Is one of the highlights of your day starting the morning by a visit to the local coffee shop, but you don’t love the price of your favorite brew?

How would you like to be able to choose from over 40 varieties of hot beverages from 12 company brands and select your choice of coffees, cappuccinos or lattes made with real cream or milk? Or make hot chocolate for you and the kids? All you have to do is pop in a Tassimo “T-DISC” (see below for description of what a T-DISC is) and be ready to drink your beverage of choice in just a minute. The Bosch Tassimo TAS4511UC not only makes coffee, but can brew up an espresso. And if your passion is for a milk-based cappuccino or latte, tea, hot chocolate or cafe cream, this coffee maker can set you up with that.

Okay…what exactly is a “T-DISC”?

To start with, it is the key to making your delightful, fresh-tasting fresh brew using the Bosch Tassimo coffee brewing system. It tells the Tassimo to select just the right strength, which is customizable, by the way. Customization is one of the best things about this coffee maker. So how does the T-DISC work? When you pick up a T-Disc, you will see a UPC code or bar code printed on each pod. When you insert a T-DISC into the Tassimo, it has the built-in technology to read the bar code. This amazing but simple bar code technology allows the Tassimo to calculate the exact amount of water you need for the hot beverage you have chosen. It also tells the Tassimo which temperature to use and how long to brew. Pretty slick!

Your hot brew goes straight into your selected cup from the T-DISC. Then you are ready to switch over to a different brew if someone else wants something different. So, when you use a T-DISC, you can rest assured that all the wonderful flavor and freshness is sealed inside each one and is measured uniformly so you come up with the same results each time. Everyone is happy that way…so easy to customize depending on everyone’s personal preference.

T-DISCS for latte and cappuccino come with both 2% milk and also espresso so you can copy your local coffee shop without ever leaving the comfort of your own home. Plus it is more economical! The milk T-DISCS are tightly sealed at the factory to stay fresh on your kitchen shelf. The espresso T-DISCS contain 100% Arabica espresso beans, ground finely, so you can authenticate the taste of being in a cafe.

Another nice feature of the Tassimo coffee brewer is that there are lots of name brands you know and trust to choose from. A few examples are:

Starbucks Gevalia Kaffe Maxwell House Cafe Collection Tazo Tea Seattle’s Best Coffee Suchard Chocolate

With the touch of a single button, you can operate the brewer after you slip in your choice of T-DISCS. One point to note is that when you brewed a latte first, for example, then switch over to a hot chocolate, your flavors remain distinct without any carry over flavor from the first cup of brew. In other words, no flavors are transferred from one cup to the next.

Lastly, the TAS4511UC will accommodate a variety of cups, mugs or travel mugs so each person can individualize the size they use. To ensure the quality of the water used to brew your hot beverage, the Tassimo uses a MAVEA water filtration system. Yet another nice feature of the TAS4511UC, and other Bosch Tassimo models, is that the water is channeled through coils that heats it on contact. Very quick and quiet operation. What a great way to start your morning or to energize later in the day!

Creating a budget can be a very difficult task. Although we as consumers know that we need to pay our bills, buy our necessities, and put some money away for savings, we don’t really know how to start.

I know from personal experience how hard creating a budget can be. In the beginning stages of my road to financial freedom, I would write all my expenses down on paper and notice that I would have very little or sometimes nothing left over to save. I tell my clients that seeing everything on paper is only the first of many reality checks while starting the journey of getting their finances in order.

I think most Advisors in the financial world will agree that using budgeting categories will help you organized things tremendously. Everyone will not have the same categories thus making every budget unique.

A category simply is nothing more than a grouping mechanism. Instead of listing each credit card bill separately on my budget, I will give all of my credit cards a category, for example I will list it once as “debt”. Some other popular budgeting categories are housing, savings, utilities, charity, food, transportation, childcare, miscellaneous and income to name a few.

There are many budgeting software programs out there. I suggest however, that in the beginning stages of creating a budget you continue to track things manually. This way you’re constantly viewing how your money is being spent and staying connected to the whole budgeting process.

Another very important task of a successful budget is keeping up with your expenses and all of your receipts. Now, I know this is difficult especially when buying what we think are small insignificant items but believe me it is very important, especially for married couples. If one spouse is spending $4.00 a day per month on a Cappuccino, that one purchase is costing your household $120.00 a month. To help solve this difficult task, keep a “receipt” box in a common area and commit to tossing all of them daily. When you sit down to work on your budget pull out all of your receipts and categorize them. I suggest you do this weekly in the beginning. The box can fill up pretty quickly, especially when two people are contributing.

Last but not least give each category total a “category to income” percentage. For example look at your life though the eyes of a Lender. You should spend no more than 31% of your net income on rent or housing and that includes your mortgage payment, property taxes, insurance and in some cases homeowner association fees. If you’re spending more than 31% keep your true values. Once you tally-up all your actual category totals and convert them into percentages your “reality” picture is now painted. Hopefully you will not exceed 100%. However, if you’re over 100% seek professional help immediately because you are in big trouble and heading for a crash!

If the above process has you feeling overwhelmed don’t beat yourself up. Just make an appointment with a Counselor or Coach in your area they’ll be happy to assist you.