Starbucks Idea

Most of you who know me, know that I LOVE coffee. Well, I  just completed 28 days of no gluten, sugar, alcohol, dairy, or caffeine (which of course meant - NO COFFEE)!!! It was hard. This money-saving girl has allowed herself this one luxury throughout the years: good coffee. But what this cleanse really brought to the forefront of my mind is how much money I spend on coffee! No matter if I go to Starbucks, Dean & Deluca, Caribou, or Dilworth Coffee - a medium coffee costs me around $2.25. I was doing that a minimum of 4 days a week! Yikes - that's at least $40/month on just coffee! So here's what I've decided to do: 

I got a $15 Starbucks Gift Card as part of a Staples deal a couple of weeks ago. I downloaded the Starbucks app on my phone (or you could go online to starbucks.com) and I registered my gift card. Now every time I use that gift card, I get a star. Five stars earns me free refills and a free drink on my birthday. The more stars I get, the more rewards I get!

So here's the idea part: Each month I'm going to load $20 onto my Starbucks gift card. That's it. That's all I get.This does several things:

• Gives me a budget that I have to stick to. When it's gone - it's gone! 
• Keeps me from making impulse-stops at whatever coffee shop may be around. If there's no Starbucks, I'm not stopping - because I only have credit at Starbucks!
• Stretches my dollars: when I'm buying my coffee, I'm earning rewards! 

Obviously there will be times when I'm meeting a friend for coffee and we need to meet somewhere other than Starbucks. But honestly, those times are rare (maybe once or twice a month). So that would probably come out of my entertainment budget anyway. I realize that this is mostly mental - and all about discipline. But I'm the kind of person who needs parameters and a few "rules" to get me on the right track to start with.