I love a good cup of coffee. It’s so comforting. It reminds me of younger days.
I realize that doesn’t mean much because of my age, but I started drinking coffee pretty young – at age 7. My parents tried to keep me away from it, but we were at the visitation for a funeral and I found the coffee pot. Long story short, I’d had 5 cups of coffee by the time my parents found me.
After that, I guess they figured any damage was done (and it’s coffee, not cocaine) and I began drinking coffee in the mornings… and afternoons… and nights… I really like coffee.
Anyway, when I first got married I had a coffee pot. But my kitchen is really small, and I needed all the counterspace I could get, so I switched to a French press.
I loved that the French press didn’t need paper coffee filters, but after a year and a half, a dropped it in the sink while washing it. It was all glass, so it broke.
A French press is only about $20, but the frugal part of me didn’t want to replace it. I may in the future, but I had kept a pack of coffee filters from back before my super frugal days.
Every few days, I put some coffee grounds in the filters, and then I tie them up with some yarn. When I want to make coffee, I just throw one of these bundles into a cup and steep it like a tea bag.
Now let’s get into the nitty gritty. Using leftover coffee filters and making coffee camp style instead of replacing my French press isn’t the only way I save money here.
First off, not buying a French press did save me some money. However, the grounds I’ve used are a mix of different odds and ends. I had some half-caf grounds, some chicory granules, and some full-strength grounds that I really liked. I wasn’t a fan of the half-caf, and the chicory was fine, but it was in a separate bag that was easy to forget when making my coffee pouches.
I didn’t want any of these grounds to go to waste, although I couldn’t imagine drinking them alone, so I mixed the rest of the half-caf with the chicory and about half of the coffee that I really liked. It tastes so much better now (I can’t tell much of a difference between the franken-coffee and the coffee I really enjoy), and I significantly increased the amount of coffee I had.
The next way I saved money has to do with the yarn I used to tie the filters closed. A woman from my church had a yarn-spinning class, and I went. I ended up getting some free yarn out of the experience, but it was a poor initial try, and I couldn’t use it to make anything. So, I’m not wasting it either, and I’m using it to tie my coffee filters.
I’ve really taken the “use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without” slogan to heart.
I don’t even throw out my grounds once I’m finished making coffee. I keep a container in the kitchen where I put any food trash and I compost it in the yard.
That’s how I saved money on coffee today, but I also love making copycat recipes, both for coffee and everything else. I like the fancy coffees from coffee shops, but it pains me to pay $5 for a cup of coffee. I keep jars of homemade dry coffee creamers that make my coffee taste like it came from a restaurant.
Frugal Treehugger 