Coffee is an interesting sport. Millions of people drink it all across the world. Sometimes one cup a day, two, three, four, certain brands etc. The average American who drinks coffee drinks approximately 3.1 cups per day, according to the NCA www.ncausa.org, National Coffee Association. Do people actually ever think how much they spend on it. Some do, most don't simple as that. Today's economy is interesting at best. We're seeing people in desperate times with the failure of the real estate market, people losing their life savings in the stock market, the price of gas, an increase on just about everything, not to mention everything is now being taxed.

So let's take a close look at coffee. Buying coffee at a Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks or your local coffee shop is because of convenience, or is it? We have studied personal and financial habits of coffee drinkers and this is what we have found.

Yes, coffee purchased at a coffee shop is originally for convenience. Convenience becomes habit, and let's start there. What about the personal relationships that are developed at coffee shops. You know the people behind the counter, they know you, you know the people who hang around, read the paper, use the Internet etc. It becomes a type of social gathering of some type.

In other cases, it is purchased mainly for convienience. Don't want to make coffee at home, it's on the way to work, running short on time, don't want to fill a mug at home etc. This is perfectly fine. Two of the main reasons why people buy coffee at a shop. Let's look further.

Now to the cost. Let's say you buy one cup of coffee per day (on your way to work, so five days) at or around $2.00 per cup. Let's do the math. $2.00 a day, at 5 days a week is $10. Not bad right. At 4 weeks per month is $40, ok. That's $480 per year. Getting interesting right. That's $4,800 over 10 years and over 20 years that is$9,600. For coffee. That's not including the increase of cost and only for one cup per day only 5 days per week. Get a calculator and say you buy three cups a day, you're looking at close to $30,000 over twenty years. You do get a styrafoam cup so that's a bonus.

Ok, ok, let's compare, how much does it cost to make at home, just as much right. Not really. Let's do some more math. A two pound can of Folgers can be bought for $8, that yields you 270 cups of coffee. Let's make the math simple. If you spend $2 for one cup of coffee 270 times that is equal to $540. So every time you buy a two pound can of Folgers you are saving yourself $532 ($540 - $8).

From a financial stand point, don't quit, that's wrong. But their are alternative avenues to pursue to reduce your cost. Now do that five times in your household, with cable, newspapers, food shopping, electric bill etc and you will be in better shape. On top of it all, let's say that you have a debt, mortgage, car, credit card, school bills etc. Let's say the percentage rate is 3% - 12%. Pay off your debt with the money that you have saved, take that percentage rate and add that to the savings on coffee, just by reducing the debt, The cost of coffee keeps getting bigger and bigger. Give it a shot, it can't hurt. And bring your lunch to work while your at it