Tea at the restaurant,

not a sweet deal

Who doesn’t like to eat out and have someone else cook a delicious meal? A friend of mine and I went to a local restaurant. We placed our orders – fajitas for me and enchilada’s for her. We also had tea to drink. The food was absolutely delicious, waitress could not have been nicer, and it was a wonderful experience. The bill arrived and I was surprised to see that the price for a glass of tea was $2.50. Paid the bill, left a tip for our waitress, and headed out.

Later that night, I started thinking about the cost for the tea. $2.50 for a glass of tea was quite expensive. The restaurant was not a fancy one, just a local chain. Assuming a family of four was to order tea – that would be $10 for something that costs about $.50 to make at home.

Let’s assume a family of 4 goes out one night a week and all get tea to drink – that would be $520 for tea during the course of a year. That is a car payment or two for a really nice car.

Another friend of mine buys her morning coffee - $3.98 each work day. She has also stated to me that she struggles to make her car and house payment. For fun, we sat down and I asked her how much she thinks she spends each year on coffee. We used the price of her morning coffee, assumed 300 days of coffee a year (as she also goes on Saturdays too) and discovered she is spending $100 a month, or $1,200 a year on coffee.

If your goal is to save money, consider what you are drinking at restaurants and in the mornings. Drink water at restaurants, make pitchers of tea and keep it in your refrigerator, and don’t spend $3.98 every morning for a cup of coffee.