Doing the Math on Those Lattes
The price of coffee in different shops differs dramatically, but it's probably safe to say that your favorite coffee drinks cost you between $2 and $5. If you're drinking one cup of coffee a day, that's between $14 and $35 every week, just for your daily caffeine fix. In 2012, ABC News reported that the average American spends $1,100 a year on coffee. That's an insane amount! That's like all your textbooks for the year.
Savings on Drinking Coffee at Home
Buying coffee by the bag will save you considerable money. You can get a pound-sized bag of coffee for less than $10 at the grocery store. Starbucks reports that one bag of Starbucks coffee will yield about 320 ounces if you brew it per its instructions. If you drink 20 ounces (a venti) of coffee a day, your bag of coffee will last about 16 days. That's more than two weeks. Spending $10 for two weeks of coffee is an incredible savings. You can even get one of those fancy Starbucks seasonal coffees for $15 and still only average out a dollar a day on your coffee consumption.
Easy Brewing Methods
The two easiest ways to make coffee at home are probably a French press and a pour-over brew cone. Neither of these involves pushing a button or plugging into anything, which saves you electricity. With the French press, you put the ground coffee into the press' chamber and set a timer to let it brew. Afterward, you push the metal filter through the brewed coffee, and voila:coffee. With a cone filter, you just put the plastic cone with a filter in it on top of your mug. Put the grounds in the filter, and slowly pour the water through. Both of these devices are inexpensive to purchase.
Making It Taste Awesome
So, you can brew your coffee at home, but half the reason for going to Starbucks in the first place is to taste all those amazing flavors. Coffee at home seems so boring compared to that! Without investing in your own espresso machine (which is so expensive it defeats the purpose), you can still get your at-home coffee to taste amazing. Do you like that earthy, bold flavor? Dark roasts, like espresso roast, will do the trick. If you love flavored lattes, brew a blonde roast, add a flavored creamer, and top with whipped cream.
You can save at least half your money if you brew coffee at home. That doesn't mean you have to give up Starbucks forever —however, limiting your trips to the cafe will help you afford expensive textbooks and other school supplies.
Image via Flickr by Zach_Woolf.
