Reading Time: 4 minutes How to Save Money by Making Your Coffee at Home
This is a collaborative post about saving money.
Who doesn’t love coffee? If you work at home, you’re especially prone to its caffeine boosts and perks. A good cup of coffee will not only give you that spark you need to plow through the work, but it also reacts with your brain in a way that makes you happier, more alive, more ready to face any challenge no matter how large, that can come your way. Coffee is our friend. But if you’re buying your prepared coffee outside the house at the Starbucks or even the McDonalds, you can be racking up a hefty bill by the end of the month. Those who seek to save money while indulging in the rich, dark roast might be better off making their own brew right from out of their very own kitchen.
What’s one of the main essential ingredients of coffee? Not coffee beans, but crystal clear, soft water. If you’re planning on making café quality coffee at home to save on money, you should definitely look into a soft water service such as a Kenmore water softener which will guarantee that no hard deposits and minerals such as calcium, manganese, iron, and more are hardening your H20. When combined with the right type of coffee beans or pods from your favorite coffeemaker, you will make a spectacular cup of Joe and save money doing it.
According to Bustle.com, there are ways to help save money on the coffee habit before it gets out of control. At base, buying coffee day in and day out can get very expensive. It might not seem like the seemingly innocent act of buying a cup of coffee is akin to going on a spending spree. But when you add up the math, you can easily spend close to $1,500 per year by just purchasing a $4 cup of coffee. That $1,500 alone would likely pay for the cost of a soft water system which could lead to the best homemade coffee of your life.
That said, here are some ways to save money on your coffee habit.
Go with Cash Over Credit
Your parents have been telling you this one since you were teenagers, but it doesn’t take a world economist to tell you that paying cash on the barrelhead, be it for coffee or a car, will save you way more money than charging it. Says U.S. News, when you have tangible money in hand and feel it depleting, you are less likely to keep using it. But when you are swiping a card, you feel nothing. If you’re insistent about buying your coffee outside the home, at least use cash.
Homebrew Your Coffee
The best way to save money on coffee is to simply brew your own at home. Buying coffee at the chain coffee shops can run you up to $30 per week, and that doesn’t include other things you might buy at the shop like overpriced sandwiches, bagels, and muffins. But for the same money, you can make coffee at home for a month. Very good coffee made with the best water, that is, you have a water filtration system installed in your home.
Be More Aware of What You Are Spending
Bustle.com states that just the habit of drinking coffee day in and day out becomes such an everyday, mundane experience, that people end up not realizing just how much that single cup of coffee costs. The authors of Bustle asked more than 15 people how much the coffee they were drinking cost, and most had not a clue. The costs add up over time and can run into the thousands if left unchecked. Just imagine if you made your coffee at home and invested the savings into Gold, Bitcoin, or stocks.
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Drink Something Other than Coffee
While this might sound like absolute sacrilege to some, you don’t always have to drink coffee in order to get stimulated. You can engage in rigorous exercise, indulge in super healthy foods, stay hydrated with clean filtered water, or even just getting some sun are natural ways of boosting the body’s natural energy reserves without having to pay Starbucks prices. Okay, you insist on drinking coffee, no matter what? Then plan on making it at home if you wish to save significant cash.
Buy Whole Bean Coffee
It might seem like a time-saving gesture to purchase over-the-counter ground coffee, but it can actually be a waste of money in the end, since pre-ground coffee doesn’t stay nearly as fresh as whole beans. The experts will tell you that ground coffee only stays fresh for a few days. That’s why it tastes great for the first few days, but then gradually becomes more bitter with each brew. If you’re buying pre-ground coffee just to save a few minutes, you are tossing your money away.
It seems everyone loves their coffee, especially if they are working at home on their own business. But if you’re addicted to getting your caffeine kick from one of the expensive chain coffee shops, chances are you spending thousands of dollars needlessly per year—thousands that can be better spent on sound investments. Get used to making your best brew at home. It will save you precious cash and you will still be perfectly caffeinated.
Rachel is an Austin blogger, educator, mom, wife, young breast cancer survivor writing about health, saving money, and living a happy life in Austin, Texas.
Rachel has written for HuffPost and Hometalk and has been featured on KXAN, Studio 512, Fox 7 Austin, and CBS Austin.