Au Revoir, Not Goodbye

Well that was an interesting blogging experiment. For the past 6 months I've put up a short post on personal finance, local and national economics every day. Hopefully those people who have read them have found them interesting, useful even. 

While the number of views hasn't been startling this has proven to me that it's possible to write regularly and that if you have a theme you can take cues from news stories around you to "go into print". I'm sure there could have been lots of trick of the (SEO) trade I could have been using to boost circulation but this was more an experiment in regular writing than anything else, even though the posts were pretty short. 

For the most part then it's been a success. Most posts have been written on the day they were published with a few scheduled when I knew there was no way I would have got round to it. Just writing what comes into my mind has been something that I hope I have improved during the past half year. Often called Frictionless Writing it allows me to start with an idea and just go with the flow. So, not all the posts have been brilliant but I feel there has been an easy going style that has developed despite the often serious subject matter. 

This won't be the end of the blog but it is the end of the regular every other day posting. From now on it will be occasional posts as and when I feel the urge to put something down on an area I'm passionate about. So, it's au revoir not goodbye.  Wishing you all success in whatever personal finance battles you may have. 

James

Saving One Coffee At A Time

There's no doubt that coffee drinking is becoming more and more of a habit in many counties around the world. Coffee cafe culture is sweeping across the western world and moving into counties far more used to tea. Nothing at all wrong with any of this but the costs we, the consumers, pay in coffee shops is astronomical. True, we are paying for the ambiance (some places are far better than others it has to be said) and the pay for the baristas and all the other overheads associated with large companies. 

If we're happy with this then all well and good. If we think we're being taken for a ride then maybe we need to think about how much it costs us to buy a packet of coffee and how much a single drink would cost in a cafe - it's about the same! 

That packet of coffee will last you far longer than it will take you to drink a single cup from your favorite cafe. So get yourself a vacuum mug and make your own coffee in the morning to take out with you. That way you'll be saving money on one drink per day.