Let me just put it out there. I love coffee. For many years, I had a daily ritual of stopping at Starbucks and ordering a tall soy Caffe Mocha. Then one day, I thought, if I can just drink their brewed coffee, I’d be able to save almost $2 per day. Somehow, spending $1.79 on a cup of brewed coffee seemed so much more justifiable because it’s only just a few dollars.

I think that faulty thought of saying “it’s just a few dollars” is what separates the savers from the non-savers. Let’s face it - it’s so much easier to spend every dollar earned then to exercise self control and save. Even worse, there are those tempting credit cards that just scream “buy it NOW!” from your wallet.

1 cup of coffee per day at $1.95 (including tax) at 250 cups per year adds up to almost $500 per year. It may not seem like a lot of money but over 10 years at 4% rate of return, that’s approximately $6,000. You can calculate the cost of your coffee addiction here.

Now I brew my own coffee every morning. I have a ceramic mug that I re-use. Here’s the cost:

Filters from Costco - 700 count ($2.79 - is that a good deal or what?) = $0.004 per cup

Coffee - sometimes, I will buy fancy Hawaiian coffee. Other times, I’ll buy Dunkin Donuts or Star Bucks coffee. Let’s just assume average of $10 per bag that lasts 2 months = $0.24 per cup.

Cost of brewing your own coffee per year = $60 vs. Starbucks $500!

For me, it was worth the extra $440 in my pocket to give up the joys of those white Starbucks cups and the sleeves.

What are some of the ways you’ve found to save a few dollars?

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