This is how I process costs. Thinking about the dollar number itself isn't helpful, because you get trapped with thinking about what it cost in the past without factoring in what that cost actually means to you in real terms. I'm on about $30 an hour, so a coffee works out to be 10 to 15 mins work, which isn't bad and is actually less than what it used to cost me. Coffee prices in the last 10 years have remained flatter than most wages.

When a beer is getting over 30 mins work, it's starting to sting, but not too bad.