« The science of healthy drinking | Main | I've just read about the »
March 10, 2004
Shannon's travel tip #2
Last night, there was a knock on my door, and it was the Gas Man. Apparently, a neighbor complained of smelling gas, and he had come around to investigate, and it looked to him like my gas line was leaking. He wanted to turn off my gas and investigate further.
I must say, in these troubled times in which we live, I was hesitant to let the Gas Man come in. Was he really a Gas Man, or maybe an axe-murderer? I gave him the up-and-down. He was wearing a Gas Man uniform, but you can probably get those at the Goodwill! Or maybe he was recently fired or something. Who knows! But of course I let him in and he really was a Gas Man. And I really have a leak, so he never turned my gas back on, so now I am gas-less.
Which brings me to my point. I was forced to do something this morning that is so against my nature, so foreign to me, so only-when-I-absolutely-have-to. I had to go out and buy a coffee to go.
There are lots of things I can't do. I can't pluck a chicken of it's feathers, can't grow vegetables (except Zucchini and that stuff is a weed), can't make my own wine. I can, however, make my own coffee.
So. Here is my travel tip of the day. MAKE YOUR OWN COFFEE.
I just spent a buck on a coffee. This is on the low end, I know. Some people spend something insane like four dollars a day on one of those uber-coffees at Starbucks. I also gave the coffee girl a buck, because she probably is making some crap hourly wage and needs to pay for rent and beer, just like all the youngsters in my neighborhood.
If I was doing this every day, even without the tip, that is $365 for a year of coffees. But of course I will always tip, and sometimes coffee is more than a buck. So lets say it really is around $700 for a year of coffee to go. Deduct the $96 for the coffee beans I bring home and $36 for the half and half. $8 for the filters. That leaves me with a savings of $560! That's almost enough for a plane ticket to Europe. Enough for 56 pizza dinners in Venice. One week's rental in Umbria. Can you imagine all the tapas and sherry this will buy?
If you are buying uber-coffees, at four dollars a pop, that is $1460 a year! You could even bring a date if you lay off those expensive coffees.
Thankfully, my landlord is no slum-lord. He is the honorable Bob of Carlsbad, and he is on the gas leak problem. So hopefully tomorrow the dollars I save on coffee will go into the Spain pot.
Posted by Shannon at March 10, 2004 7:32 AM
Posted to How do I get there, from here?