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Betsy from My Whim is Law wrote in with a $5 pledge and a tip on how to save money on expensive coffee drinks:
This isn’t particularly funny, but it is a reader suggestion!
Most of the time, I make my own coffee at home — or drink it at work. But every now and then, I need an extra kick — or I’m out running errands, or it’s hot while I’m running errands, or….
I also love my iced coffee — but don’t want to pay $3.50 and up for an iced latte when they offer milk on the condiment stand for free (plus, I don’t like that much milk.)
So I order two (or three) shots of espresso in a tall cup that’s full of ice. I swirl it around for a minute or two, add my milk (or half and half) and I’m good to go — for about a dollar less than I’d pay otherwise. (I usually pay 2 bucks.)
Everyone I’ve passed the tip along to raves, by the way — a co-worker tried it yesterday morning in place of her daily iced americano and came up to me afterwards, all excited about the dollar she was going to save herself every single day of the year (I asked for a cut — didn’t work.)
Same theory can apply to soft drink purchases while running around — fountain drinks are usually always cheaper than the bottles in the cooler at your local convenience store; think about purchasing the one liter size over the single-serving sizes and saving some for later.
On a related note, most places will let you order a soda with no ice. Well, I guess most places actually let you fill your drink yourself nowadays, but for those that don’t, try ordering with no ice. You get a lot more soda for your money…
This article is about Frugality, Funny Money Saturday, 29th July 2006 (by J.D. Roth)
July 29th, 2006 at 7:06 pm
Plus you can get the flavored syrups in the bottles if you like the vanilla or caramel or anything ;).
May 24th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
that’s a cheap chisler move.
If you’re gonna rip off a business, please pull that garbage at $tarbucks and not your locally owned joint.
February 27th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
My mom worked in the service industry for years, and always told me about the soda with no ice trick. It’s very cold in the machine anyway, especially since the ice sits on top. You might as well avoid the ice unless you need to keep it cool for a long time. Then again, you’re just watering it down.
Another cheap, and slightly less shady, way to save money at the coffee shop is to order the equivalent of an espresso drink with regular drip coffee instead. I do like a good latte from time to time, but it’s usually at least a dollar cheaper to go with cafe au lait or cafe con leche (same thing, different names depending on the shop). I don’t miss the espresso at all, since most good coffee shops usually have a tasty drip coffee as well.
Better yet, there’s no way the barista can screw it up with espresso that is too weak or too strong.
May 5th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Actually, this practice is common enough to have a name.. “ghetto latté.”
June 1st, 2008 at 9:43 am
Dear Friends, In the 1950s through the 1970s, food servers at Howard Johnson’s Restaurants were taught the difference among small, medium and large drinks, which was CUP SIZE AND AMOUNT OF ICE!!!!! Every HoJos drink was exactly the same amount of liquid. The help was taught to STUFF the medium and large cups with the crushed ice so the buyer paid more for the larger size beverages, but got the same amount as the small soda, UNLESS YOU SPECIFIED LIGHT ON THE ICE AND WATCHED TO MAKE SURE THEY DID NOT PUT IN EXTRA ICE! I was frugal even then.