So, now you know about the health benefits of coffee, which is great, because you were already a coffee fiend anyway. But you also want to save money like Sarah. Well, here's an easy way to save some money on Starbucks coffee with very little sacrifice.
Admittedly, my wife
Alexandria and I are Starbucks* junkies. Even our kids are budding Starbucks fans (Iced Passion Tea Lemonaid is a big hit with the little people). Given that this is one of our few treats and we aren't about to give it up, here's how we learned to save lots on lattes by getting more.
Fact 1: A Tall Latte at Starbucks is $3.95 (varies by location) and is twelve fluid ounces.
Fact 2: A Venti Latte at Starbucks is $4.95 (again, varies by location) and is twenty fluid ounces (Venti is Italian for twenty, in case you were wondering).
Fact 3: Sharing a drink with your spouse or partner isn't grody—it's cute.
You may already be at the conclusion. The bottom line is, ounce for ounce, a Venti is 24% cheaper than a Tall coffee. We realized that we could satisfy our Starbucks craving with a single Venti for $4.95 instead of two Talls at $3.95 each, a savings of $2.95 every visit with a sacrifice of only four ounces (a third of a Tall). The savings is also compounded by the tax. In Ontario, with HST, the after-tax savings swells to $3.43 cents for every single visit.
You might be thinking: "Yeah, but I want my own drink if it means I have to pay $3.43, I'm going to get it."
Agreed, $3.43 may not sound like a lot by itself, but let's do a little more math. If you're a twice-a-weekend couple (as we are), then your weekly savings is $6.86. With 52 weeks in the year, the annual savings grows to $357. If you're an every day Starbucks couple, perhaps on the way to work, the annual savings grows to $1,216. You can use this chart to find your annual savings:
What could you do with that extra money? Well, for starters, you could go to Starbucks more often. For every two 2-Tall trips, you can take three 1-Venti trips and actually STILL be saving over a dollar AND getting more drink. More. For less. I live for this sort of math!
If you've got a weekly, or monthly budget you can use the tables below to see the number of trips you can take for the same amount of money, as well as how much drink you'll actually be getting. It all adds up.
If course, there are a few conditions:
- You have to go with your spouse (or an uncomfortably-close friend, I suppose)
- You have to be willing to drink the same drink
- You have to be willing to accept that you might not be as good at sharing as you think you are. I have accidentally finished most of the Venti myself while Alexandria was in the store more times than I care to admit
I really encourage you to try this for a little while—you might be surprised how enjoyable it is to share a drink with your spouse. It automatically puts you in talking and listening modes as you share the drink back and forth. What's more, we find our drink always gets finished while its still warm, and we never waste a drop.
* Actually we're fans of good coffee anywhere, but Starbucks is the most convenient for us. The idea in this should work anywhere Small and Large drinks are sold.
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