HOUSTON (CW39) Want to save money? Drink less coffee or cut out coffee altogether. At least don’t drink coffee before you shop. A new study reveals it makes you spend more.

Researchers offered 300 people a free drink while they shopped.  Each person got a cup, and could choose between coffee, decaf, or water.  About half of them chose coffee.  And by the end, the coffee-drinkers had spent 50% more money, and bought 30% more stuff.

They think it’s because caffeine makes us more energetic, and more impulsive.  And this seems to back that up:  The people who drank coffee tended to buy far more “non-essential” items that they didn’t really need.  In other words, impulse purchases.