If it is one thing I have learned to budget over the years, it's my morning coffee. I'm not giving it up, but I refuse to pay the $2-$5 it costs to purchase it at any of the coffee shops that are out there. Nope. Not when I can make it at home. I invested $15 into an Electric Kettle about 10 years ago along with $12 or so on a single serving French Press. If you don't have an Electric Kettle, then boil water on the stove. I'm not particular about the brand of coffee I drink, so I buy whatever is on sale. And I drink coffee black, so I don't spend money on sugar or milk/cream. I once did a calculation...10 years of not buying coffee, 45 or so weeks a year making it myself (the others are a guestimate of when I was in a hotel that had it in the room), 5 days a week, average $4 a cup.$9000!!!!!! Nope! I can think of plenty of wonderful things I've done with that money over the years.
I make a smoothie or protein shake to have with my coffee along with two strips of bacon. I buy bacon when it's on sale for $3.99 a package, and each package has 16 strips. For the shake, I try to use fresh fruit, but since that isn't likely in a quarantine, I either freeze my own or rely on bulk frozen.
Pineapple was on sale for $1.99 each a while back. I love pineapple, but to have an entire one to eat by myself is difficult. So I chopped it all up. Some went into salsa, some I grilled with chicken for dinner, some I ate fresh, and the rest I froze. Bananas were 29 cents a pound for "Just 4 U" members of Jewel, so I grabbed four of them. To be honest, I don't like bananas. I have to be really hungry or desperate to eat one. They make me gag if I think about it while eating one--it's the texture. But, they are incredibly healthy for you, and a great source of potassium.
So what to do with so much fruit! Freeze it for smoothies! Chop up the pineapple in small enough pieces to be able to just reach in the freezer and grab out of a container. Bananas take a little bit of prep. Peel them and break into pieces. Bananas will oxidize and get brown, so here's the solution--a literal solution of a cup of water and one tablespoon lemon juice! Mix the juice and water in a bowl and plunge the bananas briefly into it. Remove, shake off the excess water and put the bananas on a flat surface to go into the freezer. Shown here is the lid for a container that I will be storing them in along with the pineapple. Pop into the freezer for a few hours, then bag up and back into the freezer it goes! Fresh fruit for weeks!
For my protein shake I use Orgain protein powder. I really like this brand as it comes in unsweetened, which I prefer (and is also organic and vegan). I can usually find it on sale at race expos for $20 a tub, which when working out the serving size using one scoop is about 50 cents. I'm almost out, and since there aren't any race expos for a while, I'll probably have to eliminate this part when my jug is empty as the online price isn't within my budget right now. Unless they want to send me some and I'll continue to promote them...nudge nudge.. ;-)The yogurt is around $2 a tub and I can get 5 servings out of it. I like this brand as most unsweetened yogurt on the market is all runny. Sometimes I'll put some frozen berries in the shake for variety, sometimes not. I like the option of not having the same flavored shake every day.
I throw everything into my Now Sports Personal Blender with some cold water and blend! I love my blender and take it with me when I travel to have my shakes on the go--but it has to be checked because of the blade. You can find them online for around $25 if you look and this one is on Year 3, so it's a good investment.
The entire shake ends up costing $1.
Shake: $1
Two pieces of bacon: 50 cents
Coffee: 5 cents
Try to find THAT anywhere outside the home.
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