27 Insanely Simple Ways to Save Money on Coffee [2022 Edition]

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Did you know that the average person in America spends over $2,000 dollars every year on coffee?! Crazy but not surprising. According to perfectbrew.com’s article here, women spend an average of $2,327 dollars per year and men spend about $1,934 dollars per year. That’s a lot of coffee and a lot of money.

My wife knows all about that. She may not spend $2,327 dollars a year, but she has bought a lot of coffee in her 10+ plus years of drinking it. Because of that, we’ve found all kinds of ways to save money on coffee over the years. And I’ve just given in to the fact that spending money on coffee is inevitable.

So if that’s you, and you’re looking to save a few bucks on coffee this year, this list is for you. Today, we’re going to look at 3 reasons why it’s good to save money on coffee and 27 insanely simple ways to save money on coffee this year. Alright, let’s check it all out!

3 reasons why it’s good to save money on coffee

It’s expensive

Coffee can range from just a couple of bucks to upwards of $10 dollars a cup. And let’s not even talk about fancier coffee shops and what they charge ($15 dollars a cup or more). The Alpha Dominche Extraction Lab in New York, highlighted in this post here on rd.com, charges $18 dollars per cup for high-quality coffee. That price is ridiculous.

More money for other goals

Another reason you need to save money on coffee is this – you’ll have more money overall to put toward your financial goals. So the same amount of coffee and more money in your pocket. Sounds like a win-win to me.

There are lots of ways to save

There are SO MANY ways to save money on coffee. We’ve done almost everything that we could think of. But we needed more ideas. So I made this list as a reference for us and for you. Take advantage of it. These are the 27 absolute best and most simple ways to save money on coffee. Let’s check ‘em out!

27 simple ways to save money on coffee

1. Stop drinking coffee completely

Like I’ve already said, spending money on coffee is inevitable in my house. But that doesn’t mean this can’t be a great way to save money. If coffee is simply a crutch or a caffeine fix, the first option is to simply cut it out completely. That will save you a lot and can break you from your caffeine addiction. While caffeine can be fine in moderation, an addiction to large quantities can be fairly hazardous to your health. So make sure you’re not drinking a ton of it just for the caffeine. If you are, check out this post here on caffeineinformer.com on how to quit caffeine the right way.

Instead of coffee, try drinking green tea or making a decaf coffee at home. Those are relatively inexpensive and can initially save you some money over drinking coffee.

Grab this 100-count of organic green tea bags here on Amazon.

Maxwell House has a good Decaf blend that you can find here on Amazon.

There are hundreds of alternatives to caffeine. Some will cost more, though. I know you came to this post to save money. But if you’re interested in simply breaking the caffeine addiction, you can see a list of different coffee alternatives here on Amazon.

2. make coffee at home

If cutting coffee out isn’t an option for you, then simply start making it at home. Just this easy switch can save you up to $100 or more dollars per month. I know you might love to go out and get coffee, but there are a lot of options for you at home. Even with quality coffee and expensive creamers, you’re still paying less than $1 dollar per cup. And K-cup coffee is usually less than $1-2 dollars per cup.

That’s because making coffee at home is generally pretty cheap. We’ve done this for years to save money. My wife will occasionally splurge but she’s perfected her coffee at home and even prefers it sometimes.

One big reason is because we bought a quality coffee maker. We ended up buying a Keurig single cup coffee maker and we kept that for years. I wish I could tell you how much we’ve saved just using that but it’s hard to know. A conservative estimate would be in the thousands of dollars. That $150 dollar machine worked wonders for years. I ended up just taking it to work and it’s still getting used almost every day!

If you’d like to get a decent single cup coffee maker, you can find the Keurig K-Elite coffee maker here on Amazon. This is pretty similar to what we had and it was awesome.

Realistically, I’d like to think that you can get your coffee at home for as cheap as .15 to .20 cents per cup. That’s really our goal overall. But even if you buy K-cups, you can still get your coffee for less than $1 dollar per cup if you buy them in bulk. Here’s a bulk buy of Green Mountain K-cups on Amazon for about .50 cents per cup.

