Find out how to go from paying $5 per coffee to paying less than $1 while still drinking delicious creamy coffee, that's good for the planet and waste free.

Coffee prices have been rising over the last few years. In fact, world coffee prices have increased 25% in the last year, and a whopping 80% from 5 years ago.

 This means that the average cup of coffee bought from a cafe has increased too. Now averaging over $4 per cup nationwide we are looking for alternatives that don't compromise on the coffee experience. When we consider that most Australian coffee drinkers consume more than 1 cup a day of the liquid gold, on average we are spending somewhere $1500-$4000 per person per year on cafe coffees. A couple could be spending $3000-$8000!

 There are many reasons why the cost of coffee has increased, including environmental changes affecting coffee plantations, shipping costs, fuel costs, and inflation and it doesn’t look likely that the price will decrease anytime soon. In fact, even David Parham, president of the Cafe Owners & Baristas Assoc of Australia, has said to expect your average flat white to increase to $7 by the end of the year. That would mean instead of spending almost $1500 per year on coffee at a cafe, we could each be spending over $2600 for just one cup a day!

 This is terrifying news for the 75% of Australians who consume at least one cup of coffee a day. Even without an increase to our current cafe prices, more and more people are looking for alternatives that don’t include missing out on our favourite time(s) of the day.

 So here are our top tips for saving money on your coffees without compromising taste, or damaging the environment – all options are waste free:

1. Use a stove top coffee pot (a moka pot). If you want to reduce your costs, but not give up your favourite time of the day (coffee time!), then drinking coffee made yourself if a much cheaper option. A Stove Top Coffee Pot is cheap to purchase. Our suggestion is to look for sustainably produced coffee, as this will serve two purposes: caring for the environment and promoting coffee production that keeps the prices from rising further. If it says it’s organic coffee, or eco coffee, just check the credentials and you’ll be on a winner. Look for Fairtrade coffee, Organic Coffee or Rainforest Alliance coffee.

Benefits:
Cheap to purchase.
Compact and easy to store.

Challenges:
Coffee not creamy like a cafe coffee.
No milk warming option.

Price $

2. Use a pod machine and reusable pods. This is an excellent and middle cost option. You get a flavour that’s rich and creamier than a percolator, a plunger, or a stove top pot, and you can use more than one pod to get a café-amount of caffeine in your cup. Pod Star make refillable coffee pods for most machine types including Nespresso, Aldi K-fee, Delonghi, Breville, Espressotoria, Caffitaly, and Vertuo Plus. You can choose whichever coffee beans you prefer and even grind fresh beans yourself. Benefits: save money on coffee. Drink rich and creamy coffee. Use as many filled pods as you want to get a cafe strength.

Benefits:
A milk frother is normally included with the pod machine. Small enough to sit on a benchtop permanently.

Challenges:
Some experimenting required.

Price $$

3. Invest in an espresso machine. They are a largish financial outlay, so not always the best first option. There is a little bit of education around how to get the grind right, keep your machine cleaned, and froth milk (if you have a milky coffee), but you can achieve a good quality and tasty cuppa and you can save on your coffees.

Benefits:
Closest tasting coffee to a cafe espresso.
Large shot of coffee.

Challenges:
Large financial outlay.
Some learning and experimenting required.
Large machines, so benchtop space is needed.
Regular cleaning required.

Price $$$$-$$$$$

Each of these 3 options have different financial outlays for the equipment, but once bought, the coffees will cost around the same each.

If a coffee from a cafe holds 18 grams, which is the amount of a single shot espresso, and this costs you $4 at a cafe, it will cost you around $60c to $1.40 for 18 grams using one of the 3 brewing methods above. So if an average coffee cost is $1 when making your own coffee, you will save $3 per coffee, a whopping 75% of the price you were paying at a cafe. For 2 coffees a day, that's savings of $2190 per year!

We all love the taste of freshly roasted and ground coffee, and there are other ways of getting our caffeine fix, with excellent taste, without compromising our wallets.