I would really like to say that this story is not true. But it happened to me, I lived it first hand.

I fell in love very young and got married, we had 3 daughters and survived every month with 2 minimum wages. Crazy, but when there is love, everything is possible. Or so I thought.

At the end of the 90's I decided it was time to have a house. We had been married for 20 years and the girls were old enough to run and play, which was difficult to do in a rented apartment of 20 square meters. So I told my husband that we should start saving to buy our own house and give our daughters a safe roof over our heads.

He kept looking at me. I never knew if when he looked at me like that he was analyzing the problem or thinking about something else. We will never know.

I explained to him that in order to carry out this savings plan we would have to make sacrifices, we had to restrict excesses and luxuries and save as much money as possible to meet our goal. That was if we wanted to buy the house before we used a wheelchair and walker.

I told him that I would stop buying my magazines and those air fresheners that I loved. But he had to give up coffee.

He got up and said I have another solution, give me a few days and I'll come up with a real savings plan.

I shuddered. I knew that when I came up with a plan nothing good ever came of it. But I gave him the time he needed.

The next week he bought me coffee. Kind of ironic for our situation. I arrived and he was waiting for me with a smile. We ordered an espresso and he began his explanation of the plan as if it were an economics thesis.

-The first thing we will do is walk to work, so we will save on fuel- he said with a seriousness that almost convinced me.

-Let's walk 2 kilometers a day- I said, surprised, since our jobs were a bit far from home.

To which he replied that walking was good for our health and that it would save us gym and transportation costs.

-We can stop buying so many clothes, it's unnecessary. And whatever is really an emergency we can buy at thrift stores- he said, noting that he had everything perfectly calculated.

-The girls don't have to go to school- he said with that naturalness that I thought he was joking.

-What? Dropping out of school- I said with a slightly altered tone of voice.

He explained to me that it wasn't about leaving school, it was about leaving that expensive private school and going to a public school.

Things were starting to get out of control.

-We don't have to sacrifice our tastes, I mean my coffee and those aroma sticks of yours can continue to be part of our economy, it's not a luxury it's a necessity- he sounded very sure of what he was saying.

I was doubting a little of his reasoning and that was when he took out of his backpack the tool that would help us to save. A glass jar labeled with the phrase: for coffee.

I put my hands to my mouth to hide my laughter. But a laugh escaped me. And everyone in the cafeteria turned to look at us.

I looked at his tousled hair, that strange grimace on his mouth that ends with little dimples on his cheeks, his strange theories, his patience and optimism that characterizes him. I sighed and remembered that it was because of those details that I fell in love and because of those details that we are still together. I ended up accepting his crazy plan to reduce other things, without touching the girls' education, and we kept the coffee.