driving and my husband being able to drive my Honda Civic rather than the Silverado (yes, we DO need a truck, did you SEE my pictures of what winter is like here?) to work.
Less thrilling is my other savings - my daily venti nonfat latte from Starbucks. I’m seriously already mourning this and actually considered (ok, not really) staying at my job because of the 2 VERY convenient Starbucks drive-throughs right on the way to school………..my new place of employment (home) is 30 minutes from the closest ‘bucks. After seeing my gas savings mentioned above, it’s surely not logical to ever drive “into town” just for my latte! So, my wonderful friend, I’ll miss you sorely…………(and will save $20 each week because of your absence).
If you're new here (or just forgot last time!), you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
{ 1 trackback }
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
A suggestion: take the money you *would have* spent on extra gas & on lattes, and start puting in the kids’ college fund. Treat a windfall as extra money for savings.
This is coming from both positive & negative experience - i.e. because I’ve done this successfully in the past . . . and now WISH I had done it many other times.
I switched jobs once from a 45 min. commute to a 10 min. commute. It makes all the sacrifices worth while! Give yourself a treat every now and then for a latte.
Pats last blog post..Carnival of Education 05/21/08
Quad Venti White Mocha for me. :-) but not every day, since I go to mostly local coffee shops. I prefer coffee-with-chicory. I’m also going to be going to Starbucks less because they’re switching from T-Mobile to AT&T for hotspot service soon, and I’m not leaving T-Mobile.
YatPundits last blog post..Walking the Labyrinth
Aww, Kate I totally understand! Several years ago (before I moved overseas) I worked at a school that had a Starbucks en route. Way too convenient! First I stopped in once a week, then twice a week, then every other day… the staff there were starting to learn my name and my order — you get the idea. It was paradise on my way to school! Then I started wondering why I was short $100 every month (I was still paying student loans at the time). Did the math and whaddya know? That daily trip was draining my wallet pretty quickly!
Aren’t addictions terrible? :-)
My solution: getting up 5 minutes earlier, making my own coffee, and pouring it into one of Starbucks’ lovely travel mugs instead, so really, no one but me knew I hadn’t stopped there on my way! Turns out that was good practice for living overseas, where there ain’t a Starbucks to be found near me now! Oh, what I’d give for a grande vanilla non-fat latte in the morning…
@Tim - thanks for the advice! We are definitely planning on putting the money toward something, we just have to determine which thing first. We’ve been trying to pay down debt and every time we pay off one thing, we add the amount of that payment to another one……..slowly but surely we’ll get there :-)
@Pat - I’ll definitely treat myself on my shopping trips and on any business travel I do, don’t you worry!
@YatPundit - I’m definitely planning to get some of the coffee-with-chickory when I’m in New Orleans this summer! I’m not actually all that partial to S’bucks itself, it’s just the fact that they’re drive-throughs are SO convenient!
@Adrienne - the money issue is a big factor here, and up until this month I only allowed myself to go 1x per week. Now that my time is limited, I figured I could make it a daily indulgence :-) I still have almost $25,000 in student loans (sigh), so I have a long way to go on those…….and should stop spending my $$ at Starbucks!
Kates last blog post..Starbucks, I’ll Miss You
30 minutes from a Starbucks? Do you live on an island? Wait…even islands have Starbucks. There are 3 of them on the island in LOST. Check old episodes. They’re there!
20 dollar savings a week…now…how bout the caloric savings?
I tend to eat donuts late at night b/c the Dunkin Donuts near my house is open until 11 and I find myself desiring coffee b/4 the late night fun w/ twin babies begins. Everytime I buy a coffee, the guy (Jay. Thank you, Jay) fills a bag full of donuts. Gives ‘em away for free so they don’t go to waste.
It’s so hard to say no.
We’re talking chocolate covered donuts.
You understand, right?
Right???
kens last blog post..if you want to know, listen to LaJuan
@Ken - you crack me up :-) And yes, we kind of DO live on an island, but it’s actually a ridgetop in the middle of nowhere! As for caloric savings, unfortunately I considered the latte GOOD for me, what a great source of calcium! I love your DD story and I promise you that if I lived near one, the employees would know my name as well as the ones at the donut shop near my college apartment (helLO 20 pounds!)
Leave a Comment