Last December, I bought a special coffee tumbler from Starbucks. It allowed me to get coffee from Starbucks for the month of January. The cup cost $40 and being an accountant, I figured if I got one cup of coffee a day for January, that would be 31 free cups times $2.50/cup for a total value of $77.50, so I would save $37.50 if I bought the cup, so I did! I learned in practicing dhamma that everything, good or bad, comes with a price. For the month of January, I had to carrying around this 16oz cup. I had to keep it clean. I had to make sure I stopped by a Starbucks every day! I did miss one day and felt stressed because “I wasn’t getting my money’s worth” from the cup. But the funny things is that I drank more coffee that month than I usually do because if the cup entitles me to a free cup of coffee a day, I AM GOING TO GET IT! I had to drive to Starbucks on the weekend since I don’t have one near my home. During the week, I have a cup of coffee in the morning and by the time I get to Starbucks, a 16oz cup is too much. I sip the coffee throughout my day. I can’t pour it away and I can’t miss a day of getting my free cup. This caused a lot of suffering. I found myself forcing myself to finish the coffee. I had to go out of my way to make sure I made it to a Starbucks on the weekend. If I forgot my cup at home, I had to make sure when I got home that I take a trip to Starbucks to get my free cup…Thank goodness this only lasted for one month.

In hindsight, my behavior was silly. I have been told that my attachment to money causes me suffering. This same problem causes me suffering in this situation. I can also see it with collecting “stars” on the Starbuck app so I can get free drinks, but I save the free drinks and get the venti frappuccino for my son as a reward or treat, but my attachment to money causes me to buy coffee to get stars so when I reward my son, it doesn’t “cost” me anything because I’m cashing in an award. Now that I think about it, does that take away from the meaning of the reward I give my son?

I just signed up for a challenge to earn stars. If I go to Starbucks once a day for the next seven days, I can earn 100 stars which when combined with my other stars will get me a free award/drink. Today I was walking home and saw a Starbucks, I hadn’t bought a cup today. I was going to stop by a Starbucks, but decided not to. I thought about how silly it is go out of my way to get a cup of coffee, OR in this case get a cup of coffee even though I wasn’t in the mood. And really, I don’t like Starbucks coffee, I like Peets which I guess tells you something about my attachment to money.

Of course we all need money, but as they say “if you have too much of a good thing, something pleasant becomes unpleasant because you have too much of it.” In my case, I don’t have too much, but my desire to have more by saving a looking for deals has caused me suffering. A few months ago I bought these nice cargo pants. Buy two get one free. I gave the free one to my son, it was too good a deal to pass up, but I don’t need more cargo pants. But in the name of saving money by getting this great deal, I justified it. Of course the problem with the pants are that I have an iPhone 7 plus and it doesn’t fit in the cargo pocket, so I don’t wear them too much because I have to now wear a belt clip with my phone or carry in in my jacket pocket.

With all this evidence of what I do in search of the bargain, or in the name of “saving money.” I started to feel silly. In the end I just walked by the Starbucks and didn’t get that cup of coffee. I guess that’s a step in the right direction when it comes to facing my attachment to money. I’ll have to see how I feel when I get to the end of the challenge without accumulating enough purchases to get that 100 bonus stars.