Addicted to caffeine? 3 coffee hacks that are financially and environmentally friendly

Coffee (or just caffeine) is one of the biggest sources of modern day addictions. In fact, some studies have found that 73 per cent of adults drink at least 1 cup of coffee every single day.

After all, a cup of coffee can become more of a necessity if you want to stay awake at work between 2pm and 4pm.

But, coffee is also a very expensive addiction: with a cup of Starbucks latte costing around S$7.30 in Singapore, daily coffee consumption can cost around S$2,664.50 for a year!

While buying a coffee machine at home could help reduce this cost, we found some more hacks that can be even more effective financially while also being environmentally friendly.

No need for a branded coffee maker

If you are in the market for a nice coffee machine to use at home, you might be surprised to find out that you don't have to opt for a branded version from a well-known coffee brand.

For example, Nespresso's cheapest machine costs S$209, with more expensive versions costing upwards of S$700. But, you can actually get even cheaper ones from other brands that cost even less at around S$150.

Best of all, a lot of these machines are all Nespresso compatible, meaning you can still enjoy all of your favourite Nespresso flavors even without a Nespresso machine.

Free your taste buds and your wallet with reusable capsules

While a lot of companies have created flexibility for coffee lovers by creating "Nespresso compatible" coffee machines, some others have furthered this trend by creating Nespresso compatible reusable capsules.

Costing as little as S$1 each, these capsules can allow coffee drinkers to fill up their own capsules with whatever coffee bean they want.

Therefore, consumers can free their taste buds and their wallet from the hold of the "Gillette business model" of charging a huge markup for "refill" products. Not only that, they can also be extremely cost efficient and environmentally friendly because they are reusable.

For instance, a capsule requires about 2-3 grams of coffee for each brew. Given that most coffee beans cost about S$0.075 per gram, you can brew a cup of coffee for only about S$0.15 to S$0.23.

In contrast, a pre-made capsule from Nespresso costs around S$0.7 to S$0.9! If you drink 1 cup of coffee per day, that results in a cost reduction of roughly 70 per cent.

Other money tips for coffee

Ultimately, it'll be difficult to replace 100 per cent of your coffee consumption with a brewing machine at home.

Even if you still plan to purchase and drink coffee outside, it will still makes financial sense to get a coffee machine at home if you drink coffee at least once a day: given that a cup of coffee can cost about S$5.00 to S$8.00, it won't be long before you break even on your coffee machine.

Even better, earning credit card rewards on your coffee machine, capsule and ground coffee bean purchases can help improve this calculation even more.

Even for those who still need to buy coffee outside when meeting friends and colleagues, there are many cashback credit cards in Singapore that often come with special discount deals with coffee chains.

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This article was first published in ValueChampion.