Whatever you spend your money on — whether you head to a coffee shop on a morning during your commute or like to have a few drinks on the weekend; your lifestyle could be costing you quite a bit. Today I’m sharing some research by paper coffee cups retailer, Inn Supplies that details just how much your everyday purchases may be costing you and how to make some savings…
THE COST OF COFFEE
Britain is hooked on the coffee phenomenon. The UK’s coffee shop market was worth £3.4 billion in 2016, up 37% from £2.4 billion in 2011. What’s more, in the next five years experts predict that the market will grow by a further 29% to reach a worth of £4.3 billion. With this, more people are spending more on their coffee fix. Research carried out on behalf of MyVoucherCodes has found that we visit a coffee shop three times a week on average — or 152 times a year.
As Costa Coffee is the chain with the largest number of outlets here in Britain, the average price of a medium latte is £2.45. Based on the number of times we’re likely to visit annually, this means our caffeine addiction is costing us £382.20 per year. If you were to pop into your local coffee store five days a week — once for each of your morning commutes — you’d be spending a huge £637!
But how much could you save if you made your coffee at home? According to Douwe Egberts, a pack of its 250g ground coffee will make approximately 30 cups of coffee. Assuming that a 1kg bag will cost around £15 (according to Amazon prices correct as of December 2017), this would deliver a price per cup of around 13p. Remember that you would also need to factor in milk, sugar and the associated energy and water costs. However, even if this price was to rise to 50p per cup — which is an unlikely high — you could still slash the cost of three coffees per week to £78.
THE COST OF ALCOHOL
Research by the Opinions and Lifestyle survey found that 29 million people over the age of 16 drink alcohol here in the UK. While the UK clearly has a thirst for alcohol, how we’re drinking it is changing. One YouGov study has found that in 2017, 15% of British adults preferred to drink alcohol at home. The country is clearly split between pub and home drinkers, with the latter growing in popularity as the number of pubs declines.
But alcoholic beverages vary in popularity — with 35.6% consuming beer, 32.9% with wine and 21.6% opting for spirits. 17% of Brits head to the pub 26 times a year (once every fortnight), research by Ritz Crisp & Thin shows — so how much is this habit costing us? £3.58 is the average price of a pint of beer. Assuming three drinks per visit, each trip to the pub will cost £10.74 on drinks alone. Over the course of the year, this would rack up £279.24 — a cost that could be even greater if you were to increase the frequency of visits or the number of pints consumed.
The Office for National Statistics found that the average price for a glass of wine in 2017 was £3.74 too. Assuming two glasses of wine per each of the 26 yearly visits, and this will set you back £194.48. If you were to drink at home, you could be saving a fortune too. June 2017’s industry figures show that a bottle of wine costs £5.56. With roughly just over four 175ml glasses in each bottle, the associated cost per glass of drinking wine at home shrinks to £1.39 — representing a £2.35 saving.
Not only that, you could pick up a crate of lager for roughly the same price as one visit to your local pub. But I’m not suggesting you withdraw from the pub completely, – I think it’s better to go to the pub and opt for soft drinks if you want to make a saving. These are often considerably cheaper than alcoholic alternatives and you still get the social atmosphere of the pub. For example, a diluted juice drink can cost under a pound, while a cola or lemonade costs approximately £2.20 = £1.38 less than the average cost of a pint. That frees up your budget to enjoy some lovely bar snacks while you’re there!
THE COST OF SMOKING
In the UK, a packet of 20 cigarettes costs £10.40. For a 20-a-day smoker, this gives a weekly cost of £72.80, a monthly cost of £291.20 and a yearly cost of £3,494! Have you tried using the NHS’ online calculator to work out how much you’re spending? This could be the incentive that stops you smoking to help improve your finances and health.
Were you surprised with how much your lifestyle is costing you? If you’ve resolved to make 2018 the year you start your health kick, it could be wise to think about reducing your alcohol intake or stopping smoking. Not only will your body thank you for it, so will your bank balance! Now you know roughly how much you’re paying out annually on these lifestyle habits, perhaps you’ll be able to make better decisions on everything from your post-work pint to early-morning coffee.
This article was researched by paper coffee cups retailer, Inn Supplies and I’d like to thank them for collaborating with me on this interesting blog post.
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