Little by little, we work to improve our lives. We work hard for that next raise or promotion. We scrimp and save for that new car or an expensive toy. We slave away in our backyard to make a haven. We make influential friends, give up Starbucks, cultivate the ground.
Starbucks? Okay, about the Starbucks thing. My hubby’s bank app told him he was spending too much money at Starbucks. We laughed so hard! But then we looked at our statements. Kevin was buying one nearly every morning he drove to work, quad shot $20. I was buying them four days a week, thrice with a sandwich, and treating a mentee for one, $30. On Sundays, we would both get one plus a sandwich on the way to church, an additional $17 a week. Kev and I were hooked. If we went out and about, we would drive through–it was ridiculous! Without realizing what we were doing, we were bankrupting ourselves with foo-foo coffee. An extravagance we didn’t need. What we needed to do was the math. It was running us several hundred dollars a month! We didn’t have that kind of money to burn. We decided to change things up and make it a treat for Sunday mornings.
An excellent budget choice, but not an easy choice, because we were addicted. It was challenging to drive by and not pull in. Frankly, it still is, and it has been several months. Our local Starbucks has lost significant revenue from the two of us. And since the middle of March, we haven’t stopped once for coffee. Wow! What a difference made through a single choice.
For every choice we make, there is a consequence. It may make a little ripple in the puddle or a cannonball splash in the pool, but there is a ripple effect in every choice.
Some choices seem innocuous. Some have significant ramifications.
Some decisions affect just ourselves–our wealth, mental, physical, emotional, or spiritual health. But other choices affect our marriages, friendships, integrity, or our witness. These decisions affect others—some in fantastic, some in detrimental ways. But, just think, one choice saved us thousands of dollars a year. Thousands, it boggles the mind. Maybe we should scrutinize our decisions more thoroughly.
Let’s choose wisely.
Kaci Rigney 
@Choices — Excellent story about choices in our respective lifestyles and how each decision can lead to improvement or addiction. Starbucks is a notable brand and sought after by many, yet at some point we realized that we were paying for a “convenient addiction”, something that was delightful and easy to get. It was funny when my bank app flashed a blue exclamation point and it read, “You’re spending too much at Starbucks!” My first response was, “You’re not my real dad; you can’t tell me what to do!” and then my next response was, “Wow, is big brother infiltrating our lives!” Needless to say, it was almost depressing to see that our average monthly Starbucks habit was running appx. $200 per month! Fast forward to March 2020 when the pandemic hit and we make our “foo-foo” coffee at home for pennies on the dollar. That savings, along with other life events, helped us to put in the backyard oasis we wanted and not going into debt to do so (and we did it all by ourselves!)
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