For my wife’s favorite coffee, check out this bag of Green Mountain light roast coffee here on Amazon.

For more on how to make .20 cent iced coffee, check out this video here from finance YouTuber Graham Stephan.

3. Drink black coffee or only use a little bit of cream/sugar

Next up, another great way to save money on your coffee. Instead of filling your cup full of expensive creamers and tons of sugar, try springing for a cup of black coffee. If you’re just drinking it for the caffeine fix, it may not matter what it tastes like. And black coffee can help you save money since it’s just about the cheapest way to drink coffee.

I mean, sugar is usually pretty inexpensive but creamer costs are insane. On top of that, most coffee creamer is pretty dang unhealthy with a lot of sugar and other ingredients to boot. Also, some people can’t have dairy and alternative creamers are usually way more expensive.

But if you’d like to have cheap creamer, here’s what you do…

4. DIY creamers

DIY creamers can be healthier AND more cost-effective when trying to trim down your coffee budget. So if you use creamer, it might be time to make your own! Because the healthiest store-bought creamers out there are usually the most expensive.

So skip the store and make your own. You only need a few simple ingredients and you can save a good amount of money on creamer. Here’s a great article on biggerbolderbaking.com that’s shows you how to make homemade coffee creamer in 3 different flavors (including pumpkin spice)!

5. Make just enough

The next tip is to make just enough coffee for your single cup or cups you’re drinking that day. Most people do this anyway, but still something good to remember.

If you have a Keurig single-cup coffee maker, you probably make just enough for your one cup. So good on you. And a lot of coffee makers these days will brew just a cup. I’m good with that.

But if you’re the person who makes an entire pot of coffee, just make enough for what you’re going to drink that day. Try not to just waste, because anything you throw away is literally wasted money being poured down the drain. Brew just enough for your day, or a single cup if you can. You can also grab that Keurig K-Elite coffee maker that I talked about in tip #2!

6. Grind your own beans

I’ve heard this tip so many times, it was one of the very first things I typed out when starting this post. It’s insanely common because whole beans are cheaper than ground coffee. It’s also a fresher brew once you grind up the coffee beans.

I gotta’ admit…we need to start doing this. But this will require you to get something to grind your coffee beans. Good thing that electric coffee bean grinders are super cheap as well!

If you’d like to grind up your coffee beans, get a fresh brew, and save more money on coffee, get this electric coffee grinder here on Amazon.

7. Grind your beans (Again)

For an even fresher brew, try grinding your beans a second time. The more beans are ground up, the better quality brew you’re going to get out of your coffee. Just because you’ve made the grounds even more fine.

Here’s a guide on javapresse.com on how to brew better coffee by adjusting your coffee grind size.

8. Coffee prep

This next tip is similar to meal prepping with food. If you’re familiar with meal prepping, it’s basically making a large quantity of food and preparing it, or “prepping it,” for a few days worth of meals.

That’s the same idea with this tip. Simply make a large amount of coffee for the week and store it in the fridge. A lot of people do this for cold brew coffee. There’s a special way to make that, which you can see here in this post from simplyrecipes.com, so that you can have delicious coffee straight from the fridge to your cup every day.

You’re also making this large amount so that you don’t have the urge to go out and buy coffee. You’ll have coffee waiting for you, ready to be poured over ice or heated up to go.

9. Coffee leftovers

For anything that’s left over, try your best not to waste. Find ways to either drink that coffee or turn it into something else. Remember, any leftovers that get dumped is a waste of money.

Here are a couple of things that you can do with your leftover made coffee.

Leftover coffee:

Coffee ice cream
Use it in a marinade
Coffee cake
Tiramisu
Brownies
Wood stain
Coffee ice cubes!

Check out this post here from thekitchn.com and this post here from spoonuniversity.com to see more ways to use leftover coffee!

