Cut your coffee costs

by Sue Hayward on 20 March 2010  |  14 comments
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Got a coffee addiction, but need to save money? Here's how to get your caffeine kick for less....

Picking up your favourite frothy coffee on the way in to work can mean shelling out around £2.50 a day which can dent your bank balance by a hefty £600 a year.  

So if you can’t face going cold turkey, here’s how to cut your coffee bill without sacrificing your morning latte! 

There IS such a thing as ‘free coffee’

Yes it’s true and there’s no catches or small print with this one. All you need to do is pop into your local Giraffe every Wednesday morning before 10.30am to get a free take-away cappuccino, latte, or Americano. 

It’s just a case of saying hello to the team, asking for your coffee, and you’re on your way. With this deal, you get a ‘classic cup’ size, so that’s 9oz of free coffee worth £1.25. The only place you can’t get your free cuppa is at airport locations.

And the best bit is you can do this every week until mid-June - so that’s around  £20 worth of free coffee.

Drink the office coffee

Ok so it may not be cappuccino style with chocolate sprinkles on the top, but waiting for that first coffee of the day until you’re at work means it’s free. 

According to uSwitchforBusiness, over half of us still get the perks of free coffee (and tea) at work, so make the most of your boss’s generosity before cost cutting kicks in.  

Go 'short' at Starbucks

This is what I call their ‘secret size’; as it’s not advertised on the boards and the cups are kept behind the counter.

Ask in any Starbucks for a ‘short’ coffee and this is what you’ll get. It’s an 8oz version of any of their usual coffees but costs 20p less per cup. It’s 4oz short of their standard ‘tall’ size which is 12oz, so switching to the ‘short’ size not only saves pounds in your pocket, but a few off your waistline too!

Be a loyal customer

Just like other shops, lots of coffee chains have their own loyalty cards - but with some, such as Caffe Nero, you’ve got to shell out for ten coffees before getting your free one.  

So head down to Pret where you can get a loyalty card and get a free coffee. Just pick up a loyalty card from any of its outlets and then register your details online. Once you’re registered, you can use your card to get a free coffee on your next visit. 

Or what about getting a Krispy Kreme loyalty card which means you only need to buy five coffees to get your free cup?

Take your own mug

Some coffee shops, including Starbucks, give you a discount if you use your own mug. So if you invest in one of those insulated travel mugs from John Lewis for £7.50, you can save 25p a day on your daily cup. That’s a saving of £60 a year – well, ok, just over £50 once you’ve taken off the price of the mug. 

Coffee for under £1

Make the most of promotional breakfast deals such as the £1.99 bacon roll and coffee deal at Greggs to pay less than £1 for your morning coffee.

Slightly more expensive is the M&S breakfast deal from £2.75, where you get a free coffee when buying a bacon roll or croissant at any of its Café Revive outlets.  

And cut the price of your take-away coffee buying it at McDonalds which sells a 12 oz filter coffee for £1.19.

Free coffee refills

Order a coffee in the States and you’ll almost always get unlimited refills; in fact they’ll be round so often to refill your cup that you’ll practically be swimming in coffee by the time you leave. 

But over here the major coffee chains aren’t quite so generous. However, if you search around, you'll find several of the American diner style outlets do offer this deal - such as goodlifediner.com which does free filter coffee refills, as well as Starbucks which offers a free filter coffee refill with every hot drink bought.

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Stock up on vouchers

Sign up and register online at your favourite coffee shop website to be the first to hear about deals and discounts. 

If you sign up at Millie’s Cookies, you’ll get £15 of free vouchers including ‘2 for 1’ deals on all hot drinks - which means you can save £1.59 on a large coffee. So it’s well worth going with a friend and splitting the difference.

Where to buy the cheapest coffee

Finally, don’t forget to shop around for the best deals when you’re buying coffee for your home store cupboard. You can easily save money by price matching your favourite brand at mySupermarket.co.uk

The chart below highlights four coffee brands and how much they cost at each of the four major supermarkets.

Source – mysupermarket.co.uk

So as you can see, prices can vary from shop to shop, so make sure you do some research first!

• Watch our video: Slash your supermarket spend