If you’re like many of us working stiffs, you need a strong jolt of coffee each morning to get you through the morning commute and the first part of your day. Unfortunately, far too many people are spending way too much money by stopping off at gourmet coffee shops when they could brew coffee that tastes just as good – for a fraction of the cost.
This is another one of those “small daily purchases” that doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, but if you were to step back at the end of the year and realize how much money you could have saved, you would probably decide to do things a little bit differently.
For the sake of comparison, I went to both Starbucks and 7-11 to find out how much each place charges for a 12 oz cup of regular coffee. Not surprisingly, Starbucks was more expensive, charging $1.50, while 7-11 charges “only” $1.09.
How much would it cost you to brew your own coffee in your own kitchen? Here comes some math, so stay with me:
A 39 oz can of Folgers coffee costs about $10, and each can makes about 120 12 oz servings (according to the label). That means each 12 oz cup of coffee should cost you about $.08 in coffee. If you want to throw in the cost for coffee filters, water, the coffee machine, etc., each cup should cost you roughly $.10 to make.
That’s a $1.40 difference from what you’d be paying at Starbucks and a $.99 difference from what you’d be paying at 7-11.
I know that doesn’t seem like much when you look at these items as one time purchases, but if you look at these items as daily purchases over the course of a year, the money really adds up.
For example, if you bought coffee 300 days per year (we’ll say 250 working days and every Saturday), you would be spending $450 per year on Starbucks and roughly $325 per year on 7-11 coffee. If you just brewed the coffee yourself, you’d spend about $30.
That’s a savings of about $420 per year over Starbucks and about $300 per year on “less premium” coffee. If your vice is one of the higher priced specialty drinks (usually between $2.50 and $3.00 for a 12 oz cup), you could be looking at a savings of well over $800 per year!
No matter what you drink, the potential savings add up to a lot of money.