10. Shop around

Next, make sure you shop around for your coffee. If you love a certain brand, go to a couple of different stores to see what they charge for it. You can also keep a page written down with how much each brand of coffee is worth at each store. This can help you find the cheapest, but best quality coffee for your coffee budget.

11. Buy clearance deals on beans/grounds

My wife always tries to find clearance deals whenever she goes to Food Lion or Walmart. This is one of the most simple things you can do to save money. Most coffees these days are fairly good quality, so try out a couple of brands and then be on the lookout whenever you go to the grocery store for coffee. A bag of coffee is usually around $6-9 dollars and can be even cheaper when on closeout!

12. Online coffee clubs and memberships

Online coffee subscriptions are a great way to try out many new types and brands of coffee. This might be on the higher end of your coffee budget, but you can try out different subscriptions for really good prices on your initial order. There are 20+ great coffee subscriptions online that all offer an initial discount. Take advantage of one and then another and then another. No reason you couldn’t try them ALL and save some money, too.

13. Free coffee deals

One thing to look out for when trying to lower your coffee budget is free coffee deals at places like Sheetz, Kangaroo gas stations, McDonald’s, and other places that you can buy coffee at.

These places are always offering some kind of deal or offer extremely cheap refills if you buy a reusable cup. Take advantage of these deals!

14. skip the expensive coffee places altogether

If you’re just trying to get some caffeine to wake you up, or you’re desperately trying to save money on coffee, I highly recommend that you skip the expensive coffee places altogether. These places, like Starbucks and other local places, offer good quality coffee drinks, but they’re often VERY expensive.

Try taking these places out of your routine and making these drinks yourself. You’re going to save a bunch of money.

15. Make specialty drinks at home

Did I mention that you could make these drinks from home? Yep, this is what my wife does all the time. After wanting to save money on coffee and specialty coffee drinks for awhile, we decided to buy a specialty coffee maker. It makes regular coffee and a bunch of great specialty coffee drinks. What did we buy? It’s the Keurig K-Cafe coffee maker.

All you need is this machine, some coffee, and a few other ingredients that you can buy from your local grocery store to make great specialty coffee drinks. We got a great deal on ours for around $150. And in just a few short months, we’ve easily saved 2-3 times that not going to an expensive coffee place. So getting a specialty coffee maker is insanely worth it.

You can find the Keurig K-Cafe here on Amazon.

16. Sign up for email lists

A lot of coffee shops in my area, Starbucks included, offer a free drink up front, on your birthday, and various discounts throughout the year by simply joining their email list. Local coffee places are doing this, too. So take advantage of email list discounts and freebies as often as possible.

17. Sign up for rewards programs

These places also usually offer rewards programs that give you discounts and a free coffee after you purchase a couple of drinks or spend a certain amount of money. It might not be the best way to get a freebie, but if you’re going to spend the money anyway, why not get some points toward your next free drink?!

18. Coffee apps

I didn’t really know too much about coffee apps before I wrote this post. But some thorough research has given me a pretty good understanding of them. The gist? They all help you make better coffee. Most of them aren’t going to save you much, but they can help you make it better and learn more about coffee in general. Here’s a post that gives a run down of the top 5 coffee apps on the market right now.

19. Cash instead of credit

We all know that people who use cash generally spend less than those who use credit. Why? Because it hurts us psychologically to part with cash compared to just swiping a card. See this article here on uky.edu about “the pain of paying” with cash.

But it’s more than just that. According to shiftprocessing.com’s post here, people spend 83% more when using a credit card. So pay cash and you’ll definitely spend less on your coffee next time.

20. Budget your coffee spending

The best course of action to take when trimming down your coffee spending is to simply budget your coffee expenses. We’ll get to how much to give yourself in the next tip, but I want you to at least budget how much you’ve spent this month so that you can start to be aware of how much you’re spending on coffee. You should really do this with all of your expenses, but for the sake of this post, at least add up everything you’ve spent on coffee this month.

