Double post because I'm so excited, I seriously don't care.
TL; DR - Our new coffee maker came and I am so fucking here for this.
Full story - So, about nine months or so ago, our usual coffeemaker died. This was a tragedy in the truest sense of the word not only because 'no caffeine', but because that thing was literally perfect for my household. We have two adults and that thing, despite being the same size as a regular coffee pot, only made two cups. The rest of the space in the carafe was used by the built-in frother. It did not require those stupid little plastic cups that are so horribly, horribly wasteful. We could use any coffee we wanted! It could also use tea, either loose or in bags! Basically, unless it was a drink that required espresso, we had a little mini-Starbucks in our house. It was great, and I somehow managed to get that thing on sale for, like, $60.
When I went to the Target website to buy another one, it wasn't to be found. Nor was it available on Mr. Coffee's direct website. Much to my horror, they stopped making it and I have no fucking idea why. Seriously, the thing has over 2K reviews on Amazon and is still sitting at 4.5 stars. Apparently, the only way to get a new one is to drop at least $350 on eBay. On the Amazon marketplace, used ones sell for almost $200. WTH, Mr. Coffee?
Fortunately for us, we had another coffeemaker in the house. A $400 coffeemaker no less, which is more than my car payments were. A friend of ours works for Nescafe and what we didn't realize when he asked us for our mailing address was that he gets a certain number of free machines per year he can give to family and friends, and all his family in the US already had one. It came with little coffee pods that I generally object to, but whatever. All of this was free to us, so we open it up and figure it will be fine and we can check out long-term options later that don't involve giving money to Nestle, who is pretty much the poster child for Corporate Evil. They make tons of different coffees and reusable K-cups for Keurig, so they probably make ones for this thing, too, right?
Wrong. Nope. Not even close. I see pods made for this brand at Target, thinking we'll at least be able to choose a cheaper option that is officially Not Nestle. Yay! But... no. No yay. These are for the old model of the machine, and we have the new one. Literally the only way to get pods for this thing is buying them from Nestle's site, at a Nescafe, or on Amazon, where they're all about $2 a cup and would be like.... $180 on coffee per month in our family. (No wonder they give away the fucking machines for free.)
The reusable ones I ordered all the way from Hong Kong finally come after a month. And they... work about 50% of the time, ending in frustration every time @insomniac7809 and I try use them. Environmentally friendly option is not an option, but I am not giving that kind of money to Nestle, let alone giving it to them every goddamn month. But I also feel stupid and wasteful replacing a practically brand new $400 coffeemaker, and after a surprise vet visit that ran into the thousands, certainly can't afford to, either. So we struggle through, hating this thing every. single. morning.
Until....
Our wedding reception this Saturday. We didn't register anywhere. We've lived together for 10+ years. We don't need stuff. We have too much stuff. We asked people not to give us stuff....
But his family is Italian, so they show up with checks, instead. Checks I use to refill our depleted post-vet bill savings account. And Amazon gift cards. So many Amazon gift cards. Gift cards I cannot reasonably stash away in our savings account, and so I can use them guilt-free.
The one thing we have purchased with all of our wedding reception "gifts" is a brand new coffeemaker. A stupidly expensive one that I didn't have to pay for. And I am so goddamn happy.