Many students greet every morning with a steaming cup of joe. It’s a relatable ritual of revitalization that many people struggle to imagine life without. According to Reuters, a survey commissioned by the National Coffee Association found that 64 percent of American adults drink coffee daily. I am not in the majority.
I consciously avoid coffee, and not just because it tastes like a bitter, dirty sock boiled in water. Drinking coffee daily is an expensive habit without many benefits. The mobile payment company Square released data that a cup of coffee without milk costs $2.70 on average, according to U.S. News. With this data in mind, people who drink one cup of coffee a day could save nearly one thousand dollars each year. For perspective, an extra thousand dollars could pay for a year’s worth of college textbooks or a new iPhone.
It seems like an obvious financial decision to omit coffee from your diet, but I understand the argument that energy to make it through the day is worth a thousand dollars a year. However, the caffeine in coffee does not help with energy levels as much as people like to believe. Coffee tolerance exists, and as a result, people do not feel the effects of caffeine after drinking the same amount of coffee regularly. It is only when people skip coffee for a day that they feel different. Luckily for coffee-drinkers, according to Time Magazine, the headaches, irritability and fatigue associated with quitting coffee are tolerable and go away after a day or so.
If you drink coffee regularly for the caffeine, it’s not worth the expense. You may feel moody for a day when you quit, but then you will realize that you don’t need it as much as you think. Instead, save the power of caffeine for your next late-night essay when you are sure to need it.