Working is expensive!
I’m sure I was saving more money when I was on a small retainer, working one day a week and basically being a man of leisure the rest of the time. Back then, I would make myself coffee at home, occasionally wander out after lunch and do some grocery shopping or just enjoy being outside. Okay, who am I kidding? I made coffee and played World of Warcraft. But still, it was cheaper than now.
See now, I’m working full time and being paid a satisfactory amount, but I’m still paying for all the regular things that I was paying for before. In addition, I’m now spending around $10 per day just on coffee. To break it down, that’s one on the way in to work, one in the morning (yes, often straight after I get to work) with the team and then usually one after lunch or in the mid afternoon.
On top of that you have lunch, which can cheap out at $0 (brought from home), or can involve a further $8-$15 per day (far, far more frequent). And then there’s getting home after work, not being bothered to cook, and so the “takeaway” (that quotation marks mean “delivered to the door”).
So I’ve gone from spending between $0-$10 per day (on a splurge day) to now sitting at around $20-$25 most days, and occasionally $45. Ouch. Working is expensive!
I was originally afriad this would transgress the poor little sensibilities so often sensitive to my “bluntness,” but I know you’ve made this joke far more than I. Working isn’t expensive: lazy is expensive :P
But … but … it’s not “lazy” if you’re working now, is it?
And while lunch can be brought from home, how do you get around the coffee issue? At best I could save $3.50 by having the morning coffee at home. But let’s not kid ourselves here, I’m handy with my little Sunbeam, but good cafe coffee it ain’t (except that one freaky one I made that was PERFECT).
Oh god, I totally agree! Even just the workday expenses of busfare plus decent breakfast plus decent lunch plus bottles of water plus the odd cheap book to get you through a court day. *sigh* And that’s just necessities!
Okay, so being poor as I am the water, brekky and transport are all free. The coffee is the tricky one: I buy small coffees, so I only pay 2.50 for a smallish single-shot flat white, and I only have one coffee a day. if I need more, I have a french press and coffee in my office.
I totally agree that cafecoffee is the goods. I just can’t afford more than one a day, and my body hates me if it’s too many anyways.