A couple of weeks ago I told you my theory of lattes. Today, I want to talk about the importance of good black tea (after which, I promise, I’m done philosophizing).

When I moved on from my short-lived chai latte routine, I eventually settled on Stash Tea for my daily dose of caffeine. It’s a little-known premium brand of black and herbal teas that has a small but curiously devoted following.

There is a sense of mutual understanding and quiet kinship when one discovers another Stash drinker, I find, like a secret society of tea aficionados.

Stash is not cheap, as teabags go. But I look forward to having it every day – and that, in the long run, will save me more money than downgrading to something I like less.

That’s a useful psychological trick. There’s a lot of advice out there that preaches financial austerity as a virtue: Forego all treats and temptations, ye big spender.

I find that a pragmatic, judgment-free approach works much better. Instead of trying to resist the temptation to spend on something I know isn’t worth it or doesn’t fit my budget, I focus on finding low-cost ways to nip that temptation in the bud.

I hardly ever eat out at work because I enjoy my packed lunches. I save a bundle by mostly rotating through different bean salads, but I put some effort into finding multiple recipes I like so I don’t get bored.

When we moved into our current house, we had a red armchair that stuck out like a splash of tomato sauce in our blue and yellow living room. It was also too small. But upgrading to a soft-hued loveseat was way low on our priority of expenses for the new house.

That red scrawl lived in my brain like a woodworm for more than a year, until it occurred to me I could simply put blue upholstery over it. Suddenly, I stopped thinking about it altogether. We didn’t buy the loveseat until eight years later.

The bottom line here is don’t treat your New Year’s spending resolutions as a psychological endurance test. Resolutions turn into habits when you find ways to make it easy for yourself to stick to them.

As always, happy to hear your thoughts on the topic of savings and splurges. I’m at ealini@globeandmail.com

Wealthsimple announced today (link only accessible to account holders, for now) it has partnered with Canada Post to allow account holders to cash deposits at post offices across the country. The other bank challenger that is piggy-backing on the post office network to offer bank branch-like services is Koho.