Stewart’s

That Starbucks Coffee and finances ☕

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It seems like in the personal finance guru world there are two schools of thought:

  • A five dollar cup of coffee bought every week day adds up over a year and decades, money that could be better allocated towards saving and investing. In addition, it gets you in the habit of spending money that you don’t need to spend.
  • A five dollar cup of coffee doesn’t matter much, a $1,300 yearly purchase is pretty inconsequential and it gives you an allowance while focusing on cutting bigger costs.

I’m more inclined to agree with the former. But I don’t get much joy out of drinking coffee. I do drink a cup with breakfast but I’ve been trying to cut back and reuse grounds and reheat coffee whenever possible with higher coffee prices.

I guess if coffee really gives you pleasure but for me it’s more of just a drug, a crutch in the morning one that I could probably live without. But the thing is it’s not hard to make myself, I can compost the grounds and I reuse my mug and I have used the same camp stove top percolator for years.

I agree spend money on things you care about, but paper cups soon discarded and a hot cup of Joe isn’t on that list for me. And getting into the habit of being frugal on little things can add up and teach lessons on being frugal for the bigger things.

Likelihood of a Temperature in March

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Albany’s Marches aren’t as cold as they once were.

Likelihood of a Temperature in March
Above 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s
10 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
15 99.7 99.7 100.0 100.0 99.7 100.0 99.7 100.0
20 98.7 99.0 99.0 100.0 98.7 99.0 99.4 99.7
25 94.8 98.1 95.8 98.7 96.1 96.5 96.8 97.1
30 88.4 91.9 89.7 93.5 91.6 91.0 91.9 93.2
35 77.7 76.5 77.4 83.9 82.9 81.0 82.3 83.5
40 54.8 54.8 53.2 62.6 66.1 63.2 64.2 64.5
45 40.0 33.9 34.2 40.0 45.5 44.2 47.4 46.5
50 27.4 19.0 20.0 27.4 28.7 30.0 30.6 30.6
55 17.7 7.4 9.7 17.4 16.5 16.5 20.0 17.7
60 13.9 3.9 5.2 9.4 11.3 10.3 9.4 10.0
65 8.4 1.3 3.5 4.5 6.8 6.5 4.8 5.5
70 4.8 0.0 2.6 2.3 3.9 3.2 0.6 3.5
75 1.9 0.0 1.0 0.6 1.3 1.9 0.3 1.6
80 1.3 0.0 0.0 0.3 1.3 1.3 0.0 0.6
85 0.6 0.0 0.0 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.0 0.0
Andy Arthur, 1/31/23.
Data Source: NWS Albany, Airport Observations

Meads Road

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Lyman and Meads Farms along Meads Road. A rural country road, not that far from where I live that provides for a nice quiet alternative walk back from Five Rivers, and gives me an opportunity to check out the Van Dyke Preserve.