Venti Latte at home

Always the coffee lover, I was interested last year in finding out how much I was spending on coffee. I would drop by Starbucks almost every day and order a venti latte and drive off merrily to work. I didn't do it every day simply because I knew it was an added expense, and yet the coffee smell drew me in more often than not. Don't get me wrong, I drank coffee absolutely every morning, but regular old fashioned drip coffee from my coffee maker at home was not the same somehow.

So I did the rough math. I estimated that if I was to buy a venti latte every day as a most desperately desired, at about $4.00 a serving (20 ounces of dark rosted heaved with warm frothy milk), I was spending $1,460 a year. And those numbers are averaged to account for price differences by location, as well as tax differences. Also, that was just for my consumption when dear hubby was just as bad an offender if not worse.

Then I though of all the waste of those paper cups and cardboard heat sleeves. OK, so you can take your mug a refill it, but how many people actually do that?

I took another stab at math, and I estimated a latte, the same size, made at home would cost me about $1.00. This is accounting for a $3.19 gallon of milk (that's for me in the Bay Area), at 16 cups each, which would be roughly $0.20 a cup. Then a pound of my favorite coffee at $12.95 each, with 45 servings is about $0.29 a serving. Double both up since ventis need 2 shots of espresso and 2 cups of milk. I didn't go as far as estimating electricity, but the numbers seamed compelling enough for me.

I researched espresso machines, and was shocked to find machines in the thousands. Not for me though. So I went to the other extreme and bought one with nice reviews for less than $50. It made pretty good espresso, but it clogged up a few times, and then it broke down all together in less than 2 weeks. Lesson learned!! 

I researched further and found one for just under $150 with tons of good reviews. The Breville Cafe Modena Espresso Machine has been making wonderfully robusts coffee for me for almost a year now and I have no complaints complaints. 

Estimating 365 servings a year x $1.00 for the venti sized latte + $150 for the machine, I have already saved about $945 for the first year and just for my coffee and not hubby's. Not bad at all.

I did make a few additional expenses along the way.

I had a coffee mug before, but apparently it was a size Grande (16 oz) and I was already used to that extra little bit. So I bought the one you see in the first picture on this post for about $16 a year ago at my local Starbucks.

I also bought the items you see below

A coffee canister for $20, an espresso glass carafe for another $12, a metal milk frothing jug for $15, and the Braun Coffee Grinder you see here was a gift from several years back, but I found it again on Amazon for $69 in case you are interested. 

So, all and all I think the small additional expenses gave me a So Perf! feeling of accomplishment, being green, and saving green, while still getting my coffee fix every single day.

Are you thinking of spending some cash to save some cash on your coffee fix?

Rossana G-A

FTC Disclaimer: I am not compensated to write this post.