Buying A Coffee At Tim Hortons Costs 22 Times More Than Making An Instant Coffee At Home
At an average of $126.86, my monthly coffee shop expense is my third largest monthly expense, behind only rent and food. In a typical month, I get about half my cups of coffee by buying them at coffee shops and the other half by making instant coffee at home. Although I knew it is clearly cheaper to make coffee at home, I was curious to know just how much of a price difference there is between buying a coffee at Tim Hortons and making a cup of instant coffee at home, so decided to do an experiment.
I began by purchasing a medium coffee at Tim Hortons and making note of the price. I then made a cup of coffee at home, and determined the cost of the electricity used to boil the water for the coffee (using the Kill A Watt power meter), the Maxwell House instant coffee grinds, and the water used for the coffee.
Doing the experiment, I determined that I spent 22 times more to buy the medium coffee at Tim Hortons than I did to make the cup of instant coffee at home. The most surprising thing I learned while doing this experiment was that I spent less than 1 cent to boil a cup of water with a kettle, which is considerably less than I had predicted.
At Tim Hortons
The cost of the medium coffee I purchased at Tim Hortons on Duckworth Street in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador was $2.02.
Total cost for the coffee from Tim Hortons: $2.02
At Home
Electricity
The electricity cost to boil the water for one cup of coffee using a kettle was 0.84 cents:
Newfoundland Power rate — 12.2 cents per kWh
Power consumed to boil cup of water — 0.06 kWh
Cost before tax — 0.73 cents
Cost after 15% tax — 0.84 cents
Maxwell House Instant Coffee Grinds
The cost of the Maxwell House instant coffee grinds used for the cup of coffee was 7.97 cents:
Cost for a 150g tin of Maxwell House instant coffee grinds (on sale) — $5.18
Number of cups of coffee from one tin — 65
Cost of the coffee grinds used for one cup — 7.97 cents
Water
As I’m renting an apartment and am therefore not responsible for the water bill, there was no cost for the water used to make the coffee.
Total cost for cup of coffee made at home, including electricity, coffee grinds, and water: $0.09.
Comparison and Conclusion
Compared to a cost of $2.02 for a medium coffee at Tim Hortons, the instant coffee had a cost of $0.09. This means that the Tim Hortons coffee was more than 22 times more expensive than the instant coffee. Although I already knew that it was clearly cheaper to make coffee at home than to go to Tim Hortons, I did not expect the difference to be so extreme. Although I will continue to go to coffee shops sometimes because I enjoy that coffee a little more and also enjoy the social component of visiting the coffee shops, the findings from this experiment will encourage me to more frequently make my coffee at home and reduce visits to coffee shops to significantly bring down my monthly coffee expenses.
