Quantify Yourself

Grinding it out:

A two-week journey of coffee expense

Overview/Purpose:

After reading Robin Barooah’s “The False God of Coffee,” I became convinced that there is no good reason to give up coffee. I’ve been drinking it pretty regularly since I was three years old (that’s no typo), so I’m not giving it up now. I love it. I need it. And it needs me.

Then I thought about it some more, and the only possible reason I could see might be financial. Let’s face it: coffee isn’t cheap. Every so often, we read in the papers that the price of coffee will be going up for one reason or another, and yet our consumption doesn’t really change. There’s a Starbuck’s on every other corner, and the corners that don’t have them have a McDonald’s with a McCafe or a Dunkin’ Donuts, because America runs on dunkin.’

So I started to wonder: How much do I spend on coffee each week? I’m not talking about any fancy cappuccinos or mochacccinos or skinny vanilla latte nonsense, just good old coffee. How much does it all cost me? Let’s find out.

Methods:

I chose a random, two-week period to study my coffee expenditures. I didn’t change my frequency; I just asked for receipts each time I went. I kept track of when I went, added the receipts up and tried to figure out what it all meant. At some point, I’ll create a graphic that will display costs per day, along with notations on any other variables: a project due at school, particular work issues, etc. Do I spend more on Tuesday and Wednesday (class nights) than I do Monday? Does a due date affect my intake?

For the purposes of this study, I am only considering additional coffee purposes. I’m not counting the money I spend on coffee from the grocery store; that kind of blends into the general grocery bill. Specifically, I’d like to just see how much random money I spend on coffee from week to week. And while I will consider any location for a coffee run, the place I generally seek out is Starbuck’s. It’s the source of my addiction and the fix for it. Don’t judge me.

Audience:

There was really no specific targeted audience. But anyone who is concerned about a budget might be interested just to see an example of how one of the “little things” can add up.

Diary:

Week 1:

7/2: Monday – On December 19, 2011, my company relocated from one of the worst neighborhoods in Lauderdale Lakes out west to the Sawgrass Corporate Park. It’s a lot further from home, but closer to NSU. Plus, there is an LA Fitness and a Starbuck’s in the same plaza across the street. As such, no lunch break is truly complete without zipping into Starbuck’s. My poison: a venti regular, room for cream, one Splenda. Daily total: $2.39.

7/3: Tuesday – Tuesdays and Wednesdays are bad. The lunch visit AND the convenience of a Starbuck’s on campus. Combine the convenience with a three-hour grammar class after a dull day at my dead-end job, and it’s a two-visit day. Daily total: $4.78. Weekly total: $7.17.

7/4: Holiday. Fourth of July. Funny how we celebrate the birth of our country by getting drunk, grilling up dead animals and blowing shit up. No money spent on coffee today, but a fair amount spent at the liquor store. Not sure that’s part of this project. I had a 12-er of Stella Artois in my left hand and a sixer of Newcastle Brown Ale in my right when I realized that neither of those beers was American. So out of sheer patriotism I put them both back and grabbed a Sam Adams Summer Ale and a Sam Adams Light. (Note how it refers to Adams as “Brewer/Patriot.” Brewer, of course, being more important than patriot. Which it is. )

7/5: Back to the grind after a weird day off in the middle of the week. Starbucks trip at lunch for the usual, and other $2.39. Then a bookstore run with Adam after work and, of course, he had a caramel macchiato and I had the usual. Visit total: $6.82. Daily total: $9.21. Weekly total to date: $16.38.

7/6: TGIF. Didn’t make it to Starbuck’s today. Blew off an afternoon of work, had a great lunch and hit the pub early. Weekly total holding at $16.38.

7/7: Saturday: There were no coffee runs this day.

7/8: Sunday: There were no coffee runs this day.

Week 2:

7/9: Monday. The Boomtown Rats had a hit in 1979 with a song called “I Don’t Like Monday’s.” It stayed at number one on the UK singles chart for four weeks. It’s a chipper ditty about a little girl who took a gun to school and shot a bunch of her classmates. When asked why, her response was “I don’t like Monday’s.” I don’t like ‘em, either, but I don’t take a gun to work and shoot my co-workers. Not yet anyway. Didn’t even get to take lunch today. No coffee. Daily and weekly total: $0.

7/10: Shannon and I walked to Starbuck’s before grammar. She gets some girly passion tea pink liquid. I got to campus early and actually got one before I met up with her. I asked the dude behind the counter for a refill since I had downed my first one already. He just gave me a refill for free. A visit to my work Starbuck’s earlier brings my total for the day and the week to $4.78.

7/11: Shannon and I walked to Starbuck’s before tech writing. She gets some girly passion tea pink liquid.  I got the usual, only now I’m smart enough to sneak it in here in a no spill mug tucked into my backpack. Daily total: $2.39. Weekly total: $7.17.

7/12: Thyroid biopsy at 10:30. Yes, I needed comfort food so I stopped by Starbuck’s on the way. Don’t judge me. Daily total: $2.39. Weekly total: $9.56.

7/13: Still kind of laid up. Can’t turn my head to the right. Can’t freaking drive. SOB’s at Starbuck’s don’t deliver. Daily total: $0.00. Weekly total: $9.56.

7/14: Saturday. Damn that Target Starbuck’s on Hagan Ranch Road. Two dollars on coffee, but it seems like nothing compared to the two hundred dollars I spent on tires for my car earlier. Ouch. Daily total: $2.39. Weekly total: $11.95

7/15: Sunday. There were no coffee runs this day.

Results:

            The results surprised me. I really thought I spent a lot more than I actually did, and I thought I went to Starbuck’s a lot more often than I do. If I had any expectation at the beginning of this study, it would have been that I go to Starbuck’s every single day and spend $3-4. I don’t. That would have brought my expenditure for this drink into the $30 per week range.

            Two- week total: $28.33

Projected annual total:  $736.58.

Whoopie. All this worry, and my two-week total was a puny twenty-eight bucks. There were some variables to consider:

·        The July 4^th holiday fell into the middle of my study, and I was off from work and school. So at a minimum, one visit to Starbuck’s was eliminated. (There could have easily been two visits this day.

·         Medical issues took me out of action for two work days.

·        Class nights cost me more than non-class nights.

·        It looks like Thursday is the biggest spending day, but that is skewed due to my son’s fancy drink.

·        The holiday and medical stuff cost me 21% of the time I dedicated to this study. Extrapolating this out to a full two weeks, my coffee addiction could have cost me $34.39. This expands to a yearly projected total of $894.14.

Conclusion:

            I spend a lot less on my Starbuck’s runs than I thought I did – about half as much. I picked a random, two-week period and just tracked how much I spent by adding up receipts. And while there were aberrations in the coffee patterns over this two-week period, there are going to be things that come up anytime.