Discuss how to save money.
If you don't care about the taste of your coffee, just buy caffeine pills on Amazon. $8 and you get 200 pills of 200mg each, about as much as a strong coffee.
If you enjoy coffee, it's not the item to save money on. €280 per year is not anything to get excited about. 280 a month or per quarter, maybe
I don't drink it for the caffeine content. If there was a caffeine-free option that tasted and cost the same, I could just as well go with that.
This is what I use to do before I quit caffeine. Way easier than making coffee in the morning or drinking soda.
Here's a joke that might give some insight:
So there I was waiting at the traffic lights in my VW, smoking a cigarette. A non-smoker pulled up in a Toyota and asked me how many I smoked, and I said 20 a day. He asked me when I'd started and I said 20 years ago. He told me that if I'd never smoked, I'd have saved enough money to buy a Ferrari. I asked him where his Ferrari was.
"Ferraris are a terrible return on investment" he said, as the light turned green and he sped away in his 93 Corolla.
Secondly, it’s actually not bad. It does have that faint “cheap coffee” taste, but after a few cups I barely notice it anymore.
College students frequently buy decent beer for the first drink, then loads of cheap horrible beer for consumption afterwards during that same sitting.
If you're drinking multiple cups of coffee, maybe buy both the good and the bad simply limit your consumption of the good stuff to one cup a day giving yourself a pass to drink as much of the cheap stuff afterward as you want.
How are you buying/making your coffee? I switched from good quality instant to good quality beans and halved the price per month and got much better coffee in the process.
I did need a grinder and an espresso machine which consumed the first years savings, but after that it was all crema and savings.
I'd like to point out that you do not need to buy an espresso machine to enjoy good coffee. An Aeropress, a Chemex, a french press, a v60 pourover, or even a drip machine, with burr grinder can produce amazing coffee...
I have an AeroPress for camping, love it but it’s more of a faf than I like, I really don’t like single use filters if I can help it, and so far the stainless mesh filter has not produced any good coffee so I’m back on the paper.
One thing I did consider is energy use, I still have to boil a kettle, with enough water to not have limescale in the pour-off (hard-water area) I wonder how much power this would use in comparison to my Espresso machine.
Have to say an AeroPress is not so cheap here at ~£35 compared to my ~£70 basic espresso machine.
but you do need an espresso maker to make espresso, which still tastes better than the coffee pour overs or drip machines can produce 😅
but you can also buy a bare-bones, manual press-lever espresso maker for much cheaper - it's smaller, easier to maintain, has no electronic parts
espresso, which still tastes better than the coffee pour overs or drip machines can produce
Ah, there's the bias. Espresso is just concentrated coffee made with pressurized water, it's not a different level in quality. You can make bad espresso just like you can make amazing Aeropress, french press, pourover, and yes: drip coffee. You're perfectly allowed to prefer that style of coffee, but even the experts agree: it's not automatically better than other types.
oh, of course - sorry, I don't mean to imply there is no such thing as bad espresso, or no such thing as good french press coffee, or that all bad espresso is better than all good french press, etc.
but I will say that each method has its particular benefits and downsides
no other method creates the crema and concentrated flavor espresso makes
but neither espresso nor french press are particularly stable, so if you want coffee that doesn't quickly become bitter (e.g. when you make coffee in an office and want to be able to drink a few cups over a few hours), making a pot of drip coffee makes more sense, because drip coffee is more stable and has fewer free-floating coffee grounds that continue to leach astringent chemicals.
So, you're right - it's entirely a matter of taste, purpose, and context - not everyone even enjoys good espresso.
But I personally still think it doesn't get better than the way espresso tastes so rich and creamy - it does feel like the highest / best form of coffee to me.
For those thinking about it, I picked up a second hand Rancilio Silvia (model 2 I think) for like $150 (more now, people have cottoned on) like 12 years ago and they are real BIFL. The frame eventually rusted (should have painted) so I replaced it with stainless last year, you can still get all the parts from the manufacturer, there's even fan made temperature / pressure add-ons or better pumps if you want. So worth it.
that's awesome! I didn't make espresso for the longest time because I didn't want a big, expensive machine that had too many bells and whistles.
