How To Save A Fortune - With Coffee

[Michael S Brown]

One way to save quite a bit of money is to steer clear of buying coffee out on a regular basis. I'm not saying that once in a while you can't splurge and get a cup but what I do to save quite a bit of money is make my own coffee.

Plus, it's better

Let me give you an example. If you were to drink a large cup of coffee out at say Starbucks 5 days per week. Let's say this cup of coffee costs you $1.80 and you're just drinking a regular cup of coffee and not the expensive drinks.

1.80*260 = $468

Now let's say you rather drink a premium coffee at home instead. Let's say it's $3.85 for an 8 oz. bag. That's a little more expensive than most regular store bought brands.

There are appox: 30 cups of coffee in an 8 oz bag if you drink it strong. Obviously, if you drink it weaker than this you'll get more out of it. Let's assume you are drinking 2 cups per day to get your fill in. That means a typical bag will last you 3 weeks on the avg.

This mean essentially it would cost you about $67 per year.

Obviously in larger coffee drinking households this amount would go up and assuming that you don't make a pot each time and let most of it go to waste.

This is a significant savings over a 10 year period. $670 compared to $4680.

Again, scale both numbers up to meet your family and consumption needs. Also scale the price up or down depending on what you typically buy. If you typically buy a $3 cup of coffee, scale it up. If you typically buy a cheaper coffee for home use scale the price accordingly.

If you use cream and filters add those into the price too. It's still going to be much cheaper.

Most people buy brands like Folgers, which is much cheaper per once than he example I used above.

Coffee shops make a fortune off of us and coffee isn't expensive if you're brewing your own.

Try an experiment here. Over the next 30 days do your normal routine. If you typically drink coffee out add up how much you spend. Then over an additional 30 days only drink coffee at home and see how much you save.

[shaggy]

I know so many people who have Keurig or Nespresso machines at home. cost per cup is more than $1.00!

[Baby_nurse]

I have a Keurig, but I have the reusable cup for it. I make just the number of cups I need and don't waste anything.

[rob62521]

I have been brewing and taking my own coffee for years...saving money...same idea as taking your lunch instead if eating out.

[MoneyTips4U]

For many people, the convenience of a quick drink or meal outweighs the perceived cost. Many people would be surprised at how much they could save if they cut down on the "convenience" splurges.

[Blessed]

We very rarely ever buy coffee out. On the rare occasion we do it is at a local place that has all coffee drinks under $2.

We found we were wasting too much so we switched to one of the mini coffee pots. I quit drinking it and now dh is is only making 1/2 of that mini pot for himself.

We used a Keurig while we were on vacation in the hotel and thought it was really neat. However once we calculated how much coffee goes into even the refillable cup for 1 cup we realized it is more coffee than we use to make the mini pot. neither of us likes super strong coffee. When we used the Keurig we ran water through the grounds again and combined the full strength and 1/2 strength to get the strength of coffee we liked.

[disneysteve]

I know so many people who have Keurig or Nespresso machines at home. cost per cup is more than $1.00!

I don't know about Nespresso but my wife has a Keurig. That certainly doesn't cost over $1/cup. It is in the 50-60 cent range.

[~bs]

I used to drink dollar cups of coffee on a daily basis. Then I switched to my employer's coffee fund at $1.50 a month. Then I stopped drinking it altogether cold turkey back in january. I know other people say they get all sorts of crazy withdrawal symptoms, but I haven't had problems even though I pretty much drank coffee daily for the past 15 years maybe? Back when I used to drink coffee, I was up to 4 cups a day, every day. I simply decided to stop becasuee I was getting insomnia problems at night.

Cheapest way to save a fortune with coffee is to simply switch to water.

[gipi]

Coffee remains one of the few things I've refused to give up. Unfortunately, I have to drink organic, or at least Starbucks type. Getting it whole bean at a natural foods store on sale for half price and then grinding it with their machine very fine on the espresso setting (not Turkish because it clogs the filter and overflows the coffeemaker) allows you to use less grounds to make the same strength cup of coffee.

[thesimplemoneyblog]

Yeah, I couldn't imagine giving up coffee. I very rarely have coffee other than at home or the company provided coffee at work. I do enjoy Starbuck's occasionally, but that's maybe once every four to six months. I've wanted to get a Keurig, but we typically drink a lot of coffee on the weekends, so it would be a meaningful increase in our coffee budget to get a Keurig.

We buy premium coffee at Marshall's for cheap, and we reuse grounds the next day (and simply add a little extra) too to maximize all grounds! Probably sounds a little crazy, but it works for us!

[~bs]

keurigs are ok. You can get single self serves for $0.40 - 0.60 online. I think taste wise, the're so-so. I've tried most of them before, I believe. I think starbucks coffee is horrible. They mask how ****ty the coffee is with all that cream, fat, and sugar. The starbucks single serves aren't too bad though. Tastewise, fast food coffees (mcdonalds, burger king, etc etc) and 7-11 (gas station conveniece stores) coffees tend to be pretty good. Most 10% hawaiian kona coffees are good, but really pricey. If you want 100% hawaiian coffee, you're looking at $30-$40 for a 1 lb bag.

They make these reusable plastic kcup holders that you can pack yourself. So if you want the convenience of a single serve, but don't want to pay for it, you can pack your own cups, maybe 6 in advance and seal it in a bag to try and keep it fresh? Going to be way cheaper than buying single serves because you're using preground or coffee that you ground yourself. Drawback is those things are kind of a pain to clean.

[EarlyRetirementJoy]

I gave up buying a daily iced coffee ($1.85) at Starbucks when I retired, recognizing it was simply what I did to break away from the stress of my job for just a few minutes each day. I swore for the first year, though, that there was no way I could give up my weekly $11.95 purchase of a pound of Starbucks coffee. Until my grocery spend dropped to $75 because I became much more efficient at shopping and preparing meals overall. That $11.95 then began to represent a significant portion of my weekly spend, bumping my $75 to $87, which slowly became downright annoying.

So, I started sampling other blends, and eventually discovered that Trader Joe's Dark French Roast tasted excellent, right on par with Starbucks. At $4.99 for 13 oz (an annoyingly odd yield amount, I will admit), it represented roughly a 50% cost savings. Battle won, coffee war over.

My DH makes one extra pot a week for me to store in the fridge, which I then enjoy as iced coffee each afternoon. Cost to make one 12 oz cup of iced coffee on my own somewhere around 20 cents vs. $1.85 to buy same 'out.'

[annibe11e]

I spent $4 on mochas every day for a long time! I quit smoking and, every day I went without a cigarette, I treated myself to a mocha. I am a firm believer that you should do whatever it takes to quit. The problem arose when I fell off the wagon and started smoking again. I kept getting the mochas AND buying a pack of smokes a day! I was spending close to $250 a month on these two habits. Dont ask me where the money came from. I have no idea.

I quit smoking again a year ago yesterday and I only have mochas on weekends. Now, where is all that money I'm saving?

[gogirlanime]

The best way to save money on coffee is to not be picky about brand, I use a lot of coupons and buy from Winco/Walmart only. My morning coffee is about $0.05-$0.15 a cup. Same with creamer, buy them with coupons and sales. Also, buy sugar in bulk at discount stores.

[cardtrick]

The best way to save money on coffee is to not drink it at all! I got into the habit for a little bit because the gf is a coffee addict. Then one day, I decided to quit. Had a slight headache for about 2 days and that's it. Now I don't even occassionally drink it. I swapped it out for green tea!