For many of us, coffee is as much of a basic necessity as food, sleep or shelter. That being said, we spend a sizeable portion of our total budget each month on coffee if you really think about it. It’s also something that once you start purchasing, you’re likely to continue for life, so it’s worth looking at some different ways to save money on coffee with various approaches:
Take Advantage of Deals
I’ve started to focus on never paying full price for anything coffee related. Where there’s a will there’s a way. I have a single cup brewer (K-cups) and rather than buying boxes of K-cups in the store, I’ve found that by joining a coffee club I found online where I commit to monthly purchases at a certain level, I get my coffee delivered for free and at a 15 percent discount from what I’d pay in stores. Additionally, Amazon often undercuts the competition. And lastly, there’s always the discount gift card option you can find at various online outlets as well.
Buy In Bulk
Since coffee usually lasts pretty long when sealed, if you can get a deal on buying in larger quantities, take advantage of it just like any other grocery purchase. Sometimes, it means a larger bag or can, or other times it may be a special at the local grocer to get a discount on a purchase of two or more.
Make Your Own Premium Coffees
I see an especially large opportunity for the premium coffees that go for a few pounds a piece like a Café Mocha for instance at a typical Starbucks. What you’re paying for there is primarily the overhead, some milk and the fact that very few people have the equipment or ingredients at home. If this type of drink is something you’re buying daily, why not invest in a home machine yourself to make it up? While it’s more expensive than a typical coffee pot you may already own, when you run the numbers on an upfront investment of perhaps a couple hundred pounds versus spending several hundred pounds per year on Café Mochas, the benefit is clear! Of course, the alternative is to just reduce your purchases altogether, but that’s not something everyone’s willing to do.
Experimental Suggestions
I can’t say I’ve tried this myself, but there are a lot of people who actually reuse their coffee grounds. After they brew a pot of coffee, they dry out their leftovers in the sun or over a heating vent and then they use them over again. Presumably, it gets diluted somewhat after the initial brewing, so you might need double the grounds the next time to get the same effect, but if that were effective, you’ve still cut your monthly bill on coffee quite a bit.
