Summertime, and the living is HUMID!

If today is any indication of the kind of heat and humidity I can expect this summer, I may be in for a long haul…

Actually, I quite like the summery weather. New Jersey summer weather patterns are strange—it’s always humid, but very often a humid little rainstorm will roll in, rage for a while, and then blow away. For example, when I looked out my window this morning before I got dressed for work, it was really cloudy and big raindrops were falling. So I put on slacks and a sweater and went to work. It was humid, but I chalked it up to the rainstorm. Imagine my surprise when I walked home for lunch and found that it was broiling outside! The clouds had blown away, but the humid air and heat remained. I changed into sandals and a skirt before coming back to the office! Last August, during hurricane season, we had at least one thunderstorm per day the entire first month of living here. I have a feeling this morning was just the beginning of storm season. I’m going to have to learn to gauge the temperature despite what the sky looks like in the morning!

It’s going to be interesting at lunchtime from now until August because I’m used to cooking my lunch—that is, I’m used to eating hot food. It’s getting too hot to stand over a stove or eat a hot lunch. Today I had a nice surprise waiting for me in the fridge—Jenna and her boyfriend made devilled eggs out of a few Easter eggs, and they were nice and chilled and ready to eat when I got there! I’m going to have to start planning ahead if I want to eat a cold lunch.

One thing I’ve realized about summer is how much I love cold drinks, especially iced coffee (a la Starbucks) and smoothies (a la Jamba Juice). And before I became a JV and started watching where every cent of my budget is being spent, it was so easy to just step into a little bistro or smoothie place and spend four dollars on a cold drink. If I did that now, my whole monthly stipend would be gone in three weeks.

Consider this: a 12-ounce drip coffee from Starbucks costs $1.50 (and that’s the smallest option you can buy). If you bought one every work day for year (taking two weeks off for vacation), that’s $375 per year on corporate coffee. If you’re into fancier things like lattes or mochas (ahem… guilty…), it can cost at least $940 per year!

As a result, I’ve been making those kinds of drinks at home! It’s nothing revolutionary or spectacular, but it is simple and inexpensive (as opposed to Starbucks and Jamba Juice—which are both deceptively simple, and expensive!)

It’s simple: make a pot of coffee in the evening and pour it into a pitcher. Chill it overnight. Whenever you want it (I like to drink mine right before I walk back to work after lunch. It gives me a little treat to look forward to), pour a glass, add milk, ice and a little sugar, and enjoy! There is a deep satisfaction in having a little coffee treat that doesn’t break the bank.

We just use a 39oz can of coffee (to my palette, poor quality coffee tastes the same as the good stuff when it’s chilled, but I’m sure there are those who can tell better than I can), which procures about 120 twelve-ounce servings (according to the label, anyway). A 39oz can costs about $10, so each serving evens out to about $.08. (Factoring in the cost of filters, milk, and sugar, it’s more like $.10 per serving). If you drank that every work day for a year (same formula as above), it costs $25 per year. You can save $350 per year!

The same thing can be done with smoothies. Investing in a couple of bags of frozen fruit (a big bag of store brand or, better yet, wholesale is the most bang for your buck), a bunch of bananas, and a carton of milk. We usually use strawberries, peaches, one whole banana, and a little splash of milk, but you can use any kind of fruit or berries, or yogurt instead of milk. Blend it up, pour it in a glass, and drink your daily servings of fruit! It’s a lot cheaper than the Starbucks smoothies or Jamba Juice. Some people even like to hit Super Supplements and throw a scoop of protein powder into the mix, so it’s an even healthier snack!

I never really had a problem spending money on blended drinks until a few years ago, but I certainly allowed it to become a habit. I don’t want to look back on my life at the end of my days and realize that I literally spent thousands of dollars on little treats for myself. Especially if I’m able to make them at home!

Anyway, I hope everyone else has the chance some time this summer to enjoy the sunshine and economically-savvy summer drinks!