"expensive" is relative

So I dropped off the face of the virtual world for awhile (at least on this site), but I am back. And changed some things. Take a look around.

Really I just wanted to share one thing that I realized. A few weeks ago after I met with Barbara from Building New Hope, I stopped by Whole Foods, that oh-so-tantalizing haven of foods I can't seem to afford, and bought a pound of BNH's organic, fair trade, shade grown Nicaraguan coffee. It was about $12-13 if I remember right (on their website it's $11--Whole Foods obviously marks it up), and I couldn't help cringing as I held my debit card over. I buy fair trade coffee, but it's from TJ's and is usually about $8 a pound. When I told my dad the price of this coffee, the first thing he said was, of course, "Wow, that's expensive."


Well, lately I've been thinking a lot about the things we often perceive as being "expensive," and that they really just need to be put in context and prioritized. And coffee is a great example.

A vast number of Americans buy at least one cup of coffee everyday for $1 - $2, because it is convenient and, c'mon, it's only a couple bucks. But see a bag of coffee in the grocery store that costs $12? Suddenly red lights go up because there are cans near it that only cost $4. This must be an extravagance we can't afford.

But in reality that $12 pound of coffee will end up costing you only about 50 cents a cup. I repeat: 50 cents a cup. (And that's if you're pretty generous with your measurements while sleepily scooping your coffee in the morning -- which, let's be real, most of us are.) If you can afford to buy two cups of coffee-shop coffee a week, you can afford to make a cup of this coffee every day.

And if you buy this particular bag of coffee, the people who grow it and harvest it, those elusive producers that make being a consumer of cheap goods so easy, will be able to earn a respectable living. Perhaps save some money. Imagine. Isn't this how the market should work?

Man, my story will/can not be that opinionated (maybe) but it's just, it's just mind-blowing. And look, I totally get that there are plenty of people who really can't afford to buy coffee at Starbucks twice a week, and thus can't afford this coffee either. I'm just saying I've found that there's plenty of other people who often make excuses (Me: "I'm a poor college student, I can't afford that, but excuse me while I go shopping at Urban Outfitters--but it's the SALES racks!") or don't think our expenditures through clearly. And then we complain about having no money.

And it goes way beyond coffee, to a plethora of consumer goods. Last month I hesitated before buying a yearly subscription to Harper's for $17, simply because I too am conditioned to have this mindset of "why buy it if I can get a different version of it cheaper/free," this mindset that doesn't question why or how it's so cheap. Then I realized that I want to be a magazine writer, yet I'm hesitating to buy one. And I've spent twice the amount of the subscription during one night at the bars. What the hell is wrong with me?

Maybe humans are just so tuned in to instant gratification (pay $5--> beer in front of me now --> warmth in minutes) that it's hard to have foresight in daily purchasing decisions. But in my mind, and in the present economy, being responsible consumers is more important than ever. And that requires actually thinking about what you buy.