5 Easy Ways to Save Money on Coffee

Coffee is life. I can’t function without a cup of coffee in the morning. It’s not even the caffeine that does it for me. It’s the comforting ritual of brewing it and drinking it.

But coffee can be expensive. Especially if you drink it EVERY DAY. Here are 5 easy ways to save money on coffee.

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1. Make the coffee yourself

I know, I know. Everyone knows that Starbucks is expensive. But you know what? Even McDonald’s coffee and the coffee you get at the gas station is wasting money compared to making it yourself at home.

Even if you pay $1.00 for a cup of coffee at a gas station on your way to work or school drop off, it’s still twice as much as you’d spend on a k-cup.

I only drink one cup of coffee in the morning. (Shocking, right? Considering how tired I am.)

So a Keurig is my jam because I just need one cup at a time.

If you drink 4 or more cups (like my BFF), it makes more sense for you to brew a whole pot.

It’s all about that cost per cup. It’s definitely cheaper per cup if you use a traditional coffee maker versus k-cups.

But if you’re just going to waste half of the pot of coffee, it makes more sense to use k-cups.

2. Keep your coffee hotter longer

How much coffee do you waste because you let it sit too long and it got cold?

Yeah, you can microwave, it but it’s not the same! 

I’ve dumped many cold cups of coffee only to make a new cup. You can save money on coffee just by not throwing out cold coffee.

So you have two options to keep your coffee hot: an insulated coffee cup or a coffee mug warmer. I have both!

(But I don’t use them both at the same time. That wouldn’t work. lol)

This is the best insulated coffee cup that I’ve found. It’s auto sealing so you can throw it in your purse and not worry about it spilling.

And you can set it down without worrying that your toddler is going to knock it over and burn herself on it. She can pick it up and shake it and nothing will come out.

You push the button down to open it while you drink. When you let go, it seals it. Sometimes it takes me 4 hours to drink one cup of coffee.

This cup keeps it hot for longer than that.

If you’re more about that mug life, one of the best things that ever happened to my office is this coffee mug warmer.

It fits any regular size coffee mug. You just plug it in and switch it on.

One downside to the mug warmer is that you have to remember to turn it off, and it is hot so you don’t want to use it within reach of little hands.

But it’s absolutely perfect for your desk at work or home.

3. Buy store brand coffee and fixings

Be honest, can you really taste the difference between Starbucks breakfast blend and store brand breakfast blend? No. Not really.

So why would you pay $10.98 for 16 Starbucks K-cups when you can get 24 K-cups of Walmart’s brand for $8.94?

Buying store brand also goes for your coffee fixings like sugar, sweetener, cream, caramel sauce, whipped cream, or whatever you put in your coffee.

I like just a little bit of cream and a whole lot of Splenda.

It doesn’t have to be actual Splenda, though. Any store brand yellow sweetener packet is fine.

(DON’T YOU DARE COME AT ME WITH THE PINK ONES.)

My husband tells me I don’t actually like coffee. I like Splenda water. I was using 8 packets per cup but I’ve weaned myself down to 6.

Cutting down on how much cream and sugar you use can save you some money, too!

I always buy store brand unless there’s a coupon that makes a name brand cheaper.

I’ve learned a lot about coupons and budget grocery shopping from Slash Your Grocery Bill. It’s a great book that will teach you how to save the most money (even if you don’t want to use coupons.)

And no it’s not some super expensive course. It’s cheaper than 16 Starbucks K-Cups!

4. Buy coffee in bulk

Buying in bulk reduces the cost per cup and helps to save money on coffee. So if you have a blend you REALLY like, get a bunch of it! I stick with breakfast blend or house blend. Then you can add flavored creamer to it to change it up. I’ve accidentally ordered a blend that was too dark once. Yuck. Medium or light roast only for me.

You can buy in bulk at any of those bulk stores like Sam’s Club or Costco. Or you can order from Amazon and have it show up to your door automatically every month.

You can also buy your sweetener in bulk. Just ask my mom. She uses more Splenda than I do. I think she has her own Splenda farm. lol

5. Stop buying regular K-Cups

If you have a Keurig like me, you probably started to notice that your K-Cups are costing anywhere from 50 cents to 80 cents per cup. That’s a lot when you think about it.

You can really save money on coffee if you stop buying K-Cups.

And just think about all of the K-Cups in landfills. That’s a lot of plastic! They do make biodegradable K-Cups for some brands but they’re still more expensive than just buying ground coffee. 

But you still want to use your Keruig, right?

Well, there are now reusable K-Cup filters that you just fill with any ground coffee and wash out to reuse. I have a pack of four, and that’s all I need. 

Buying ground coffee is a lot cheaper per cup than buying K-Cups. The cost of K-cups per cup can be up to 5 times as much as ground coffee.

You can make 62 cups of coffee with one 12oz bag of ground coffee. This 12oz bag of Dunkin Donuts coffee is less than $7.

Or you can buy 64 K-Cups of the same coffee for $50.

Pretty much a no-brainer when you look at it like that. I wish I would’ve figured that out sooner. I’m so glad I have reusable filters now. 

How do you save money on coffee?

Let me know in the comments below how you save money on coffee. I’m always looking for new tricks to save on the lifeblood that is coffee. lol

And you can check out the best dark roast coffee here.

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