Saturday, February 23, 2008

Frugal Luxuries

The next big storm is bearing down on California as I write. The clouds fronting the storm have cast a cold grey cover to the morning. We have decided to stay home and enjoy indoor activities this weekend. Breakfast is my favorite meal and a less expensive option when going out to dine. Today breakfast is homemade and the price is right.
I'm making fresh squeezed orange juice from sweet Cara Cara Oranges and French roast coffee from San Francisco Bay Coffee. A bagel with cream cheese and lox completes the menu. My cost is about a buck seventy-five. How can it be so cheap? Well I cheated a little. The bulk of the cost is the juice. The oranges were purchased at the big box store and squeezed on our over thirty year-old Mary Proctor electric juicer. A glass cost about eighty cents. The coffee was free because my wife won it at a company event. The bagel and accessories came from my daughter who works at the local bagel shop and gets a discount.
Even if you had to pay full retail price the cost of homemade is much cheaper. Restaurants normally mark up food at least four times their cost. They mark coffee even higher, that's why you see so many coffee shops because it is very profitable! Don't forget to include the tax and tip in the equation.
Will I go out and eat again? Of course I will but today I weather the storm and enjoy my frugal luxuries.
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The last hotel I stayed in charged $14 for continental breakfast
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Enjoy and stay dry.

4 comments:

cookiecrumb said...

You cheap scoundrel! What a deal. :)

kudzu said...

Even in my ordinary neighborhood coffee shop, I can't get a breakfast I want for less than $10. I admire your ingenuity (and your wife's luck).

Zoomie said...

Looks good! I love your picnic "signature" picture and I think I know right where it was taken! We used that same table one year for a on Father's Day!

Greg said...

Thanks all for stopping by.