Ways to Break My Starbucks Addiction

As much as I rail against buying Starbucks everyday, I have to admit that I'm often a complete sucker for them. I went to Starbucks the morning after my friend's 22nd birthday and we ordered the exact same drink, but somehow hers cost $1.15 more than mine and the two beverages together cost over $8.00. Ouch! There's also a Starbucks across from my work, and more than once I've wriggled myself into taking a longer break by picking up coffee for one or more of my bosses - sometimes this means they cover the cost of my overpriced coffee, sometimes it doesn't.

Anyway, my point is I love big cold coffee beverages in the summer. I finally switched from obnoxiously worded lattes to slightly sweetened iced coffee, and I couldn't tell the difference. The $2 less I was burning on such a silly item was nice too.

But after just a few weeks of switching to Iced Coffees, I found my Starbucks consumption right back where it was before. Sure, I've never spent TONS there to begin with, but switching to iced coffee was supposed to make the actual monetary hit hurt a little less. Instead, I just went more often because I could 'afford it' now.

Ugh!

Finally, I came up with a better solution. I've been getting up at 6:45 for class 4 days a week, so I need coffee - dammit. It's July in Southern California, so it's too darned hot for straight up brewed black coffee (which I actually prefer, most of the time). To feed my addiction I've taken to brewing coffee the night before and leaving it in the fridge to chill overnight. In the morning, I pour it into a portable cup with a little milk, ice and vanilla syrup (bought on sale at Target a while back).

There's a Starbucks on campus, and now I can walk right by it without being tempted!