AIBU to spend £84 on takeaway coffees in three weeks?

[CheeseMongrel]

So I’ve checked my online banking today to add up how much I’ve spent on takeaway coffee since I last got paid.

84 bloody pound

What on earth?

I have been going more due to not having much else to do but Christ that is a serious waste of money.

I was planning to go tomorrow but now I can’t justify it.

Not sure what other things I can treat myself to (that isn’t a massive waste) to keep me going .. any suggestions?

Has anyone else had a bigger waste of money than that lately?

I dunno. You're saying you spend on this rather than other non-essentials, you can afford it, perhaps if you're WFH you're saving money on a commute or similar... We're in the middle of a pandemic, lots of options for enjoyment/recreation aren't available. If what works for you / brightens your days is spending £4 on a cup of coffee each day then do it.

Same thing happened to me. Couldn't believe I'd spent over a hundred pounds on coffee in one month! Made me feel sick. I stopped buying them. I started making my own. I bought a steel coffee cup filter from amazon for £8, to make single mugs of ground coffee. Best thing I ever bought. Although I have given up, been a year now.

Tough call OP. For me, getting a coffee is about walking to the coffee shop. There and back around 10000 steps. I do it first thing, back in the house by 9:30 ready for my first calls. If the coffee shop was opposite where I lived it would be different....

Depends if you enjoy it and can afford it. If you factor in the walk and the queuing, drinking time, etc, 25-30 coffees is like a whole day or even two days worth of entertainment. So £84 isn’t that much.

If you can afford it, why not? The price of getting out to see a little world outside before returning to the four walls

I've spent so much on pointless online shopping and coffee capsules

If you can afford it and it makes you happy, why not.

I could afford it but I'd rather spend the money on something else. 200,000 steps to buy one doesn't appeal either.

[quote RJnomore1]Do you have a pret near you?

www.pret.co.uk/en-GB/your-pret[/quote]
Wow, the pret real is amazing!
It's not even limited to big standard coffee.
Up to 5 drinks a day for £20 a month, and the first month is free?!
What's the catch?

We spent £50 on takeaway coffee in a week about 3 weeks ago. So we treated ourselves to a ridiculously expensive coffee machine instead - I hadn't realised how much I'd spend on beans and milk though!

Go for it, if it makes you happy and you can afford it!
My daily coffee is the highlight of my WFH day.

You know Pret subscription is £20 a month for practically unlimited coffees?

Buy one of this for £5.00 and a box of paper coffee filters. Perfect coffee whenever you want it. Even with a bag of dead posh ground coffee it will only cost £10 a week for multiple cups of perfect coffee every day. The drawback is that once you find your perfect combo of coffee brand/milk/strength (mine is strong Lavazza decaf with skimmed milk) shop coffee will never be good enough.

Sadly my DDs prefer shop coffee. Once things are back to normal and Pret will accept reusable cups again they plan to invest in the £20 cards. At the moment they are put off by the level of waste involved in using several disposable cups a day so are reluctantly doing things my way.

If you can afford it and enjoy it then it really doesn’t matter. There is sod all else to do at the moment so if your daily (or whatever) take out coffee brings you joy then carry on getting it

I am also mainly WFH and I've been popping to the Sainsbury's Local to get that one last ingredient for tea when I just can't stand to stay in the house! Also going to the post office to drop off eBay stuff!

Wow, that Pret deal is great! @RJnomore1

@CheeseMongrel did you see it?

£20 a month for as much coffee as you like. (Well, as long as you don't want more than one every half hour!) and your first moth free.

www.pret.co.uk/en-GB/your-pret

If you enjoy it and can afford it then don't worry too much. Like you say, it's one of the few pleasures that's available at the moment.

It always amazes me when I see people walking around with a takeaway coffee. I can see the point of sitting down in the café but not takeaways. I suppose you are keeping the coffee shops in business though.

Not sure what other things I can treat myself to (that isn’t a massive waste) to keep me going .. any suggestions?

When I lived near the sea I used to treat myself to a walk on the beach - a slightly different part of the beach or direction or so on each day.

Is there something you can do like this OP? A walk to a charity shop, second-hand book shop, local attraction (even if minor) each day? You could put them on a rota. Charity shops are my actual treats - I buy things second hand and, with respect to books often take them back when I've finished with them!

That's really impressive @CheeseMongrel

Tassimo machines are pretty cheap now (£40) and the Costa drinks you can get for it are 8 for £4 and all pretty tasty.

Could be a good swap?

My daily chai latte used to be highlight of my working day, worth every penny. Homemade ones do not compare.

I'd just say use a reuseable cup so you're not producing all that excess rubbish.

[quote BefuddledPerson]@BarbaraofSeville you're not the only one! To me takeaway coffee is a modern flea circus - you are paying for the advertising, branding, building, staff, packaging. The product is almost valueless.

A pint in a pub makes sense, or a sit down coffee with a friend in a nice cafe.

But takeaway coffee I don't get personally at all.[/quote]
I have a theory that the reason we see so many people supping at big bottles of liquid throughout the day is to comfort themselves, it’s the equivalent of a pacifier. Life is just horribly stressful even outside of a pandemic, it’s a way to treat and soothe in one.

So in the middle of national lockdown you're going out for daily coffee shop coffee. Totally not unreasonable at all 🙄

I’d say forget about it and carry on as long as you can afford it. We got takeaway wagammama and spent almost that. That’s a weeks worth of going out spending normally. Surely you need to trade that off against what you would normally spend in normal times if you were socialising? You’re not spending on gym memberships or holidays or dinners in restaurants? If you enjoy it and it’s keeping you sane then Carry On. It won’t be forever.

@Babynameseek

So in the middle of national lockdown you're going out for daily coffee shop coffee. Totally not unreasonable at all 🙄

I think you’re about eight months too late for your comment to create the vitriol you were probably hoping for.

No one cares anymore. HTH.