[asdff]

Any basic budget advice says to cut starbucks out of your life and make your $5 latte at home, but why stop there?

Caffeine pills work out to $0.05/cup-equivalent, aren't going to make you take bathroom trips, aren't going to give you bad breath, and aren't going to stain your teeth. I usually keep a few in my pocket in case I get randomly drowsy in a meeting or if I'm driving far. I haven't looked back, and I used to pull my own espresso and roast my beans.

[eyegor]

> and roast my beans

I'm confused. If you were at a level where you were roasting your own beans, I would think that was because you enjoyed the taste of coffee. You enjoyed it so much that you went out of your way to track down non-roasted beans and roast them yourself. This is not an act of cheapness, this is a labor of love. And you decided, "Nah, I just want caffeine. This bean juice is for suckers"?

As a coffee lover myself, how/why did you make that jump?

[asdff]

Because the side effects I was experiencing made it unpleasant. I would have to use the restroom a half hour, like clockwork, after consumption. My teeth were becoming stained, and they've been repaired in the past and the bonding material no longer matched the actual tooth. I got sick of having coffee breath. My financial side of this addiction was smaller than it would have been at retail, but it was still something and making coffee does take time out of the limited day as well.

I really do like the taste, and I still do get an occasional cup about 1-3 times a month from a cafe, but it wasn't great for my body otherwise. I like the taste of cigars and booze, too, and they have obvious cons that preclude regular consumption. Coffee has cons for me too, even if I enjoyed it, so I just cut out my functional consumption for the sake of being alert and replaced it with a pure source that lacked these side effects.

[throwawayjava]

> As a coffee lover myself, how/why did you make that jump?

My reasons are right there in the original post: "bathroom trips... bad breath... stain your teeth". Those things become more obnoxious as I aged.

Throw away java ;-)

[whycombagator]

> Any basic budget advice says to cut starbucks out of your life and make your $5 latte at home

Unless you go to <insert-coffee-shop> not only for the coffee (social/working space/etc.).

> Caffeine pills work out to $0.05/cup-equivalent

Doesn't replicate the taste or all of the potential health benefits of coffee[0]

[0] https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/what-is-it-ab...

Edit: For purely budget reasons, the parent comment's points are valid.

[Ididntdothis]

Caffeine pills were the drug of choice when I did kickboxing competition. They make you really alert and focused. I always thought them to be smoother than coffee. I don’t like talking any pills so I used them only when at the morning of a fight.

[sergiotapia]

I drink coffee for the taste, not the buzz!

[sjg007]

So decaf then?

[tobias2014]

Absolutely! But it's not easy to find good whole bean decaf coffee.

[zepto]

How do they not make you take bathroom trips? Caffeine is a diuretic.

[TheSpiceIsLife]

This probably affects people differently.

I know people who can have coffee and fall asleep immediately afterwards, and have little to none urinary symptoms at all; and other people who’ll not sleep and / or need to pee frequently.

[eyegor]

Personally, I find tea to be a much stronger diuretic. Even herbal tea (zero caffeine). Coffee used to cause diuretic symptoms, until I reached the point where I drank it every day. I drink tea most days now, but the diuretic effects never subsided.

/rant. Bodies are weird.

[TheDong]

Note that herbal tea also has zero tea in it usually and so shouldn't be lumped in with tea either.

Perhaps your symptoms are psychosomatic?

[asdff]

It wasn't the urination for coffee that I'm referring to with these bathroom trips, I'm talking about number 2. Maybe I pee about the same, but I'm no longer cramping up and speed walking to the nearest stall.

[throwaway7877]

Only if you arent adapted to it and you are given lots.

https://fellrnr.com/wiki/Caffeine

[Waterluvian]

Caffeine pills also release the caffeine in a different way.

I too was a student and I too tried to min/max. I found that caffeine via coffee hit me harder and wore off quicker. A pill was this slow drip effect that left me absolutely screwed for bedtime if I had it any time past 1pm.

Anecdotal but my conclusion is: they're not the same.

[asdff]

I find I can still sleep alright 4 hours after taking a pill, like I would with a cup of coffee. I keep to that schedule of every 4-5 hours over the course of the day.

Maybe the coatings in your particular pill were different. I found gelatin capsules kicked in slower than pressed tablets that began to dissolve when they hit my saliva, but still lasted about the same. My tolerance to caffeine has always been high, though.

[beatgammit]

Why rely on caffeine instead of just getting more sleep? Go to bed earlier and do your nighttime hobbies or whatever in the morning. It saves money and time since I'm actually excited to get out of bed in the morning.

[tjr225]

I think I'd rather just keep drinking coffee.

[philwelch]

And you can wash it down with an energy drink!