It's the economic end times, so obviously I'm thinking about my takeaway coffee | Emma Brockes

The true scale of what's happening is hard to grasp, so our irrational brains reach for measly acts of self-denial

Most of us, confronted with daily forecasts of recession and economic downturn, have an emotional response that expresses itself in a range of behaviours. Big purchases may be deferred or cancelled. Travel plans are revisited. We might review our childcare spend and wonder if we should go out less - all rational decisions in the face of the rising cost of living. Then there are the irrational gestures, those that have little meaning financially but offer us, via small acts of self-denial, an opportunity to feel we're doing something morally rigorous. It's these, in my case, that have lately been triggered.

For me, the barometer has always been coffee, a small but ineradicable source of guilt that has only grown as the price of a single flat white creeps up towards 4. Forgoing this small pleasure neither damages my day, nor, on the other hand, does anything significant towards improving my finances. Assuming a one-coffee-a-week spend, the choice to wait until I get home to make coffee will save me about 200 a year. And yet, each time I pass Caffe Nero and keep walking, I'm so proud of myself you would think I'd donated a kidney.

Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist