I was curious if I having a home machine means I blew $1600 on coffee gear, or if it actually saves me money long term. And after getting a plunger and learning how to use it, I never buy coffee now.
Lets see.
Depending where you live you can get a decent large for 2.5 (Guilias cnr of Abercrombie and Meagher in Sydney, its actually pretty OK), 3, 3.5 or 4 (Tobys) dollars. I will discount Tobys since they are really expensive.
If you are not a weekend coffee drinker and have 2 large a day, 5 days a week:
$25 - $35 per week on coffee.
250 grams of beans costs $8 (Di Bartoli - sweet maria is still my favourite espresso blend), $11.50 (Tobys - good for a few of the less common beans). For my dosage, I would get at least 14 double shots assuming minimal wastage. So $5.70 - $8.20 for beans per week.
So well save between $16.80 - $29.30 a week.
Ive spent about $1600 in coffee gear so far.
So worst case senario: 95 weeks (1.8 years) before the machine to pays for itself. And how many places have $2.50 large coffees anymore? (Yay Guilias! the food is pretty good too!)
Best case: 54 weeks.
So about a year and a half on average. For a 2 large coffees a day (but not on weekends) drinker.
Ive had my machine about a year now. And I drink maybe 3 cups a day. Sometimes more. I have never bought more than 3 cups a day. An even then there is at least one small coffee. But I have still bought coffee from where ever over the year and sometimes I have several decafs at home to practise my free pouring. So I am probably behind. But overall, Im doing pretty well. After 2 years, itll be sweet.
Things to consider:
- does having a machine at home increase the number of coffees you drink? (Yes)
- does it make sense to say that drinking more coffee means you save more if the machine is the cause of your problem? (If you drink good coffee, you will at any rate, eventually come out ahead.)
- is this just an attempt to justify my expense? (I was a former archery gear junkie)
Lets see.
Depending where you live you can get a decent large for 2.5 (Guilias cnr of Abercrombie and Meagher in Sydney, its actually pretty OK), 3, 3.5 or 4 (Tobys) dollars. I will discount Tobys since they are really expensive.
If you are not a weekend coffee drinker and have 2 large a day, 5 days a week:
$25 - $35 per week on coffee.
250 grams of beans costs $8 (Di Bartoli - sweet maria is still my favourite espresso blend), $11.50 (Tobys - good for a few of the less common beans). For my dosage, I would get at least 14 double shots assuming minimal wastage. So $5.70 - $8.20 for beans per week.
So well save between $16.80 - $29.30 a week.
Ive spent about $1600 in coffee gear so far.
So worst case senario: 95 weeks (1.8 years) before the machine to pays for itself. And how many places have $2.50 large coffees anymore? (Yay Guilias! the food is pretty good too!)
Best case: 54 weeks.
So about a year and a half on average. For a 2 large coffees a day (but not on weekends) drinker.
Ive had my machine about a year now. And I drink maybe 3 cups a day. Sometimes more. I have never bought more than 3 cups a day. An even then there is at least one small coffee. But I have still bought coffee from where ever over the year and sometimes I have several decafs at home to practise my free pouring. So I am probably behind. But overall, Im doing pretty well. After 2 years, itll be sweet.
Things to consider:
- does having a machine at home increase the number of coffees you drink? (Yes)
- does it make sense to say that drinking more coffee means you save more if the machine is the cause of your problem? (If you drink good coffee, you will at any rate, eventually come out ahead.)
- is this just an attempt to justify my expense? (I was a former archery gear junkie)
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