I recognize this is a loose fit for this sub. I'm not spending as little as I could be - there's definitely nickles and dimes to be pinched here - but I still wanted to share this since it's a step in the right direction. I know coffee is a crutch for a lot of us, so hopefully my savings will inspire others.
I'm writing this making the following assumptions:
- I buy one coffee a day, sometimes 2 on weekend days - $4.50 each, 4 shots per
- My wife buys a coffee every other day - $4.00 each, 3 shots per
- We both enjoy breves, which is a latte with half-and-half instead of milk
- We buy a machine that automatically grinds whole beans, presses the grounds, and makes espresso (so we don't worry about the expense of disposable cups)
- Half-and-half is available at Costco for $3.50 per half-gallon, and can supplement 35 shots of espresso per carton
- A 1lb bag of high quality coffee beans is $14.00, and can create 50 shots of espresso per bag
So... I'm ashamed to admit it, but my wife and I would easily spend $50-$55 a week on coffees from a coffee stand. I get on average 8, and she gets on average 4.
| Me | Wife | |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly Servings | 8 | 4 |
| Price | $4.50 | $4.00 |
| Cost | $36.00 | $16.00 |
| Total | $52.00 |
The automatic espresso machine we purchased was $900. Yes, I know, that's a crap ton of money for anything, but I did some preliminary calculations to show we should see an ROI at some point. It's the only way I could convince my wife to get it.
The machine we bought doesn't use disposable cups. It takes in whole coffee beans, grinds them for me, presses them for me, and disposes them into a receptacle for me so I can dump them in the trashcan.
Once we got it, I was able to confirm that a 1lb bag of beans would make exactly 50 shots of coffee in it. We also found out a half-gallon of half-and-half would supplement 35 shots of coffee.
If we convert our servings to shots, we can then understand our weekly cost of beans + half-and-half.
| Me | Wife | |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly Servings | 8 | 4 |
| Shots per serving | 4 | 3 |
| Shots | 32 | 12 |
| Total Shots | 44 |
and finally:
| Beans | Half-and-half | |
|---|---|---|
| Shots Per Container | 50 | 35 |
| Containers Used | 0.88 | 1.257 |
| Cost of Container | $14.00 | $3.50 |
| Cost | $12.37 | $4.40 |
| Total | $16.77 |
TL:DR Our weekly cost is reduced from $52.00 to an average of $16.77 (a 67% reduction!). With a weekly savings of $35.23, we will recoup the $900 on our coffee machine in 26 weeks (exactly half a year).
We can even increase our consumption; my wife can have one coffee a day, and I can frequently have 2 per day. Doing so will mean our cost savings only shrinks to 54%, and our ROI is extended to only be 8 months, instead of 6. This isn't even including the savings on gas to go out of our way to our preferred coffee shop.
January 16, 2019 at 11:31AM
