Saving Money on Coffee

I have been reading around the web and coffee is such a large, fancy expense for many people. So many different ways to make it and so many different ways we like it. I have quite a bit of experience with coffee and a few years ago I set out to lower our coffee bill. My husband and I spent over $300 a year on good coffee and the supplies. Far too much money for an avowed frugalite.

Here is what I did:

1. Lower the cost of coffee but not the quality. We drink good coffee. No Maxwell House for us! If it comes in a can, I don’t want it. Instead I found a great coffee company that offers great deals. They are not top quality but they are good. Community Coffee is a house hold name in Louisiana. Right not I get 20 ounces of ground coffee for $5 a pound and free shipping with a 10 lbs order (or I did last time I ordered). Everything is vacuum packed so it will keep in your pantry.
2. One way to save money on the coffee is to reuse the grounds. What I have done in the past is to add ½ as many grounds into the filter and brew more coffee. This also saves on filters since you reuse the filters. My husband swore he could tell the difference and told me not to do that for his coffee but, well, let’s just say I was a bit sneaky with this one!
3. Filters – buy them at a warehouse club. I get 300 cone shaped filters for $6. Or you can buy regular filters and fold them into cone shape for even less. Get 1000, or something huge like that, at the warehouse club (big ones are the #4 sized cone filter) and fold them. Or, I just read something about buying a men’s tube sock and using it only as a filter. I don’t know how to do this exactly. Or buy a reusable (non-sock) filter.
4. Stuff to put in the coffee can be avoided by drinking it black. I love regular half and half in the coffee so I buy it at the warehouse club saving about $ .30 to $ .50 a quart.
5. Coffee makers can be bought for a few dollars at garage sales. I see them all the time. Be sure to ask if you can test them out by brewing a cup of hot water. If you ever see a coffee maker that is a duplicate of the one you have, buy it! How many times did I break the pot and then find out it was over $20 to replace just the pot??? If you have the space buy it and store it for when the coffee maker dies or you break the pot.

Two years ago I found out that I have acid reflux and now I drink tea almost every day. At 2 cents a tea bag, this saved quite a bit of money. But I love and miss coffee. I hope you can enjoy your coffee and save some money.