Nothing grinds my gears (coffee beans?) more than listening to someone explain why they stop at Starbucks everyday for coffee. There is no good explanation for it. $3+ for a cup of coffee every day?!
Stop.
That’s $15 a week (assuming you don’t go on the weekends which I know you do), $60 a month, or $720 a year! How much would it cost to home-brew coffee? Less than 5% of that cost…
Lets break it down:
- A large container (about 28 oz) of brand name coffee costs about $8
- This large container can make about 120 12 oz cups of coffee
- If you drink a cup of coffee every morning during the week, this $8 coffee will last you 24 weeks. just shy of 6 months.
- The cost then comes in at $.33 a week. Or $17.33 for the year.
Yep, the cost to drink Starbucks for one week is about the same cost to home-brew coffee for one year
Now, obviously, the math is not perfect… You have to buy filters now and again, maybe you want higher quality coffee that costs more than $8, maybe you drink 18 oz. of coffee a day…
The point is, no matter how you break it down it costs significantly less to home-brew coffee than to buy it every morning. Here are some of my favorite ways to enjoy delicious, and affordable coffee at home:
Regular drip coffee
You can never go wrong with just brewing some black coffee in a solid coffee machine. It’s simple and healthy, and best of all its economical. Check out this home-brew coffee maker that I utilize. It’s a little on the pricey side, but worth every penny in functionality:
French press
The French Press is a more sophisticated and time-consuming process to make home-brew coffee. Although it is still simple and a high-quality product – just like anything that has the word “French” in front of it (i.e. bread, fries, etc…). Personally, I save the French Press for the weekends when I have more time in the morning. See below for the affordable French Press that I use at home. You can also check here How to Make French Press Coffee in 5 Easy Steps
Pour over
The pour over is a trendy coffee house method of brewing coffee. Essentially, it is a deconstructed coffee machine. You manually pour hot water over coffee grounds that are sitting in a filter as coffee slowly drips into a cup placed below. The manual process of spreading the water evenly over the grounds is supposed to extract a cleaner brew. Consider this economical Pour Over set:
Buy on Amazon.comYou can also mix it up with these recipes:
- Irish – Irish coffee usually consists of hot coffee, Irish whiskey, a little bit of sugar, and cream. It is the sophisticated Vodka Redbull. Want to try it at home? Check out this decadent recipe from The Pioneer Woman.
- Turkish – Authentic Turkish Coffee consists of using a Turkish coffee pot and simmering water, coffee grounds and sugar until the sugar is dissolved and coffee starts to foam towards the top. The unfiltered coffee grounds provide a more intense coffee flavor. If you do not have the goods to make authentic Turkish coffee, try adding cardamon to your coffee during the brewing process. This is a spice that tastes great when added to Turkish coffee and also boasts some additional health benefits. Check out this Turkish Coffee recipe from Fool Proof Living.
Hopefully you have been thoroughly convinced to kill your daily coffee shop habits. It can save you a lot of money and save me a lot of long, rambling rants.
List of the Best Instant Coffees in 2024
A few years ago, I justified the purchase of an astonishingly expensive cappuccino machine by calculating my once and sometimes twice a day Starbucks grande hazelnut latte.
Oh yea, it’s scary how fast those daily coffees can add up!