The last few years have seen a huge increase in the number of regular people investing in more complex ways of creating their morning cup of Joe.

This includes the rise of both bean-to-cup machines and even home barista machines.

One thing is though, they’re not that cheap.

So, this article will look at the costs of different brewing methods to find out whether investing in a more expensive machine is worth the money.

Coffee Brewing Costs Compared

 

The Cost of buying a barista or bean-to-cup Machine

The first thing you’ll need to know is how much a machine will set you back.

A quick search on Google shows that a bean-to-cup machine will cost upwards of £200. Whereas a Sage barista machine that includes a grinder will cost upwards of £400.

If you’re serious about getting one it might be worth waiting until offers, come around such as Black Friday or January sales.

Remember though, this is a one-off cost so if you make use of it daily, your payback period will be much shorter (when compared to buying a regular takeaway, for example)

 

The cost of manual brewing

Manual brewing is by far the cheapest way to make your coffee. What’s more, new products like the Aeropress have thrived over the last five years or so.

If you look at a manual brewing piece of equipment like the Aeropress, it’s likely to cost you between £25 and £50.

Of course, it depends on the quality and style you prefer.

A V60 drip will cost you around £5-10 but you will need to buy filters too – at around £5 for 100 – still cheap.

So, as you can see manual brewing methods will cost you very little to get going and are well worth it if you want to make the jump from instant to a high-quality speciality coffee blend.

 

Is the payback period of a machine worth it?

If you buy 1 kilo of coffee, it gives you around 50 cups in total. Give or take a few.

The average price for a kilo is around £18 from a specialist coffee roaster. That’s just under £0.40p per cup.

When you compare that to the average cost of a takeaway – at around £3 per coffee – it’s a whopping difference.

However, it depends on how much you drink as to when you get your payback and start seeing the benefit for real.

Let’s see.

 

If you drink 2-3 cups a week

If you’re merely drinking a few cups a week, it’s definitely going to take you longer to see your savings mount up to the value of a barista or bean-to-cup machine.

For example, if you save around £8 per week. It’s going to be much closer to a whole year before you cover the cost of your drinks.

If this is the you, you’re probably better off buying some cheaper brewing equipment to start with until you begin drinking more each day or week.

 

If you drink one cup a day

Having one cup a day means you’ll be saving around £3 per day. Say you spend £300 on a machine, it would take you 100 days to receive payback.

However, if you do buy a machine, you might find you drink more and if so, the savings will increase. What’s more, your new machine is pretty much guaranteed to last a lot longer than a year. So there’s still an argument that you can save yourself a few bob here.

 

If you drink 3 cups a day

On 3 cups a day (or more) you’ll be saving about £8 per day when compared to buying a takeaway for each of these drinks.

That means if you spend £320 on a machine, you’ll have saved the same amount in just 40 days by not going to the coffee shop.

Indeed, you might not have the time to always make yourself a coffee with your machine and still need to go for a coffee while you’re at work etc.

So, be sure to take this into account too when working out the differences between buying beans, using a machine or going to the local espresso house.

That’s not all though, you’ll continue to save yourself around £250 every month thereafter. I think we can safely say that with these differences a machine is well worth the money.

 

The logical vs the Lifestyle equipment

 

All the above is a very logical way of looking at whether the machines are worth the money. However, there are also costs involved in keeping and maintaining any machinery in your home.

 Of course, any equipment you keep at home involves a regular maintenance routine. From cleaning to fixing or even playing around with it to get the perfect pressure for an espresso. Some even need their filters changed every few months, so it’s worth checking the ongoing costs as well as the one-off costs.