My dad told me I was spending $60 a month on 'stupid coffee' so I finally broke down the numbers

So I was visiting my parents last spring and my dad sees me walk in with a latte from the local cafe near their house. He goes "you know that's like throwing a $20 bill in the trash every week right?" I kind of rolled my eyes but later I actually added it up. I was hitting up coffee shops 4 or 5 times a week at about $4.50 a pop. That's around $75 a month. It didn't seem like much at the time but over a year that's $900. That really hit me. I bought a decent espresso machine for $150 off Facebook Marketplace and now I make my own. Still grab one out sometimes but my monthly coffee spending dropped to like $15 for beans and milk. Has anyone else had like a sneaky daily expense that added up way more than you thought?

3 comments

3 Comments

knight.uma3d ago

But $900 a year is literally a plane ticket or a few months of car insurance, kinda wild it just disappears on morning routine stuff. I bet most of us have one of those silent budget killers, like having the AC running all day or grabbing snacks at the gas station every time you fill up.

milalewis3d ago

My coffee maker costs $15 and I use cheap grounds, so that's more like $30 a year for me. The morning routine thing only adds up if you're buying fancy stuff every day.

rosepark1d ago

Well, knight.uma makes a good point, but not all of us can afford to look that close at our spending. My silent budget killer is buying replacement chargers for everything. I lose them in my own house, they get chewed by the dog, they just vanish. At $15 a pop, I probably spend $200 a year on chargers I can never find when I need them. Makes that $900 coffee habit look almost reasonable, if you ask me, though I've never spent that much on a single cup in my life.