End of the week Tirade

 

I Don’t Give a Rat’s Rear End

As I look around at all the news this week and every week with which I have been bombarded, I find myself asking the same old question:  Have I really learned anything new?  And, every week, the answer is NO.  If I reflect upon the television, all the news channels broadcasting at various times report the same events with the only difference being that they are either slanted to the right or left or not at all which is actually the way they really should be.

When I reflect upon the news apps that I have on my phone which are:

• CNN
• CBS
• Washington Post
• USA Today
• WSJ
• AP
• Thomson
• Politico
• Drudge
• HuffPost

I also see the same stories with a wider selection provided by the bottom 3 but even their wider selection is similar; so, why have all these apps?  Well, there are different writers with different styles in writing is really the only major difference.  They all seem to have the same facts but some are longer than others as they tie in tangential information to make it more interesting.

It seems that this week, we are again focused on the:

1. Fiscal cliff
2. Turmoil in Egypt and issues with Morsi & the Brotherhood
3. Syria and possible use of chemical weapons
4. Professional football and basketball
5. The royal baby et al
6. John McAfee’s escape and capture
7. Where the Republicans went wrong
8. Some kind of celebrity issue

And, of course the EXPERT – everyone has an expert on the payroll that will slant comments in a predetermined direction.  BUT, everywhere one turns and looks and reads, it is only available in the sensational format; otherwise, we will lose interest and turn to another page or click the remote or select another app.

SOOOOOOOooooooooooo, let’s take a coffee break.

Having replaced the office coffee pot, single-cup coffee systems now want to conquer households. Already, 24% of U.S. homes are equipped with a single-cup coffee machine, making it second only to standard drip makers in terms of household penetration, according to market research firm Mintel.

Sales of single-serve coffee pods are soaring to an expected $1.8 billion this year—an almost fivefold increase from $381 million in 2010, Mintel says. Prices of some pods are slipping, though. Certain patents expired for the Keurig K-Cup, the product compatible with Keurig's first-generation single-cup system, touching off a potential avalanche of cheaper private-label cups.

The rise of single-cup brewing begs shoppers to do the math. Using one of the new single-cup machines to brew a serving of regular coffee costs anywhere from 55 cents to 80 cents, depending on the machine and the coffee. That compares with $2.65 or more for a "tall" coffee at a Starbucks shop.

By far, the most cost-effective option remains to brew a whole pot of coffee at home using a traditional method, at a cost of anywhere from a dime to a quarter per serving. But that assumes you drink the whole pot. The more-common scenario, as any coffee lover knows, is to brew a pot of coffee but only drink one or two cups, significantly raising the per-serving cost.

Let’s do the math…

But, let’s make some assumptions first:

• We purchase all our outside the home coffee at a Starbucks or Starbucks like coffee shop
• Cost of Starbucks or Starbucks like coffee is $2.65
• Cost of single cup coffee pods is $.65
• We drink 5 cups a coffee a day for 5 days a week or 25 cups each week
• Our single cup coffee pot will cost $225

Doing the math:

1. coffee outside the home will cost us $2.65 X 5 X 5 = $66.25
2. Brewing coffee at home will cost us $.65 X 5 X 5 = $16.25
3. Weekly difference = $50
4. Cost of machine = $225
5. Breakeven = 4.5 weeks

Click to enlarge

Granted, not all of your coffee is going to be drunk inside the home but if half is, then one could pay for the machine in a little over 2 months.

Granted, making a pot at a time is even cheaper but do any of us have that down to a science where each cup tastes the same.  It’s kinda like drinking wine, after drinking 2-3 glasses, it does not really matter how bad it tastes.

And, while this might not be the most interesting of topics, it got your mind off the crappy news for a while…