The topic isn’t really just Home Finance but it is a subtopic, so good enough, I guess.
Spend $6 to Save $24 per week?
While at the Tim Horton’s which is run inside of my company I noticed that they had their BIG MUG on sale (big porcelain mug) and I decided to buy one for myself. I got some free coffee with it, which was nice, however, I bought it to save money (it’s always odd to say that, but in this case it is true).
My company has free coffee stations all over the company (however the Tim Horton’s run by our Cafeteria company still does roaring business), however, I did not have a mug at work to drink this free coffee with, so I decided to purchase the Big Mug, to take advantage of this free coffee. My figuring is I will save 3 cups of Tim’s coffee a day (about a $5 value) each day so about $25 a week with this mug.
I can hear my regular readers pointing out that if I had just taken one of the THOUSANDS of mugs I have at home I could have saved that money with NO investment. Well it was a good idea at the time.
But it’s only for 12 months…
I found out that Rogers has a discount for my company (40% for the first year) for High Speed Internet (and for their cable and home phone as well). Someone at work lamented, “… but it’s only for 12 months…”. My answer to that is “So what?”, I’d rather have the 12 months of discounts for now.
My case might be not generic, since I was looking for a new high-speed access provider (I have been using AOL Broadband, but it is just too darn expensive). This now allows me to get high-speed access for 50% less for the next 12 months and I can still keep my AOL access as well (AOL is getting out of the physical access business and is trying to reinvent itself to be more like Yahoo!).
I’ll take the 12 month discount thank you.
And if you think that these small savings are no big deal, keep finding these kind of savings in your day-to-day lives and you might be surprised just how much money is left in your bank account at the end of the month.
I’m not concerned about the $6.00 of the mug, but more the 3 cups of coffee a day. Depending on the size of the cup, that’s a pile of caffeine.
For example, if you were having 3 SMALL tim coffee’s you would be getting 24 oz of coffee for a total of 240mg of caffeine. Mediums you would be at 30 oz and 300mg (the recommended daily limit*). Large would be 42 oz with 420mg. Extra large would be 60oz and 600mg of caffeine (TWICE the recommended daily limit*).
If your new cup is a 16oz mug, then even your ‘brewed at shop’ freebie coffee is still probably a ton of caffeine.
Recently I stopped drinking tea for 30 days to stop drinking caffeine just to see if it was the caffeine I liked or the tea. I really missed the tea after 30 days so I drink 1 a day now (it used to be three). and I find I sleep way better, which means I need less in the day.
I would really suggest (if you don’t already, and I’m just ranting for no reason) switching your last cup to decaf for a week, then switch your second cup also to decaf for another week. You may find you have better sleep and do better work just because you are rested and not caffeinated.
* Some places cite 400mg as the recommended limit, some 300-400, some 300. I like 300 since that’s a lot of caffeine.
I actually went OFF coffee completely a while ago, no mean feet, but yes, I shouldn’t drink so much either. Maybe a new year’s resolution?
We’ll see, but your point is well taken, we’ll see if it is taken to heart or not.
–C8j