Save 50% on Coffee: Get Half Price Coffee All the Time!

Get Half Price Coffee Every Day!

Wouldn't it be great if you could get coffee for half price all the time?  I figured out a way to do just that.

No, the solution does not involve making your coffee at home- I do this already.  It is something else, and it is pretty obvious, really.

How to Get Coffee for Half Price
Image Source: Dr. Penny Pincher

This morning, I opened my drawer where I keep my coffee beans this morning to reload my grinder.  I always grind whole beans just before brewing my coffee.  I had an open bag which had more than enough to fill the grinder, and I also noticed I still had a full bag in the drawer as well.

Loading the Grinder with Whole Coffee Beans
Image Source: Dr. Penny Pincher

I wondered, "Why do I have so many coffee beans left?"  My wife picks up coffee beans for me at the grocery store.  I like to have the freshest possible beans, so I don't keep extra bags around.  But I have an extra bag with a pound of coffee beans today.  Why?

I Had Extra Coffee Beans In My Drawer- Why?
Image Source: Dr. Penny Pincher

I was drinking two 16 oz cups of coffee every morning.  I would brew a pot and pour two travel mugs to take with me in the car on work days, or I would drink the pot at home on weekends and holidays.

One time on a business trip when I was away from my coffee-making equipment, I realized that it was not practical to drink that much coffee every day.  I can make coffee myself for about 60 cents per 16 oz serving.  At a coffee shop, it costs over $2 per cup, which adds up to over $4 to meet my daily coffee needs.  Drinking a lot of coffee causes issues beyond the cost- it takes a long time to drink that much coffee, and it drives the need for frequent restroom breaks in the morning.

I decided to cut back to one 16 oz cup of coffee per day.  As I learned on the business trip, cutting coffee too fast can cause headaches!  Over a two week period, I gradually reduced my coffee consumption from two cups per day down to one cup per day.  At first, it seemed like I was missing something by only having one cup of coffee in the morning, but I quickly got used to it and it has become the new normal.

Is it obvious how to save 50% on coffee?  Drink half as much!  At first, this may sound like the punch line of a joke, but this is a reliable way to save 50% on coffee all the time.  My extra bag of coffee beans in the drawer reminded me that I am saving money on coffee beans, which is by far the biggest factor in the cost of making coffee.

If you are curious, here is an article I wrote that goes into a lot of detail on the cost to make coffee.

Get Other Things for 50% Off!

This concept of saving 50% by consuming half as much works on other things besides coffee.  Want to reduce your fast food bill by 50%?  Go out to fast food places half as much!

There are many areas of you budget where this concept will not work well- most people could not cut their utility bill of gasoline bill by 50% because they are already pretty efficient in these cost categories.  But some expenses have a lot of room to cut, and cutting an expense by half is a good goal.  A 50% reduction is significant enough to motivate you to put in some effort to achieve, and half is a simple amount that is easy to track when you have reached 50% savings.

What expenses could you cut by half just by consuming less?

Penny Pincher Journal

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