In my early days of writing BBM articles, I touched on How A Cup Of Latte Can Affect Your Overall Finances. To summarise, it is based on your daily spending on a cup of coffee at your favorite coffee place. Coffee addiction can be real & to many, it is something necessary to get through the day. The problem is, if we spend an average of RM10-RM15 on a cup of coffee on daily basis, it can cost between RM300-RM450 easily. That money can be used for other purposes such as growing it by investing or even going on a holiday.
The only problem is, we have to admit that the coffee that is brewed at home is not as good as the coffee that is brewed at our local cafes. That was my struggle over the years when I tried to brew my own coffee at home but I gave up multiple times due to my lack of understanding of coffee brewing. When I first received my budget auto coffee machine, I had tried to brew my coffee for almost a year but my struggle was, the coffee tasted horrible. My routine at that time was to buy coffee beans from a local cafe or Starbucks & request them to grind them for me. Since the taste was not up to my liking, I decided to stop brewing it eventually.
While trying to cope with my coffee addiction & trying to save money, I have tried multiple shortcuts such as using 3 in 1 coffee which tasted poor to average to trying to use freeze-dried coffee granules which also tasted average. So it is me trying to save money whenever I’m at home & rewarding myself occasionally whenever I’m out with a cup of ice latte. When I look back at my expenses on coffee in 2022, I have spent RM2007.58 on just coffee alone. This is where I decided to try to look into ways where I can try to save more on my coffee addiction.
While enjoying a good cup of latte in my local cafe, I have decided to consult the owner of a cafe on what are good options to brew a nice cup of coffee at home. At that time, I was looking at investing in a higher-end coffee machine that will cost around RM4,500 but the owner of the cafe has advised that it is a pure waste of money. To brew a good cup of coffee, the machine should be at least RM10,000 & above. This is where I started to think, is it truly worth investing in a coffee machine for RM10,000 & perhaps it will last for 10 years which makes it RM1,000 a year? Instead of recommending me a coffee machine, he recommended me a coffee grinder instead which cost around RM430. His explanation was, to make a good cup of coffee, the bean has to be fresh & even to grind it, it has to be ground right before making the coffee. So that was my mistake years ago when I actually asked the cafes to grind it for me & I will be using it over a period of a month. This is where the taste change since it is not fresh anymore.
Another factor that the cafe owner explained was the amount of beans that need to be used to brew a cup of coffee. His recommendation was 18 grams which were something that my old coffee machine can’t fit in. It can only fit 13 grams in the portafilter. So it was the bean freshness & the amount of beans that is affecting the coffee quality. The final factor is the amount of espresso that needs to be pressed from the machine which is 36-40 grams based on 18 grams of coffee beans. Lesson learn & I have received a manual coffee machine as a gift. This was to replace my crappy coffee machine that could not brew the coffee quality that I need. That manual machine fits all the requirements that I need to brew a cup of good coffee. With the coffee grinder & manual espresso machine, I am now able to make a better cup of coffee on a daily basis.
One of my initial problems with the manual espresso machine was, it took me almost 2 months to learn how to brew a good cup of espresso. It was truly a trial & error at the initial stage but after a few months, I finally learn the right way to brew a good cup of coffee. It was also with some help from other YouTubers which I am referencing. Overall, I am using 500 grams of beans a month which is RM45 per packet. Since I am a latte drinker & recently I have also changed my milk consumption to plant-based milk, I am using an average of 1 liter of almond milk each week which cost around RM20. In total, I am spending RM125 per month or RM4.16 for my coffee at home vs a cup of almond latte which cost RM15 per cup in other cafes. That is a huge saving from just preparing coffee at home vs drinking it out.
If you are looking at the initial cost of investment to save money over the long term, it may cost around RM1,000 as a start but if you look at a long-term investment, it is definitely worth it. That was how I managed to save money by making my latte at home. For those who are black coffee drinkers, a french press can do the job as long as your coffee bean is fresh & it only costs less than RM100. For those who like their latte to be hot, on top of investing in a grinder & espresso machine, you can also invest in a milk frother. Sometimes those automated coffee machines have milk frothers attached as well.
OSS!
You can also check out my latest YouTube video on Why Do You Need Financial Planning?
