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
- 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.
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.
Submitted January 15, 2019 at 06:53PM by MrMusAddict http://bit.ly/2AMpLwW
