Your coffee habit is a mortgage payment

This isn’t clickbait and you read that right - if you aren’t making coffee at home, you’re likely spending a mortgage payment on your caffeine habit and I have the math to back me up. In an effort to find silver linings to the 2020 pandemic, I realized that I was saving big money on my daily coffee - and that you could, too.

Descent into coffee addiction

This section is dedicated to making me sound like a coffee addict (as if that was hard to do) so that you have no excuses to not change your own coffee habits, but feel free to skip ahead to the math if you want to get right into it.

I started drinking coffee at the ripe old age of 5 - I was quite the little adult, sipping on my tiny play-sized Peter Rabbit cup. By college I was drinking 10 cups a day to stay awake through 21 hours of an overloaded credit schedule and a part time job. To kick the habit, break up with the tremors, and save money on Keurig pods, I removed my coffee maker from my apartment and made up my mind to only buy coffee when I was out. I thought, at the time, that this was brilliant - I couldn’t afford coffee out as a college student, so I’d naturally find self-control and it would become a small treat on the weekend. Unfortunately, it led to me buying a Starbucks Grande vanilla latte on campus 1-2 times throughout the days when I had class and driving to get a coffee in the morning on the weekends. Oops.

*Throwback to a time when I was given samples of all the Christmas drinks because they were out of the only one I ordered*

As I interned and later transitioned to my first full-time job, I began to become more financially aware. I tried to only buy coffee once a day on the weekdays, but still often ended up splurging on the weekends when a headache would strike. If I was good and skipped a day of coffee-buying on the weekdays, I usually still met my average of a cup per day by treating myself and a friend to coffee on the weekend.

Fast forward to over a year later and I had started my new job in uptown Charlotte, I still didn’t own a coffeemaker, it wasn’t a perk offered on the job, and the closest place to get coffee was a market shop on the first floor. During this time I’d spend a total of $3.49 per day on coffee. I would buy a coffee on my way up the tower in the morning for $2.25 and hold onto the cup so that at lunch I could buy another coffee at the refill rate of $1.24. The taste didn’t compare to Starbucks and the twice a day schedule plus Starbucks on the weekend was still landing me in the same price range as one Starbucks per day. I knew that I wasn’t being smart and my bad decisions weighed on me, but it seemed like only something as unrealistic and improbable as a world-wide pandemic could make me change my ways.

Buying a coffee machine

When a world-wide pandemic struck Charlotte two weeks after starting my new job, I transitioned to an indefinite period of work from home. Unable to go to the coffee shop on the first floor of my office building and caring more about my finances in an uncertain job market, I invested in a coffee machine (cost analysis below).

I bought the Ninja Specialty Coffee Maker when it was on sale for $149.99. It has 6 different size settings – one cup, extra large cup, travel cup, multi-serve cup (what?), half batch, and full batch, as well as settings for “Classic”, “Rich” and “Over Ice”. It also came with a frother on the side for making lattes and a lifetime filter so that I wouldn’t need to buy paper filters (environmentally friendly plus saving money, double win). I still love this purchase seven months later.

Grocery store cost check

To breakdown the cost of my coffee, I first needed to go to the grocery store and double check the prices.

Peet’s Coffee:

I only buy my favorite brand of coffee when it’s on sale – if it isn’t on sale, I take it as an opportunity to sample another similarly sale-priced brand. I tend to buy 3-4 bags at a time when the sale hits so I can stock up since I know I will use it eventually.

10.5oz
$11.29 total price (normal)
$6.99 total price (on sale)
$1.075 per oz (normal)
$0.665 per oz (on sale)

Harris Teeter brand coffee filter, size small for 1-4 cups:

While I don’t use a coffee filter most mornings, I thought it’d be good to include the cost of one in case you plan on using a filter and want to estimate your own costs at home:

200 filters
$1.29 total price
$0.006 per filter

Not even a cent per filter!

Coffee mate (hazelnut)

Finally, the part that I have tried and failed to live without, creamer. I have been drinking Coffee mate hazelnut creamer since high school and don’t plan on switching it out anytime soon. Even though it’s my go-to, I do still sample other flavors on occasion - let me know in the comments section what you use!

