I like to think that I don’t make financial mistakes, but the truth is that I most definitely do. Last week I guest posted on My Next Buck about a big mistake I made when buying a tv and the lesson I learned about paying for value.

This weekend, I made another mistake. The lamp in my room burnt out on Thursday night right before I went to bed and I panicked about what to do. It was a type J Halogen bulb, which are those little skinny bulbs that I’ve never seen in a store, so I quickly went online and ordered a $7 bulb on ebay. I was hoping to get it by Monday and not be without light for too long.

On Friday afternoon, I was in CVS, armed with a $4 off $20 coupon when I saw the lightbulb I needed for $7. I already had $14 in items, so it was an easy choice. I picked up the bulb and went home. I really wanted my light fixed. (It’s so dark in there and I hate it.) I got home, went to get a screwdriver from the drawer, and guess what I found? A type j Halogen light bulb.

Frustrated, I installed the new bulb (it’s very bright and awesome), returned the one I had just bought at CVS, and tried to cancel my ebay order. It was too late and on Saturday my bulb came.

I made two mistakes here: the first one was ordering immediately without doing research. I wanted it as fast as possible, so my solution was to have it shipped? What was I thinking??

My second mistake was being impatient and going on Friday to get a new bulb when I knew one would be coming by Monday. In reality, I was willing to pay $7 for light for an extra night. If I made choice like that every night, I’d be broke.

What if I Always Made Rushed Decisions?

This adventure only cost me about $7, but that money could have gone toward a million different things, and instead it went down the drain. I hope to learn from my mistakes and improve because when buying a house, a rushed judgment like this could cost me a whole lot more.

Today is a great day for everyone. For me, I got a snow day. As I’m sure you’ve heard, we’ve been experience snowmageddon here in D.C., but I wasn’t able to participate in the joy because I’ve had work every day this week. Until now. So I’m going to catch up on some work, pay some bills, and get a little extra sleep.

For you, I have a great post. My favorite posts are ones where I teach a lesson by using a personal example. And that’s exactly what I have for you today.

A friend told me he was looking for a new camera, so we did a little investigating and found something reasonable. Our only requirements were that it was small, look sleek, and have a rechargeable battery. Several camera fit the bill, but the Canon SD 1200 was the best of the bunch. It was rated better than the other cameras, but that quality also came with a price: $180.

I use several different ways to find great deals. My first stop is Google shopping. I organize by price and see what the lowest going rate is. $160 for the camera. Slightly lower than Staples, but nothing to brag about.

My second stop is Slickdeals. These people don’t leave any rock unturned and have the best deal. Since these are users submitting deals, you know you’re getting the sneakiest, best deals around.

Using Slickdeals, I found the camera for $180 at Staples, but it came with a $50 VISA debit card. Realistically, the dropped the price to $130.

But these people weren’t done yet. They also mentioned a rebate for people who had previously bought and registered a camera with Canon. Since I had the Canon SD1000 I was eligible for $20 off. That bought the realistic price down to $110.

$70 off the sticker price was great, right? My friend was ready to make the transaction, but I told him patience was a virtue and that I’d look for one more thing.

With all the sneaky deals these people thought of, they did leave out one possibility: getting a coupon from the store. While I didn’t have any Staples coupons, I was able to find a $30 off $150 coupon that I could buy for $3.49. I wasn’t sure it would work out, but I bought it anyway because it’s a low risk, high reward type of transaction.

So this is how it worked out: From $180, the $30 off $150 coupon was applied first, bring the price down to $150. Then the $50 debit card brought it down to just $100. Finally, the $20 Canon rebate reduced the price to $80. Add in the $3.49 to bring the total price to $133.49 in return for the camera and a $50 VISA debit card, or a net $83.49.

My friend was ecstatic and I was very proud of myself for helping out. I’ve gotten great deals before, but a 53% discount for a total of $96.51 off was something even I’m amazed at.

What tools do you use to find great deals?

Every morning, from as far back as I can remember until I left for college, my parents would have a cup of coffee in the morning. Occasionally they would have a cup in the evening as well, and I can only imagine how many cups they drank at work (My mother is a fourth-grade teacher, my father occasionally deals with insane criminals).

I hate the smell of coffee. I’ve never had a cup in my life. Out of the four sips I’ve ever taken, I’ve wanted to vomit after each one. I don’t support Starbucks. In fact, I boycott Starbucks as much as possible. It’s not hard considering that I don’t drink coffee, but it gave me a great excuse when my mother asked me to go out and get her a cup.

Dropping the Habit

I tried everything to get my parents to get rid of the awful stench at home. I told them it would ruin their teeth, I told them it was a gateway to opium, and I told them they wouldn’t be able to retire because of it.

Clearly none of my efforts worked, but recently my mother started drinking instant coffee exclusively and it made me think about that third excuse I gave them: how much drinking coffee really cost them.

Calculating it Out

My conservative estimate was two cups of coffee a day. Every single day. For 20 years. I’m sure they drank more than two cups sometimes, and I know they did it for more than 20 years. But we have to start somewhere, and I don’t want to be the guy who completely blows things out of proportion to try and prove a point. This is not a scientific study. Actually, I haven’t done the calculations yet, but here we go:

A few more assumptions:

• Each week consisted of 11 home-brewed cups and 3 cups at Starbucks (or Dunkin Donuts, or wherever).
• The average cost of a pound of coffee is $10 and provides 32 cups of coffee.
• The average cost of a cup of coffee is $2. My parents would laugh at people who got the “tall.”

So the average week was 22 cups of home-brewed coffee and 6 cups of store-bought coffee. That comes out to $6.87 for home brewed per week and $12 for store bought, for a total of $18.87.

My first thoughts are WOW, that’s a lot of money for 6 cups of coffee. The home-brewed stuff was a bargain!

Their coffee habit was costing them about over $75 a month, or about $985 per year, or $19,683 over 20 years. Damn.

But how much would it have been for the instant stuff? It costs about $7 for a can, which makes 21 cups. So $0.33 per cup. Slightly more than home brewed. Still, it comes out to $486 per year, or $9,733 over 20 years.

After all of this, it looks like $486 per year for coffee is rather insignificant. If you do anything for 20 years, the costs are going to look high, but I honestly expected the costs to be higher.

Early Retirement? Not Quite

My conclusion is that my parents’ drinking habit didn’t cost them an early retirement. My focus should have been on them brewing their own coffee instead of buying it 3 times a week, but the trade-off of having that stench in the house more often may have been too much for me.

The main takeaway is that people are getting ripped off every morning when they drink coffee. There is barely any difference between home-brewed and instant coffee (home-brewed is actually cheaper!), but there’s a HUGE difference between home-brewed and store-bought!

Brew it yourself! Why pay $2 per cup when you could pay $0.33? Is the convenience worth the 500% markup?