For years, the single most important thing I could never do without in the mornings was a Starbucks macchiato espresso and a blueberry muffin.
Every morning at 7:30 a.m., including weekends, I’d rush out the door with a half-done tie and a productivity podcast playing through my earbuds. I’d speed walk to make it to Starbucks before the line was too long.
I became popular in the joint, and sometimes the servers would start my coffee order as soon as I walked through the door. No matter the chaos in my life, I always looked forward to Starbucks.
My coffee delight didn’t come cheap
At $5 per cup and $3.95 for the muffin, I was spending about $63 the entire week on these Starbucks delicacies, give or take one rare Sunday when I’d sleep in.
Every month, I was down $241 on coffee and muffins, and that was on the lower end. Throw in an iced latte or two every other evening, the occasional banana bread upsell, other friendly yet costly coffee meet-ups with friends, and we were talking close to $5,000 annually.
The worst part is that I owned several functional coffee makers, including a French Press and a drip. They were gathering dust and judgment on my kitchen counter.
Eventually, a combination of guilt and self-reflection changed my perspective, and I thought I would have been better off if I had saved the money.
I’ve always had an annual personal saving goal of $6,000 to $7,000 that I hardly ever met, and I realized that if I could cut down my Starbucks expenses, I would come very close to attaining the goal.
Plus, after much reflection, I found that it wasn’t even Starbucks that had me hooked. It was the 10-minute walk that made me feel awake, excited, indulgent, and maybe a little bit seen.
I figured if I could recreate these feelings, maybe I would bring my coffee makers out of retirement and keep my money in my wallet.
As 2024 rolled in, I resolved to make my coffee at home to cut costs, and I’ve stuck to my guns. Here’s how I did it.
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Step 1: I did the math and felt the pain
I created a spreadsheet to tally all of Starbucks’ receipts over a few months. I had figures like $240 in August, $300 in September, and so forth. In one brutal month, I spent $410.
When I saw the totals adding up, my stomach churned. It was enough to put into a Roth IRA or spend on a vacation ticket to destinations I wanted to visit.
There was something sobering about how much I was paying for a 15-minute delight. So I started thinking about what else the money would do for me.
Step 2: I turned my kitchen corner into a coffee shrine
I wanted a dedicated coffee shrine that would mimic the Starbucks ambiance. I cleaned my coffee makers, purchased nice mugs, takeout cups, and bought bougie beans.
I went a step further to look up my favorite Starbucks coffee recipes on TikTok to ensure I had everything I needed.
I didn’t just want to make coffee, I wanted to stage it, and the kitchen corner felt like an upgrade.
Step 3: I made it emotional
I still battled with the Starbucks urges time and again. However, when I faced the urges, I jotted on my phone exactly what I was craving: was it a reward, comfort, or just the need to escape from morning meetings?
I always wrote what mattered: “This $5 coffee will buy me 15 minutes of delight, and that will be $5 less toward my savings goal.” It automatically made me rethink the transaction.
Step 4: I strived for better mornings, not just cheaper ones
I didn’t want to give up my blueberry muffins. My wife looked up a couple of recipes, not only with blueberries but also banana oat bars and cinnamon.
She made delicious choices most mornings and breakfast sandwiches on others.
I had great food options, top-notch coffee beans, and extra time to spend with the family as I wasn’t rushing to beat the line. It felt peaceful.
The final step: I found accountability and have some fun
To make it stick, I invite some of my friends to do weekly “coffee reset challenges”, where they share their latest coffee finds and we even take pictures of our home brews to crown a winner.
What I spend today
I buy my favorite coffee beans at $12 a bag, which lasts two weeks. We also opt for homemade blueberry muffins, which makes my coffee ritual very affordable. And after throwing in other spontaneous trips I would make to the coffee shop and everything else I would buy, I significantly cut costs.
I didn’t quit Starbucks to be virtuous. I stopped because I could save the money and put it towards the future.
I no longer miss it as much because I realized it was not really about the caffeine. I was looking for comfort and moments of peace, things that I now find at home with my family.