I think you’ll be surprised with how much you’re spending overall and maybe start to try and spend less next month. It’s important to know exactly how much you’re spending so that you can trim this budget as much as possible.

21. Give yourself a limit for the month

Once you get a firm handle on how much you’re spending every month on coffee, you can start to set limits on how much coffee you’re allowed to spend every week or every month. Once you know how much you spend, $100 dollars per month for example, I’d highly encourage you cut that in half for a month. It might be tough, but I’ll bet that you can do this. If you don’t want to rip the band-aid off like that, try trimming it back by $10-20 dollars of 1 less coffee a month. But this will take longer to trim your budget down. So the best way is to cut back as deep as you can and go from there.

In our budget, my wife usually sets this at $40-50 dollars per month and then occasionally has no-spend months where she tries to go completely without spending anything more than a bag or two to make at home for the month. This works very well for us and means we’re spending no more than $400-500 dollars per year on coffee. So what’s your limit?

22. Only get coffee out once a week

Here’s another common thing that my wife likes to do when trying to cut back on her coffee spending: she limits herself to only 1 coffee out per week. This is a good way to cut back on coffee expenses AND still be able to buy coffee every week. This is basically a “reward” for doing so well during the week. Simply make your coffee at home from Monday to Friday and order out at the end of the week as the reward. Simple and very cost-effective.

23. Simple orders

However, if you do order out more frequently, these next couple tips can help you spend less money.

The first tip is to make your orders simple. Stop ordering extra syrups, different milks, different sauces, whipped cream, and extra espresso shots. All of those “extras” are costing you extra money and jacking your coffee budget way up. Not good if you’re trying to spend less on your coffee every month. So keep your orders as simple as possible.

24. Small size

Another great way to save some money on coffee is to start ordering a small size whenever you order out. It may not seem like much, but it could be the difference in a couple dollars every single time you order coffee.

Simply order the small size whenever you go out. You don’t need that much coffee anyway.

25. Happy hour

Want to order out more, but still save money on coffee? Find a place that offers “Happy Hour.” Happy hour is a set of hours that a food or beverage business offers with cheaper or half price items. If you can find a local coffee shop with happy hour, you can easily save some money in your coffee budget.

26. Consider compound interest!

If you’ve read any of my other posts on this site, you’ll know that I’m a serious finance nerd. So I’m always thinking about compound interest.

If you don’t know what compound interest is, here’s a quick rundown – it’s when your money earns interest and then your money and interest earns interest. Sounds complex but here’s a quick example: if you have $1 dollar invested and you earn 10% percent interest, you’ll earn .10 cents interest and you’ll have $1.10 cents. The next year, if you earn 10% percent interest on your money, you’ll earn .11 cents on your money. So you earn interest and your interest just earned interest. Simple.

Now think about every time you order coffee. Think about that $6-7 dollar order. If you took that $6 dollars every day and invested it, here’s how much you would have:

$6 dollars per day for a month is $180 dollars. $180 per year is $2,160 dollars. If you invested $2,160 dollars from age 20 to age 60, you’d have over a million dollars. So how do you like that coffee now? My wife would look at me with a smirk and say, “I love it.”

27. Upcycle and reuse your coffee grounds

The last tip on this list is to upcycle and reuse all of your spent coffee grounds. I know most of us just simply throw them out after every use. We normally do. But if you’re really trying to make the most of your coffee, try using those old coffee grounds for other things like:

Repelling pests
Homemade coffee candles
Enriching your compost bin or garden
Deodorizing everything
And so much more

To read more about this, check out javapresse.com’s article on this here.

Finally

So there it is. The complete 27 tip list of ways to save money in your coffee budget. Hopefully, you’ve gained some insight into how to save a few dollars when making coffee at home, finding discounts on coffee, and ordering coffee out at your local coffee spot. You might still want to buy coffee, but at least now you can save a few bucks while you do it. If not, buy a decent coffee maker, buy some grounds, and make your coffee at home. That’s how you save a ton of cash on coffee.