What I ended up going with was a brand new Flair manual lever espresso maker, which incidentally also only costs $150, and I've made excellent espresso with it so far.
I have a drip machine and I buy pre-ground beans. I have a grinder too but don't find grinding my own being any cheaper. It does usually improve the taste though.
In that case you are probably making it the cheapest possible way (excluding some catering grade freeze-dried coffee sold in bin bags) pre-ground is often cheaper than beans due to shipping cost, I take the ~10% increase cost, because I think I can make a self-grind taste at least 10% better. :)
Well, I do have a Moccamaster, which is a pretty decent brewer, but I'm not exactly a coffee snob. I just want a hot, coffee-tasting drink that's not awful.
If it was just a bit cheaper, I wouldn't even consider switching - but the price difference is almost five-fold.
What are you saving for? Set some financial goal such that once you reach it you'll switch back.
I think 280€ is a huge saving. I think of saving holistically, rather than each individual item. If you make similar savings on three other annual expenses, that's 1120€ more in your savings account earning 50€ p.a.
If your 1.28€ coffee is costing you 50€ a year, coffee is now FREE for the rest of your life! When we were saving to quit our jobs, this is how we motivated ourselves; with a list of expenses and we got to cross them off one by one as they were covered.
Not only are you saving more money now, you'll actually need less money to maintain your lifestyle. Every $1 saved in a recurring expense is more like $2 saved in that way.
Don't always go for the cheapest item though - shop around! The homebrand Lidl coffee is my choice in Europe, but it's not as good as the homebrand Aldi coffee in Australia... but the Woolworths one tastes like bong water. If I lived in one place rather than travelling though, I'd get a moka pot and use beans rather than instant.
...is the tradeoff worth it?
This question is impossible to answer, I believe, considering the utterly subjective origin of the question.
I am sorry, but it feels more like you are trying to outsource the responsibility for a decision only you should make. If so, that may not end well, since in the end, everyone has their own priorities in their own environments and requirements.
I have my own thoughts on the matter, but I'm curious to hear what others think. Not looking for the ground truth here - just thinking out loud.
the ground truth
Appropriate.
As an avid coffee drinker I recently (in the past 2-3 years) started spending more money on coffee. I'm no snob or chasing that perfect cup, but I quite enjoy my coffee.
I don't regret it. Yes, I could break down how much money I'm losing by that switch but what isn't as easy to measure is the enjoyment of my coffee. Sitting in the morning relaxing with a few cups is important to me. Is it the coffee? No. But its one part of something that is immeasurable.
I vote for this guy for president.
I'm all for being frugal, but not when it comes to matters of taste, usually.
My wife and I like to do blind taste tests.
Like, yeah, the offbrand worschester sauce is a couple bucks cheaper, but in a side by side comparison, the name brand has way more flavor.
In a twist, our local offbrand instant pudding is noticeably better than jello brand.
We don't buy offbrand broth anymore, it tastes like water when compared side by side with name brand.
I could go on and on, but you get the point.
When it's reasonable, we get the better tasting thing, but it has to be a blind test. No bias. That doesn't mean I'm gonna get the ultra fancy broth that costs 3 times as much though. It has to be comparable.
So in our case, coffee is something we both enjoy, and we don't drink THAT much, so we splurge on boutique beans from a local roaster. Costs a few dollars more per pound than the regular beans. Probably significantly more than something like Folgers, but I haven't priced that in a long time.
Edit: That being said, I do know what community I'm in. We meal prep and do leftovers all week. Diy overnight oats because it's cheap and healthy. Other simple quick meals involving possessed precooked frozen items because it's cheap enough and super easy, for certain times. Etc etc. It's just... Sometimes you want tasty things, and it matters. Being frugal is important to us, but so it's enjoying life.
