Coffee and Cupcakes: A dangerous combination?

On my first day in Sydney I had both breakfast and lunch in cafés. The café culture is big here. Really big. Everywhere you look are advertisements for deals on raisin toast and coffee, doughnuts and coffee, banana bread and coffee…but worst of all is the little cupcake bakery in the city centre, five minutes walk from my college. In the window is the sign: a cupcake and coffee, for only $5.
So, for a mere £2.50 one can indulge in the most delicate, rich and flavoursome cupcake, with a hot drink of choice. There are vanilla, chocolate, banana, carrot, sticky toffee…each topped with thick swirled icing to complement the sponge. My chocolate chilli taste sensation went down very nicely with a pot of tea; the perfect pick-me-up. This could easily become habit.

However, is it as harmless as it seems? Yes, my waistline might suffer a bit, but doing several hours of bass practice a day would keep that under control. The danger is in the long term effects on my purse. Say I indulged in this deal, or a similar one (cinnamon raisin toast is to die for) as a break from practising. I practice six days a week.
$5 x6 = $30 a week
$30 x 52= $1560 a year.
If I was doing my whole four year degree out here, that could drain me of way over $6000. That’s £3000.
Those little morsels of delight are not looking so innocent now, are they? That cupcake money could pay my post-degree rent for over six months in London. Having an extra half a year in which to find a job could ease up the pressure a lot.

Maybe I’ll invest in a cupcake tray and bake my own, or perhaps I’ll just visit the bakery once a week…