If you can't learn to make better coffee than a Starbucks brew at home (where "better" is defined as "with more complex, refined tastes and less harsh, burned notes") you're doing something badly wrong. Decent beans, a set of digital scales, a cheap hand grinder and a French Press or Aeropress will do the job.

I see now that my remark about the coffee and my tv could be misinterpreted as sarcasm, but I was 100% sincere. I no longer get cable tv and I don't go to Starbucks anymore now that I have an Aeropress.

(The couponing mention was a joke, by the way.)

There are plenty of places in the world where the local coffee shop outputs far better coffee than a Starbucks. I've tried a couple of forms of home expresso, and I can't approach the flavour of the coffee shops around where I live. Sure, I can make a better coffee than a Starbucks, but thats not what im competing against for my $4.

Did I say anything about cost?