Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Doing the math: justifying good equipment

I was thinking about this today while I was loading up my iced coffee for the day. (I'm packing my iced coffee in ball jars.)

Once upon a time, I'd go through 2 iced coffees from Dunkin Donuts, per day.

That's about $6 per day.
Or, that's about $30 per week.
Or, about $135 per month.
Or, about $1500 per year.
If you're making $50K per year, that's about 3% of your annual income. Just for coffee. Adjust for your own actual income.

Ouch.

Even though summer's gone, I still cold-brew, using my fancy, $150 (Thank you Melissa!) kitchen aid coffee grinder to do a very fine (espresso) grind before brewing.

A canister of coffee from Trader Joe's runs about $8. One can will last me almost 2 weeks. So, figure 2.5 cans per month.
That's about $20 per month.
Or, about $240 per year.

AND I get better coffee.

AND, it's not loaded down with all the cream and sugar that's required to make Dunkies' coffee palatable. Since I started cold brewing, I've actually lost weight, because I don't feel the need for sugar.

And, the grinder's versatile enough to do everything from espresso grind (which I use for cold brewing) to a really coarse grind that's suitable for French Press.

So, much better coffee, smaller waistline, for a lot less money, and a much lower annual percentage of income spent on all of it.

Suddenly the fancy grinder looks a lot more affordable.

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