The simple pleasure of coffee

I’m all for budgeting, especially as hubby and I live frugally out of both necessity and choice. I hear much chatter these days from those who preach budgeting about the evils of café brewed coffee; it is earmarked as the ultimate in indulgence and therefore the first thing that should be erased from a sensible person’s cost of living. Fingers are pointed and wagged at the easy target of the takeaway coffee, or its delicious twin, the dine in coffee. To live on a budget, it’s true that you do need to choose what things you will give up and what you will keep – and sometimes there is more to that choice than simply its price tag.

I am so far from being a coffee snob it’s not funny, but I like what I like. Hubby often prefers a double shot of coffee for his flavour hit, and is quite particular about the amount of froth to liquid. I appreciate a well made coffee too, but unlike him, I have to go decaf after about 3pm in the afternoon or I’m wide eyed in the wee hours.

Café culture, which involves the growth of cafes in every corner of our cities and towns is, to my mind, a lovely thing. I can remember when Gloria Jeans first began, and how fun it was to enjoy a coffee whilst sitting on - what a novelty - comfy lounges.  I have cherished memories of waiting for my kidlets to hop off the school bus on a Friday afternoon so we could enjoy the treat of a visit to the Gloria Jeans across the road from the bus stop. Hubby was doing shift work then, and on a Friday afternoon he didn't have to be in bed, so we'd both do the school run and it was family time. Milkshakes, iced chocolates, smoothies or hot drinks, shared together. Family time. 

My kidlets are 24 and 21 now.

I would also visit my grandmother a couple of times a week, and if we stayed in, it was a pot of Billy Tea. However, she did love a trip out to get away from the same four walls, so we'd head to the local McCafe for a cappuccino and a chat.

My darling Grandma in 2009. She passed away a fortnight shy of her 100th birthday in 2012.

Time with my Gran. Family time with my husband and children when school was still a part of our daily routine. Precious memories all. I wouldn't swap them for anything. 

The welcoming aroma of the coffee and the chance to sit down, relax and enjoy each other became intertwined. I can walk into a café now, and a single whiff of coffee or the sound of the milk being frothed makes me smile and relax. I give myself permission to just chill – and for me, to chill is a skill!

I do think it’s important, whether frugality is a choice or a necessity, that some little luxury remains in life to keep you on track. For us, despite the calls to the contrary about how much we could be saving, the humble coffee is the one indulgence we have chosen to keep. I figure that as we are eating out a whole lot less, and just eating less full stop (courtesy of our dieting choices), we are already doing a whole peck of saving. I don’t want to give up something so closely entwined with relaxation and spending time with loved ones.

That said, there are still ways to be frugal with the good old cup of joe.

I never sneer at a coffee loyalty card, because at the end of the day, if the price of the coffee is competitive, then you’re going to get something for nothing – and on a budget, that's a bonus! If you’ve been following me for a while, you will know that we’ve experienced a frustrating time with getting our McDonalds app to work in the same way that good old paper loyalty cards did - check out the story here. For some reason, the app has suddenly become very well behaved, so we're making use of it. As we do a fair bit of late night driving with travelling to Bountiful, Maccas is safe and reliable, and offers decaf options. We’ve become friends again.

If it’s earlier in the day, 7-Eleven is a good choice. We stop to fuel up the car and grab one of their coffees – they don’t do decaf, sadly - but it’s a cheap option for a hot coffee, with just $1 for a regular and $2 for a tall.

However, my pick for a lovely coffee and a great price has to be Coffee Club, using their membership card. This card is a little different from most loyalty cards as you have to pay for it annually. What, I hear you gasp? Be patient for a moment, let's do the sums …

A Coffee Club membership card currently costs $25 a year. I’ve never yet paid $25 for mine. Around November each year, members get an email giving them the opportunity to purchase a card for a friend as a Christmas gift, usually for $15. A friend who was a member purchased my first one via this offer. When I received the same email offer the next November, I purchased a $15 card for hubby and his card became the one we both used for the following year. I simply let mine expire on December 31.

The major benefit to the Coffee Club membership is that no matter what time, or day of the week, we are entitled to two hot drinks for the price of one. There is no daily limit to this. We normally treat ourselves to a coffee on a Thursday night after grocery shopping, so the $15 we invested in buying the card was paid off by the end of the first month after purchase, and all that we saved after that was cream. For us, this has been good value for money.

I was reminded too of another coffee related benefit when I read a recent post by Nicole from This Simple Day. I have been a thermos lover from way back, and having a hot cup of tea on tap is a much loved tradition. As I mentioned, lots of driving to and from Bountiful has made us appreciate those on-the-road coffees all the more, especially when hubby is tired, but I can see too that having lots more takeaway cups out there doesn’t really do anyone any good. So, we have invested in a pair of thermos style cups to take with us on the road. I am like a kid with a new toy. Some may say 'get a life', but my life hums along quite happily with simple pleasures. 

The new fashion seems to be taking your thermos cup into your coffee shop of choice, and if you are purchasing a takeaway drink, giving them your cup to make it in. There is no extra cost involved, you get the nice coffee you wanted, and now it stays piping hot right until the last sip. On those long car rides it feels like much better value for money - I'm not paying for a hot drink that isn’t hot by the time I get halfway through. 

Getting a takeaway from our local Coffee Club at Macarthur Square.

I also enjoy taking hubby’s cup with me when I go out and getting him a nice coffee, without having to worry that it will be stone cold by the time I bring it home for him. 

And starting right now at a 7 Eleven near you, is a 5 week promotion whereby if you take your non disposable mug into the store, you can fill up with a coffee for free. You can’t ask for better value than free!

When I think about coffee, I’m reminded of an advertisement from 1987 when the first moves forward from straight instant coffee were afoot. Enjoy this memory from Jarrah Coffee, the precursor for all the flavoured coffee sachets that have since found a permanent place in our supermarket coffee and tea aisles.

Tracey ☕

With thanks to the YouTube channel of GrubcoTV3 for the Jarrah commercial and Freeimages.com for the coffee pic