I was shamed into figuring out how to make my own Pumpkin Spice Lattes at home by my 20 year old son. He’s a grown up now, a plumber’s apprentice and managing his own money is very important to him, he does a very god job of it. Let’s just say he was incredulous that his thrifty loving/living mom would spend 5 bucks on a CUP of coffee. After thinking about I realized it went against everything I had raised him to believe and decided to change my ways.
One month ago I posted a recipe about making my own expensive coffee at home and I’d like to share with you the tally of how much I’ve saved in a month. Not only savings in dollars, but calories and I’d like to throw something else in there, time; time spent in the drive thru or in line waiting on a coffee.
Monetarily I’ve saved 3.50 every time I make my own 16 ounce PSL at home. I’ve enjoyed 5 per week for a savings of 70 dollars. I’ve also made them every weekend for my husband too so I’m adding in 28 dollars for his weekend coffee for a grand total of 98 dollars. NOT BAD. Now, would I have bought that many for myself over that time period? Definitely IF I would allow myself to drink them that often and waste/spend that kind of money.
Calorie wise the savings were significant too. Each made at home PSL saved me 275 calories. The total monthly savings in calories for 5 PSL per week are 5,500. OH hey no wonder my pants are looser. Well I’m actually actively dieting too, so this meshed well the diet because I could make mine skinny, feel like I was having a treat and that treat feeling made passing up other goodies (HALLOWEEN CANDY!) easier.
Time saved is hard to calculate but I’m going to work it this way: if I drank 5 expensive cups of coffee per week I’d probably drive through somewhere 3 times and go in to an actual location the other 2 times. This is just me figuring what I would do, you will obviously live differently and may have faster better service. So if I drive through those trips average around 10-15 minutes per trip so 30- 45 minutes for all of them per week. Going in involves parking, hoofing it in, waiting through everyone else getting a coffee and usually average around 10-20 minutes, so 20-40 minutes for the walk in coffee trips per week. Total per month in time spent fetching coffee came out to 50-85 minutes per week and 200-340minutes or 3 ⅓ to 5 ½ hours. I live in a small town, our only Starbucks Coffee palaces are in grocery stores so they are both walk-ins from big parking lots full of cars. The small local drive in shops are always busy, backed up and take a long time too.
My numbers are figured from the few times I DID whip in for a cup of coffee on the run this past month. It was only AFTER having stopped for a coffee did I notice how long it actually took to give them 5 dollars for a dollars worth of ingredients. Of course making these coffees at home takes some time too but while it’s warming I can be washing dishes, folding laundry, feeding animals or answering emails, in other words it is not wasted time.
Remember these are calculations by me about me and my coffee availability and pricing in Alaska. Yours will ultimately be different than mine. It’s still coffee for thought, no?
per month-
dollars saved 98
calories saved 5,500
hours saved 3 ⅓-5 ½
Are you ready for the yearly savings?
per year-
dollars saved 1,176
calories 66,000
hours saved 40-66 hours
Not too shabby. Of course you do have to figure in the pleasure of going out for coffee with friends and I DID do that a few times. I won’t and can’t begrudge myself time spent with friends but I’ll also buy drip coffee on those occasions because I can’t see ever willingly paying for expensive coffee again.
This all means I need to start figuring out what OTHER great coffees I can make at home, I think the caramel is up next. What’s your favorite?
Like Pumpkin Spice Recipe? Try my OTHER Pumpkin Recipes!
Make Ahead Pumpkin Spice Latte Mix
