If you add up all the money you spend on coffee, you might surprise yourself. That £3 coffee on each day of the working week can quickly add up! In 2018, Brits spent over £10billion in coffee shops.
There’s a reason why coffee is so popular. As a nation, we love it. On average, each person consumes more than one cup of coffee per day. That’s an incredible volume of coffee being drunk just in the UK. In certain locations, coffee from chain coffee shops is relatively expensive. Some US studies have claimed that the average markup on coffee is around 800%. Surely there are some ways in which you can save some money on your coffee habit.
We share some top tips on saving money on your daily habit, without foregoing great quality coffee.
Invest in an Insulated Mug to Take With You
If you’re the sort of person who can’t live without your morning coffee, and you tend to grab a cup on the way to work, then you might be surprised how much you save by buying an insulated mug and preparing your own coffee in the mornings. Insulated mug technology is surprisingly great. Some mugs can keep your coffee warm for hours.
You can also use some of the money you save to invest in some more fun coffee sets and varieties of coffee to try when you start to get bored or crave some variation. Making your own coffee means you don’t have to rely on whatever blend your local coffee shop has been using for years.
Make Your Own
This ties in closely with the insulated mug tip, but making your own coffee as opposed to buying from a coffee shop really can save you a lot of money. You don’t have to compromise on the quality when making your own. Nobody is suggesting you start to sacrifice delicious drinks to go for supermarket own-brand instant coffee.
You can buy coffee equipment, including bean-to-cup machines, that make the process simple. There’s an initial outlay, but you will usually still save in the long run. You can also experiment with different coffee sets offering single-origin coffees.
Buy in Bigger Quantities
This isn’t rocket science. The same rule applies to most products that are available commercially, if you buy in bigger quantities, you tend to save money. Coffee beans or ground coffee follow the same rule.
As long as you know you have adequate storage and will use the coffee in the coming weeks then there is no reason not to buy larger quantities. We’re not talking about dozens of kilograms of coffee, but enough to keep you going for weeks at a time is a good method to save a bit of money.
For this method, it is best to buy beans and then grind them freshly yourself. This means a fresher taste.
Buy Batch-Brewed Coffee
When you go into a coffee shop, a batch-brewed cup of coffee, usually just referred to as “filter coffee” is often half the price of barista-style coffee.
This is the type of coffee that usually sits in a batch brewer and just needs to be poured when you drink it. In some chains, it can be bought for 99p a cup.
Frankly, this variety of coffee is underrated. If you like styles such as Americano coffee then the taste is only subtly different.
Get Better at Avoiding the Extras
If you really can’t avoid the coffee shop, you can at least avoid all of those baked goodies staring at you from the counter. One way that it is easy to overspend in coffee shops is to spend money there on food. You might be buying a £2 croissant that would cost 20 pence from the supermarket! Get better at being resilient, and not getting sucked in by those tempting treats.
Become Your Own Barista
If you love a cappuccino or a mocha, you might think that you have to give up barista-style drinks in order to save some cash. These tend to be costly in comparison.
However, there are many ways you can still enjoy barista-style drinks and save some money. A good method is to purchase a bean-to-cup coffee machine or even a pod coffee machine. The technology driving these has come a long way. Getting a barista coffee might be even simpler and easier than brewing your own in a cafetiere.
If you’re not the only coffee drinker in your home, or you are looking to get a new coffee machine for your workplace, it can make even more sense to stump up the initial investment to get a great coffee machine.
Conclusion
Your coffee spend is probably broken up into lots of little chunks of £2-4 here and there. It can be easy to fail to notice just how much you are actually spending on your habit. Fortunately, coffee itself works out very affordable per cup, especially if you make a conscious effort to save money.
