If, like me, you avoid adding up how much you spend on coffee, now would be a good time to look away. What do you think is cheaper – making your own espresso coffees with a machine or buying coffee from chains?
If a regular coffee from a chain costs about £2.20, that’s £572 a year if you buy one on the way to work everyday. Oh dear.
So, is it worth shelling out on a coffee machine? You can get one of the best for £320, but there are lots around the £100 to £150 mark and the cheapest machine we’ve given our coveted Best Buy to is currently just £57.
Many of these take capsules and a quick search online shows that ten capsules are currently £7.27 or 73p a cup – or around £190 a year. So, if you bought a £120 machine rather than buying your coffee from chains, you’d save about £260 in the first year and £380 in every year after that.
If I wanted to save even more money, I could do what Anna Norman suggested in her Conversation last month and go back to good old-fashioned filter coffee making and bring out the cafetière and kettle.
But can I wean myself off coffee shops?
I know they’re not to everyone’s taste, but coffee chains must be doing something right. They’re everywhere and it doesn’t look like their cardboard-cupped coffees are going anywhere soon. And that’s not for want of trying – a small town is Devon has gone as far as starting a petition in a bid to stop Costa arriving on its high street.
Still, although I’m very much attached to my Woolworths (yes really!) cafetière, I’m not budging on the subject of coffee shops. I will continue to use them for the foreseeable future as I just like their coffee and the convenience.
Though even I will admit that buying so many take-away coffees feels like mad extravagance. And as Mike Whitaker said on our last Convo:
‘Could they implement a “two adjectives or less” queue for those of us who just want, you know… coffee?’
What do you reckon? If you’re a fan of espresso-based coffees, do you prefer to make your own using a coffee machine or are you a slave to the chains?
How do you like your coffee?
Home made by me or someone else (all types eg. filter and instant) (54%, 588 Votes)
Made by a coffee machine (28%, 311 Votes)
Bought from a coffee shop (chain or independent) (18%, 200 Votes)
Total Voters: 1,039
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