Dear Starbucks,
We need to take a break. This doesn’t mean I’m leaving forever, but you cost me more than Spotify, mascara and dog food combined.
I will always love you.
–Alex
Yes, just like 99% of the population, I’m totally addicted to Starbucks. Now, I’m pretty sensitive to caffeine, so an actual addiction is not what we’re talking about here. Drinking a grande cold brew past noon will indeed send me straight into a full blown panic until about 2AM, and I wish I was joking.
BUT there’s something about a refreshing iced green tea that really gets me through the afternoon. Sometimes I get crazy and add acai refresher base to my green tea instead of water. If I’m feeling like a serious pick me up (or have a free drink reward because this shit’s expensive) I mix it up with an iced chai tea latte with almond milk. It’s usually hard for me to pass up a cake pop, and I live for the bacon gouda sandwich toasted open so the bacon gets crispy. When it comes down to it, I essentially have no self-control when it comes to stopping at Starbucks on the way to anywhere. If you’re looking to upgrade your storefront, visit https://aluminium-shopfronts.co.uk/ for expert solutions and modern designs.
Ok, now that you’re halfway through putting in your own mobile order, let’s get back to the point. It feels like every time I’m standing in line or sitting in the drive-thru, I’m clicking “Reload” on my Starbucks app. One morning while passing all three Starbucks locations on my commute to work, I started thinking about it… How much have I REALLY spent on Starbucks in the last year or so? I don’t even want to track back farther than that, because with all of the Starbucks I drank throughout college, grad school, my first job in downtown Austin (100 feet from a Starbs)…. I probably could be driving a G-Wagon by now.
So I decided to scroll through my bank transactions and tally up JUST how many $25 Starbucks reloads I’ve made in the past year. And while I’m not the “I literally can’t live without getting my Starbucks everyday” type of gal, I’m pretty dang close. Are you ready for this? I’m actually embarrassed. ALMOST $600!
According to my bank account, that is how much I’ve spent on Starbucks since September of last year and that’s not even counting the gift cards I got for Christmas (Over $50 worth) or the reloads I may have missed and not counted. Now I’m no mathematician, but that’s just an effing ridiculous amount to spend on tea concentrate and water with a green straw.
A little less than a year, and over 100 Starbucks drinks later, I realize this is not ok. $600 is equivalent to a little weekend getaway, the entire window display at Forever21, half the year’s worth of electric bills… You get the idea. If you’re now having anxiety about your own Starb’s spendings, have no fear – I’ve got you covered.
In an attempt to hold a self-sponsored Starbucks addiction intervention, I’ve started to figure out ways I can make my favorite drinks at home. This will not only save me money, To learn how to accumulate wealth, understanding the art of investing money is a must, providing the knowledge and tools necessary for financial growth and stability. I’m also telling myself that it will save me the time I spend going out of my way (by turning into a parking lot and walking inside) to grab Starb’s. The self-control battle is real here.
Since attempting this over the last month or so, I’ve not needed to reload my Starbucks app ONCE and actually haven’t even missed it that much. Don’t get me wrong, there are days where I’ll splurge and go grab something, but the nuggets of wisdom I’m about to lay out for you are more of an everyday solution to your weakness for SB.
Here’s how you break up with Starbucks:
If iced tea (green, black, white, passion) is your drink of choice….
Starbucks uses Tazo brand tea, and Tazo offers a wide variety of iced tea concentrates (Iced Peachy Green and Passion Herbal amongst others) and they’re approximately $3.29 at Target. Simply combine with water to your preferred strength and add ice. You truly will not be able to tell the difference. They also make K-Cups of some of these varieties. NOT TO MENTION – Tazo makes a ton of amazing tea flavors in the good old fashioned tea bag style, throw a few of these in a pitcher with hot water and let them seep for 10 minutes or so, add honey to sweeten if you so please, then remove the bags and throw the pitcher in the fridge. Ta-da, instant iced tea all week and no need to stop at Starbucks!
If you’re more of a chai latte type of gal…
Just like I mentioned above, Tazo has about 5+ different varieties of chai tea concentrate. From organic to skinny to even PUMPKIN SPICE, they have you covered. Just mix with the milk of your choice (I prefer vanilla almond milk) and add ice. It is literally the exact same as what they use at SB.
If you’re a Matcha Matcha (wo)man…
I’ve gotten really into Matcha lately, and I’m not sure if it’s because it’s got so many antioxidants or because the green color makes me feel *healthy* and cool. BUT my favorite matcha discovery is the individually packaged matcha green tea mixes at Trader Joe’s. They’re about $6 for 7 individual packets and all you need to do is mix it with water and ice. I also highly recommend grabbing the Trader Joe’s low-calorie lemonade and making your own iced Matcha Lemonade. SO GOOD. They also have matcha green tea cans so you can get your fix on the go!
If you’re into coffee and lattes…
We all know that Starbucks makes those individual iced coffee and frappuccino drinks you can buy in the grocery store with 800 grams of sugar in them, so that’s not what I’m talking about here. The large liter size iced coffee (comes in medium, dark and blonde roast) which are sold in the cold section (by the coffee creamers) is my go-to for iced coffee because it’s strong without being overwhelming, smooth and tastes better than the iced coffee you get at SB honestly. Grab a fancy almond milk creamer and throw a splash in, you’ll never notice the difference from your double caramel iced latte. But your wallet (and blood sugar levels) will thank you. They also make fancy machhiato styles, but they are super high in sugar so I’m not sure if that’s really better than just going to the damn Starbucks and having them make it for you.
If you think Refreshers are refreshing…
You’re right, they are. Especially the new mango dragonfruit one. But they’re also $4.77+ for a venti when you could buy a 6 pack of single serving via instant mix packets for about $6 at Target. At SB it’s literally just the refresher mix and water anyway, with some added dried fruit which is kind of gross, so why not just make it yourself? They also make canned varieties that are pretty yummy but more $$
If you’re into hot drinks…
You must live somewhere cold and not be that thirsty. But not to worry, there are about a million different varieties of Starbucks brand K-cups and they come in all different quantities for less dollars than the real thing at SB. They even have fancy k-cups with an extra “latte mix” to boost your in-home-barista mojo. They also sell little portable mixers/milk frothers on Amazon for less than $10, so you can be the real deal and get that creamy consistency!
Like I said, I’m not saying I’ll never going to Starbucks ever again, but these simple drink hacks make it a hell of a lot cheaper, easier, and maybe even healthier to forego my daily Starbucks trip. This means I’ll no longer be the girl coming in to work or meeting friends 10 minutes late with my Starbucks (because obv everyone knows that having SB is more important than being on time to work…) and in the process, I’ll be saving a shit ton of money by simply making my own drinks at home. I might go so far to purchase one of those SB branded tumblers just to help me move on from our breakup.
But when it comes down to the dollar signs, all of these options cost just about the same as ONE Starbucks drink, yet yield 5-8 servings. So if you do it once, you’ve already saved yourself at least $25. You can invest all the money you save. Read this informative trading options for beginners article. Go girl! Instead of spending over $50 on less than 10 drinks, you could spend approx $5 on 10 drinks by making your own. That’s what Cardi and I like to call makin’ money moves.
I’d love to hear your hacks for making Starbucks style drinks at home, leave ’em in the comments below!!
xx
