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No need to sacrifice -- When pinching pennies, make quality coffee at home
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You indeed save money on coffee by making it at home. Case in point . . .
Sometimes, even the best in-town cafe options are a little too pricey for an everyday treat. But making coffee at home is a solid, often preferable, alternative.
The Wall Street Journal today has a nice piece entitled "Life on Severance: Comfort, Then Crisis," about "unemployed Americans who use severance pay and savings to maintain their lifestyles." It's still an interesting study of how far and fast a fall can be -- especially when hubris, or at the very least rose-colored glasses, blinds these people to the reality that, say, spending $50/week on flowers for your wife is wasteful when you have no income. And then these former captains of industry find they have no money, and frantically step on the brakes.
Except they don't. Case in point:
"Mr. Joegriner's mornings now start with a coffee run to the nearby 7-Eleven six days a week (312 days/year). While pouring his regular brew and a cup to take home to his wife, he calculates that by recycling the cups, he receives a 32-cent discount per $1.37 serving. That's a savings of $3.84 a week, he reckons -- even though this small 'luxury' for the two of them still costs a total of about $655 a year."
$655 a year is a good amount of money to spend on coffee when you have no income. Also consider that these coffee runs are to 7-Eleven (of which there are seven here in town, between Carpenteria and Goleta). Is there an appreciable difference between the likes of 7-Eleven coffee or McDonald's coffee and, say, Maxwell House? Not to the specialty coffee aficionado.
But, to hammer the point further, let's estimate how much making coffee -- good, specialty coffee -- at home, six days a week for two people, would cost.
We'll assume for the sake of argument that Ex-CEO does not have a nearby local roaster to strike a deal with, and that he's paying about $10 per 12 oz. bag. The Specialty Coffee Association of America's general rule is to use 3.75 ounces of coffee per half-gallon (64 oz.) of water, so let's figure each $10 bag yields about 205 ounces of coffee (that's 12 oz/3.75 oz. = 3.2 x 64 oz. = 204.8 oz. brewed).
Assuming oversized coffee cups, the couple consumes 40 oz. of coffee (2 people, 20 oz), 6 days per week for 12,480 oz. per year.
12,480/204.8 = 60.93, or round to 61, being the number of $10, 12. oz. specialty coffee bags the couple must buy.
That's $610 per year -- a $45 per year savings for good coffee.
Add in 6/8 oz. portions of milk or creamer per person (same size as two Land-o-Lakes "Mini-Moos") for two people drinking coffee 312 days/year = 468 ounces of milk consumed in coffee per year. Buying milk by the quart (32 fluid ounces), so it won't spoil, for $1.50 a pop . . . that's about $22 per year.
So the couple is still saving $23/year.
Of course, that formula is a little off on both sides, depending on many variables. There's the one-time investment in an acceptable conical burr grinder that's good enough for a drip grind ($50-ish or more), plus something to make it in (variable), if they don't have such implements already. But then there's the savings, both in time and gas money, of not driving to 7-Eleven almost every day. Or buying coffee in greater bulk for savings on the beans.
Of course, re-running this scenario with Maxwell House yields a savings (based on $15 for a 34.5 oz. can) of about $320 per year. So, 7-Eleven aficionados, if flavor indeed doesn't matter much, you're truly missing out on some free money.
The greater point is that Ex-CEO and his lovely wife, by upgrading to specialty coffee at home, would enjoy a much more fulfilling coffee experience for less money and less time spent running back and forth from a convenience store every day.
And, thereby, have a little more time to look for the next job.
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