It isn’t difficult for me to not buy anything at Starbucks since I don’t like coffee. I used to work at a pizza shop and we would trade pizza for Starbucks. Since I don’t like coffee, I would get a smoothie. The smoothies were good, but not good enough that I would buy one with my own money.
There has been a little more temptation to buy an Apple product, but it has still been pretty easy to not buy an Apple product so far. I did get a free Shuffle as part of a promotion contest. Since I’m not that big of a music fan I didn’t use it much and ended up giving it away. The iPhone is somewhat tempting. From what I have seen it is better than my particular Android phone. Until recently though an iPhone would have cost me 4 or 5 times more than my Android phone and I don’t think the iPhone is that much better. Now that they are offering iPhones on prepaid plans I will consider getting one when I need to replace my current phone. I still won’t be willing to pay much of a premium to get an iPhone though.
Not buying Starbucks hasn’t really saved me money since I still spend plenty of money on dining out. If I had an expensive coffee habit, I think I would reduce my dining budget to offset the coffee cost. Not buying an iPhone has saved me a lot of money since my current phone plan is only $25 a month which is much cheaper than any iPhone plan available when I bought my phone.
There is nothing wrong with buying Starbucks or Apple products as long as you can afford them. You don’t need to buy them just because everybody else does though.
Compared to me you have saved a lot of money. I have been sucked int to the iphone craze and initially did not realize hoe expensive the data plans would be. Avoid for as long as you can
I won’t change unless it is a good deal.
I am not much of an Apple fan either. My wife, on the other hand, is an Apple disciple. So, I think we’ll be getting the new iPhone once our contracts are up in January. You’re right though, that if you can afford it then it really is no issue.
Hopefully, you can get a good deal.
Hey Beagle! I am NOT a coffee fan, and not an apple freak either, though I do highly recommend the iphone. It’s easy to use-and apparently the older models are super cheap now. Just beware-I pay about 100 per month. The capabilities are worth it as I have to be connected remotely, but it’s still a large portion of my utilities budget. Great post!
$100 is too much for me. I think I’ll be able to get a better deal when the time comes.
Are you calling me Beagle?
You don’t have to BUY Starbucks…a good friend works as a housekeeper for a wealthy couple who adores Starbucks coffee. A little-known secret: you can turn in an empty Starbucks bag, and get a free tall coffee. She always has a bagful of these — I haven’t paid for coffee for literally years.
But I’m not sure you’re missing much — many times, the coffee is bitter. Yuck.
The Brick, though, has an Iphone and loves it.
I never heard of the Starbucks bag thing. If I drank coffee I would be taking advantage of that. Hopefully, some readers can make use of that tip.
Never had an i-phone – still using pay-as-you-go – am technically challenged and like it that way. Can’t say the same for the family – they have smartphones. Starbucks, on occasion, is my guilty pleasure. I have earned free Starbucks giftcards, etc. to reduce costs. Didn’t buy one until a couple of years ago – and now am hooked.
Everybody needs at least one guilty pleasure. As long as you don’t go overboard on the guilty pleasure.
I can count on one hand how many Starbucks purchases I have made in my life and twice was because it was the only option for miles. Truthfully I hate their coffee and always feel out of place in there, like I wasn’t invited to the club or something haha. I also will never have an iPhone, they’re toys and hate the touch screen, to each is own though! I was given an iPod as a gift and while i used it for the gym I HATE itunes, good for apple for making it proprietary though, smart. I’d only ever own a BB (even though they’re a dying breed) or android.
You can get a third-party software for the iPod. My husband still has the iPod his mother gave him years ago as a graduation present. I use a program called SharePod. You run the program directly from the iPod, so you can use it on anyone’s computer, and it even lets you copy music from the iPod to the computer. I really hate iTunes, too.
Wow, I can understand not buying an Apple product, but never a Starbucks either? I’d actually say congratulations!
Kicking my Apple habit was one of the if not the best thing I ever did. Don’t get me wrong, I still use macs, but only OLD ones, G4’s can be found for cheap, or free if you luck out, and hey, I already own all the software to run on them. But for the most part I am a total Linux guy these days, frugality and Linux go hand in hand. My main machine cost 122 bucks, and does everything a macbook does, for literally a tenth of the price. Linux Mint 13 with the Cinammon desktop environment is the shizzy. I also only do pay as you go cell phones, not into the whole monkey swipe world of the iphone and ipad. An alternative for those who have older generation iphones sitting around in a drawer doing nothing is whited00r, it’s a hack that jailbreaks your iphone and lets you run a later version of the iOS than Apple wants you to be able to run on it. Google and youtube are your friends. There is also a detailed description of how to turn that an old iphone into a 10 dollar per month or pay as you go phone over at mr money mustache. And I mean: detailed.
I did read the Mr Money Mustache article. It is a good hack, but I don’t need it since I already have a $25 month plan with unlimited text and data.
Hehe, had a cup of Starbucks today! Brewed coffee though and a ham and egg sandwich (yumm) though wish it were cheaper. I’m still on prepaid. Jeremy at modest money has been talking about his new phone, which tempts me to switch to a data plan, but… I’m still thinking really hard on that one.
It is something to think about. You can save a lot of money.
I can’t be bothered to spend on Starbucks or Apple products either. Knowing how much they make on how much they sell, I know there are better computers and coffee for the money!
There are plenty of other choices, you just have to pick which one works best for you.