Who loves coffee to start their day? Did you raise your hand like I did? Ok good.
Now the real question is: do you make your own coffee, or do you get it from a coffee shop?
Purchased coffees are a hidden in plain sight cost that adds up quickly and hits our bank account harder than we give it credit for.
Let us examine the costs of ordering coffee from a coffee shop and making your own to start the day.
If you order a coffee every day from one of the major coffee shops, that cost will add up fast.
Look at the chart below:
That means $63 (Dunkin) to $102 (Starbucks) per month, and up to $756 (Dunkin) or $1224 (Starbucks) per year!
Now how does this compare to making coffee at home? Let us look. Now for reference I used a 37 oz Folger’s Medium Roast purchased from Walmart for $10. I typically make a pot of coffee using 5 tablespoons or 2.5 ounces of the coffee grounds and it makes 10 cups of coffee (this is for two people).
The breakdown is $0.27 per ounce which equals $0.68 per pot, or roughly 6.8 cents per cup.
Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks sizes are 14 ounces or 1 ¾ cups for a medium, and 20 ounces or 2 ½ cups for a large.
If you were to make your own coffee and size them out comparable to the major retail coffee shops it would cost $0.12 per Medium and $0.17 per large.
This does not include cream and Sugar but let us add it!
Medium coffees (regular) have equal to 7 packets of sugar and 5 tablespoons of half & half creamer. Large coffees (regular) have equal to 9 packets of sugar and 7 tablespoons of half & half creamer.
If you compare sugar packets to a 10 lb. bag of sugar, making a coffee at home would use 2.5 cents of sugar for a medium and 3.1 cents for a large. A 10 lb. bag of sugar is equal to roughly 1,130 packets of sugar.
Half & Half cream typically costs $3 per quart or 4.6 cents per tablespoon. Using the sizes established, medium coffee creamer would cost $0.23 and a large cost $0.32.
Breakdown of home coffee costs:
Medium Coffee: 0.12 (coffee) + 0.03 (sugar) + 0.23 (cream) = $0.38 Total.
Large Coffee: 0.17 (coffee) + 0.04 (sugar) + 0.32 (cream) = $0.52 Total.
Now of course, if you make a pot, you can have more coffee per day for cheaper.
$0.38 x 7 days equals $2.66 per week! That is roughly the cost of one medium hot coffee! That is $11.52 per month and $138 per year!
What a savings! All you need is a $15-20 coffee maker and you will save so much money!
Get yourself a coffee maker, buy in bulk (much cheaper), and save money over the year!
Now of course if you go without cream and sugar it will be even cheaper!
This is not to say getting a coffee out and about is not worth it because it can be. Just do not overdo it!
What a savings! All you need is a $15-20 coffee maker and you will save so much money!
Get yourself a coffee maker, buy in bulk (much cheaper), and save money over the year!