I almost bought one of those cute Starbucks mini Mocha Frappucinos this morning, but then I didn’t. Instead, I came into the office and created a homemade iced coffee, with FREE coffee (and ice), supplied by my kind employer.

Love. The. Perks.

For lunch, I will head across the street to the local deli for a sandwich on wheat, unlimited veggies, for the cool cost of $3.45 ($3.62 with tax); to drink? Water. (Also free.) Of course, I should really be making my lunch, though I take this one small luxury and enjoy it, and I don’t go to Cosi (8 bucks for a two-ingredient flatbread sandwich? I don’t think so.)

We are surviving fine with one car even though a second would mean we wouldn’t need to borrow my wife’s parents’ second car every week and even though we actually - ironically - have a two-car garage. Reduce the family carbon footprint and save on gas - bonus.

Our 1950s home could use a whole set of repairs, but nothing dramatic, so we will do some now, some later, and some, much, much later (new sprinkler system, because hoses work just fine).

It’s not as though I am overly anxious about money - or lack thereof - but the bank account ain’t really growing so much, if you know what I mean, so we’re living frugally, buying what we need; we aren’t depriving ourselves, per se, rather just remaining prudent.

But we do live in the land of Range Rovers and BMW X6s - we basically emptied our savings account to buy a house in an amazing neighborhood that is zoned for one of the best elementary schools in the state, and while we can certainly justify the purchase, you look next door at the $1.5mm house that really isn’t all that big, but whose 3 kids all go to private school and whose mother doesn’t work, and it makes you wonder: if we didn’t live in such an affluent area, would we be happier if we didn’t feel inadequate because our grass was (literally) not as green as the house across the street?

So this post has evolved from where do you save money in your everyday to how much do you feel like you’re just running to keep up and can’t quite get there…

Well, speak your mind!

I went into CVS the other morning to buy some scotch tape and found myself yawning uncontrollably, so I bought one of those coffee-flavored, vitamin-packed, large-can “energy” drinks, the quick pick-me-up.

The funny thing, I can’t get past 10am without needing a caffeine hit, and by early afternoon I need another.

Addiction? Probably. But why I am so tired all the time?

There’s a piece today in the NY Times about how we’re all more stressed and sleeping less, and I won’t lie that since my layoff and the general state of the world, I’ve been sleeping much worse, but still at least 5-6 hours - that should be plenty for a man of my age and vigor, right?

A cursory google search provides this result from webmd, which would suggest that I am better off avoiding one of the bunk energy drinks, but I began to wonder if the amazing proliferation of these drinks actually speaks to a larger demand in society - are we all tired and in need of a daily jolt?

Of course, parenting takes a lot out of us, and the daily grind of being a working parent undoubtedly adds to the effect, but are we living our lives the wrong way in the US? Do the Europeans and their 35-hour workweeks and 6 weeks of vacation know how to live better, with their priorities in the right place?

Oh, so many questions that I cannot answer; all I know is that I need a nap or another cup of coffee and it’s not even noon yet.

How about you: are you under-slept, always tired? What do you do about it?