32oz
$3.59 total price
$0.112 per oz

You can get an even bigger (read: cheaper per ounce) bottle, but I didn’t happen to see it when I went to the store. Honestly, though, this is the size I usually buy since I’m the only coffee drinker in the house so it’s perfect for calculating the actual cost of my at-home coffee.

How I make my coffee & the cost breakdown

Making my coffee is pretty simple. I use the spoon my coffee machine came with, which I figure is equivalent to a tablespoon, and drop two spoonfuls into the lifetime filter. I set it to the single-cup setting, classic, and it’s brewing! I then pour in two tablespoons of creamer & stir. That’s it!

And for the record, the two tablespoons of creamer isn’t for financial reasons - it’s because it puts my calorie count at 70 calories per cup, or 140 calories per day for two cups of coffee. Any more than that feels like a waste!

My simple coffee:

Filter:
- None - $0
Coffee:
- 2 TBSP = approximately 1oz = $0.665
Creamer:
- 2 TBSP = approximately 1oz = $0.112

Total for one cup: $0.665 + $0.112 = $0.777

Total for 1 coffee ($0.777) per day at home (365 days) = $283.605 per year

Total for 1 latte ($4.72) per day from Starbucks (365 days) = $1,722.80 per year

Now I know what a lot of you are thinking - “That’s a lot of money - but I don’t drink Starbucks every day”. That might be true, but do you make coffee at home on those days you skip Starbucks? Do you ever go twice in one day? Do you ever order a chocolate croissant, protein box, or a cake pop on the side? Do you ever pay for a friend’s coffee or snack? Do you ever get sucked into buying one of their travel cups while standing in line even though you have plenty at home? Over time, if you’re going to Starbucks regularly, I’m sure the total cost of your coffee habit averages out to one Starbucks per day - if not more.

The other thought might be “Who’s drinking only one cup of coffee per day at home? I drink more than that!”. This is definitely true for me. I drink two cups per day, one in the morning when I start my work day and another at lunch. So, to be completely accurate on savings, let’s add that up:

Two cups of coffee per day = $0.777 * 2 = $1.554

Total for 2 cups of coffee at home per day for 1 year ($1.554 * 365 days) = $567.21 per year

What is all that savings worth?

This may not be Graham Stephan’s 20 cent iced coffee, but it’s a far cry from $4.72/day, $143.57/month, and $1,722.80/year - which is more than my mortgage (principal, interest, insurance, and property tax) plus HOA fee combined.

$1,722.80 - $567.21 = $1,155.59 savings per year

To dig even deeper, the $149.99 coffee machine has essentially paid for itself in approximately one and a half months of savings; the rest is profit and that’s why I called it an investment.

              $4.72 previous daily coffee spending - $1.554 new daily coffee spending = $3.166 savings per day

$149.99/ $3.166 = 47.375 days to pay off my coffee machine

Even more savings

By now I hope you’re impressed and are wondering how to save even more money. Here are some quick tips to drive that cost down:

Buy everything on sale & stock up if it won’t go bad
Buy the size that is cheapest per ounce
Make your coffee in bigger batches and drink it iced over time
If you’re going to use a filter, use the short ones meant for 1-4 cups instead of the tall ones which are almost double the price
- Even better - invest in a machine with a “lifetime” filter. The only cost is an extra minute of your time rinsing it after use
Experiment with other cheaper brands when you can’t get your first choice on sale
- You never know when you’ll find a new taste you love, but a word of caution… I once bought two of the cheapest store-brand coffees in this situation and I couldn’t even stand the smell of it in the morning. I ended up throwing both away - lesson learned: only buy one in a small to medium package if you’re experimenting!

I debated including these two final tips - they aren’t for the faint of heart, but they’re the truth:

Limit your coffee intake
- 6 cups of coffee the way I prepare it would cost the same as one Starbucks per day!
Go sugar or creamer free
- This option is hard but better for your wallet and your health! Doing this would bring the cost down from $0.777 to $0.665, adding up over time depending on how many cups per day you drink