So it's a choice you have to make I guess.
Bad coffee is never worth it.
now do the math on poopin at work. its enlightening
I had a roll of toilet paper last >6 months by doing this 😊
Why not both? Sure you won't save as much, but sometimes it's nice to have good coffee as a treat.
Or try mixing in ~10% of the good stuff with the cheap to see if it helps mask the cheap taste
Spend on what you value, not on what you can afford. Only you can decide what you value.
If you want to test, drink the cheaper coffee until you've decided you value the other enough to drink it.
So many folks try to reason this kind of decision out, when trying both options is easy enough.
At that point, why not just switch to caffeine pills? It will be cheaper and skips all the costs of heating the water.
If you want to save money with your drug habit, that's a more sensible way to do it than paying more than that for terrible coffee.
I have a friend who got hooked on those instant coffee packets, you just stir it into water. He prefers the way it tastes now to regular coffee. That also might be cheaper than your current option?
I don't consume caffeine on a daily basis (maybe once a week, at most), so I can't comment on this, really. Coffee is only something I do occasionally for pleasure, and I usually roast my own beans and make the best coffee I can at home when I'm having coffee. I haven't run the numbers on how cheap green beans are relative to buying pre-roasted coffee. I'm so spoiled that even if green beans were more expensive, I would still prefer to roast and have fresh coffee.
You might also be able to hit up a local food pantry, dumpster diving or Buy Nothing group and get tea or coffee for free - that is cheaper than all these other options (at least in terms of money, no guarantees on time).
Even cheaper to kick the caffeine addiction entirely and just drink water.
It will suck for a few weeks to a month as you go through withdrawal, but after that, you won't miss it. And in the long run, you'll end up feeling better for longer.
This myth is so pervasive... I don't drink coffee because I'm "addicted". And why is that same accusation not levelled at people who drink multiple energy drinks/sodas a day!? I enjoy coffee, and I've gotten really good at making excellent coffee. But I can also go months without it. The caffeine it contains is pretty much irrelevant.
Your position is valid. My question is: is your situation the norm?
My wife drinks a coffee a day most days, but not every day. I'd say she just enjoys the coffee, because she'll stop for days or weeks at a time without caffeine issues.
My mom, on the other hand, is super addicted caffeine. She doesn't care for coffee, but drinks pop. And when she tries to quit because of the sugar, she switches to coffee or tea to get the caffeine so she doesn't get the anxiety and headaches.
She's tried and failed many times to kick the habit, despite it affecting her health greatly. She's addicted.
Me? I had a coffee pot in my bedroom when I was 12. I drank mountain dew by the case. Never affected me.
These days, I haven't had a significant amount of caffeine in over 20 years. But I still love coffee, so I have an espresso machine and grind my own beans etc. It's just decaf 🤷♂️
If I have a half caff coffee, I'll feel wired all day and won't sleep that night, and the difficulty sometimes stretches into the next night.
I think most people are addicted. They don't realize how reliant they are on it, just because they don't "feel it" doesn't mean their bodies aren't affected by it. Given time, your body will adjust.
But also, some people are more/less sensitive to caffeine naturally, so... Who knows.
It's definitely not black and white though.
Do you guys have Aldis in your country?
…it's getting rarer and rarer to find ways to pocket savings of this level anymore.
Point of diminishing returns. If your enjoyment of the coffee ritual takes a larger hit than the dollars you’re saving, it’s not worth it.
The cure shouldn’t be worse than the disease, as they say.
You can't really reduce enjoyment to a quantity, making comparison difficult to pin down in any precise way.
But that's OK - I find there are still indicators you can look at, e.g. for a while I tried living only with cold showers, and I started to struggle to feel like getting out of bed in the morning. I realized my mood couldn't handle the removal of hot showers from my life, at least not at that point in my life.
What's the two euro stuff like?
Not great - not terrible.
It's objectively worse tasting by a noticeable margin, but the difference isn't just in overall quality - it's probably the beans and roast too.