As long as people keep writing and Twittering about how expensive Starbucks is and how it’s terrible that their closest coffee shop is disappearing and generally writing about Starbucks at all, I’ll keep telling people to buy a cheap grinder, a cheap French press (I have a portable one and love it, and this looks promising), and some local coffee like Intelligentsia or Metropolis ($10-$12).
One of my favorite blogs, Lifehacker, has a wonderful guide to brewing your own coffee; a couple people in comments suggest the AeroPress, which I haven’t tried.
If you fear that you’ll miss your double-something-or-other latte whatever, you may just be masking the taste of subpar Starbucks coffee. There’s really no substitute for good black coffee. Try the coffee at Flo on Chicago Avenue, it’s the best I’ve ever had.