Which Is Cheaper: Brewing Coffee At Home Vs. Grabbing A Daily Starbucks?

Coffee is widely considered as the second-most globally traded commodity after crude oil. This will probably come as no surprise to most, for just as people need fuel to drive their car from place to place, they also need that same fuel to get their body and mind awake and functioning every day. This being said, it's no secret that the average person likely consumes a cup of coffee at some point of the day at the very least during the work week.

However, the method through which we all obtain that cup of coffee can vary greatly. While many older generations have been critical of millennials for their excessive spending on daily coffee at coffee shops, which can cost as much as $7 a day, this does pose a great question. How much money could actually be saved if you decided to brew your own coffee at home instead of grabbing a daily cup from somewhere like Starbucks? That being said, let's take a look at the facts in order to figure out which option is indeed cheaper overall.

You wouldn't be wrong to assume that the price of coffee has been drastically increasing over the years. In 2024 alone, coffee prices saw as high as 70-90% increases across certain categories, with many analysts placing the blame for this on weather events like droughts caused by climate change. Regardless, this surge in 2024 was the largest increase in the price of coffee since 1977. However, in 2025, there may potentially be a new culprit to blame for price increases in coffee, which of course could potentially come at the hands of increased tariffs by the hands of newly elected President Trump. At the same time, the direct impacts of this on coffee prices have yet to be seen.

Still, demand for coffee is at an all time high, and despite whatever droughts or tariffs send its prices through the moon, people are still gonna need those magic beans to get them through the day. But if the prices aren't expected to go down, eventually people are going to have to explore alternative money saving options in order to get their daily fix. That being said, let's see just how much you could actually save by brewing your coffee at home instead of buying a daily cup from Starbucks.

On average, the daily cost of buying a regular drip coffee at Starbucks is going to be $1.85, which would cost around $675 a year if you bought one every day. But if you instead decided to make a one time purchase of a coffee machine off amazon for $16 along with regularly grabbing $10 12oz bag of coffee (which would amount to something like 16 12oz cups), you would be spending around $0.62 a day, or $155 a year. That amounts to over $300 in savings annually.

Now if you're instead someone who favors drinks like Starbucks Grande Latte, that will cost you $3.65 a day, or upwards of $1,300 a year. If instead you decided to buy your own home espresso machine ($30 for a one-time purchase on Amazon) and a $10 12oz bag of espresso beans from Target, which produces 22 double espresso shots, you would be spending roughly $1.35 a day on average. This amounts to roughly $900 in annual savings. As you can see, even the savings for the cheapest daily coffee purchases from Starbucks compared to brewing your own coffee at home are significant, so if you're instead buying $5 or $7 coffees every day, you can only imagine how much money you could save. For more information about how to save money on your coffee purchases, check out the easy trick that can help you save money when buying coffee.