Big savings and Coffee; The Espresso machine Investment
My Espresso Machine: Total beginning investment approx. $300
Let’s be real for a long time I was the millennial money cliche on needing that morning latte to go through the day. I desperately attempted to drink drip coffee instead of getting espresso but it never made me feel awake enough or satisfied. I CRAVED my espresso. Although broke I would rummage looking for enough change to buy a coffee. I blame my parents haha they owned an espresso stand for a couple years when I was in elementary. They drank quad shot espressos daily and my mom still does. I would sneak sips while helping them at the shop. By the time I was a preteen we would get frappes regularly half the time with decaf or regular.
Long story short of it I’m an espresso fiend.
When my oldest was little, I started babysitting for a family with an espresso machine in April 2023 and that helped immensely. A couple times a week I got the satisfaction of delicious strong coffee. From then on I was on the hunt I asked for cash and gift cards for my birthday, did research on brand’s, and finally 1 day was walking through my local Walmart and saw their exclusive machine and so I looked up every review I could and they were decent. So I had my savings goal. I had 100ish in gift cards already so I just did what I could to hide money from myself.
Early September the same year my husband tore his ACL and meniscus and was out of work. For the 1st week I had to take off cause he could hardly move and needed help with everything. My family knew I was stressed and my dad offered my $100 on anything I may need. It was between this and auto chicken door. While shopping at one of the Walmart’s I frequented I noticed it was $40 cheaper. With the offer I was nearly there and ended up putting like 30 on my CC.
I found this thing for $260 and it’s honestly quite sturdy. My biggest complaint is the beans get stuck in the hopper cause it has no way to pull them down. But usually I just pat on the top of it and they slide in while it grinds the beans and I have little issue. I got this bad boy end of that September and it has to be my best investment ever. It easily paid for itself in a month. My husband and I were able to drink our fancy coffees on the daily and I love playing barista when I have company too!
Within a month I was already dreading buying more coffee syrup. Although the monthly cost for everything wasn’t bad at all; it was $30 for upkeep. My friend asked me if I made my own syrup and then I had the lightbulb moment, because for whatever reason that never crossed my mind that it was a possibility. So now I have found the perfect recipe and make that now too. Which dropped the cost to like $25 monthly upkeep for beans and Caramel; but then we slowly phased out using caramel. Now the only cost of upkeep is buying a 2.5 lb. bag a month average $16 bucks not counting milk. Costco does occasionally have sales on seasonal brands they will phase out and I will stock up to save even more.
If we are to do the math and using the average Latte price in Seattle since I live in the PNW using the https://seattlecoffeeguide.com/ a 16 oz latte(double shot espresso, flavored syrup, milk and ice) to the nearest nickel with penny’s retirement and ease of math you’re looking at $5.25 for 16oz double shot latte with $1 for a tip totaling $6.25 (TIP YOUR SERVERS, BARTENDERS,BARISTAS ECT.). Doing the math on a 30 day month we were looking at 6.25*30 = 187.50 for me alone. Where splitting our bean usage into the same timeline is an average 6 shots a day between hubby and I for about 50 cents now. including milk and homemade syrup is maybe another 50 cents making the drink cost 20% of what you can find locally.
To conclude, you need to know yourself. If you have something that if you know you could and would use that would save you money look into investing in a personal version or maybe put on a gift list if you have that kind of support system.
Living a fulfilling life doesn’t have to be expensive. Save on the small stuff and invest on the big stuff.