Ditching your daily Starbucks habit may save you over £500 a year but if you can’t face arriving at work without a coffee in your hand; here's how to get your daily caffeine fix and still save pounds.
By Sue Hayward
Go 'short' at Starbucks
Ask for their 'secret size' and save calories as well as cash. But you won’t find it on the menu as cups are hidden behind the counter. A ‘short’ is an 8oz version of any of their usual coffees which means a 20p saving - around £50 a year. It’s 4oz short of their standard ‘tall’ size so the switch saves both pounds in your pocket and if you do this every day it can knock a few off your waistline too.
Keep your reciept
Starbucks now offer free refils if you keep your reciept. It has to be on the same day of purchase and they'll only offer filter coffee refils, not a refil of whatever coffee you paid for originally. So if you're caffine habit is more than one a day this could save you a fortune.
Join the club
Save money with a ‘loyalty card’ but watch out as some deals are much better than others. At Krispy Kreme you only need to buy five coffees to get your sixth one free and at McDonalds it’s six to get your seventh free. But at Caffe Nero you’ve got to shell out for nine coffees before getting your free one.
One of the worst value ones is the Costa card. This works on a ‘points’ system which means you’ll get five points for every £1 spent and with each point worth a penny; you’ll need to shell out £43 before you can get your free coffee!
Free coffee
Sign up for a free ‘Family Card’ at Ikea and you can enjoy free tea and coffee all day long as well as other perks and discounts in the store. And you can get a free filter coffee refill at Starbucks when you buy any of their hot drinks.
Coffee for under £1
Swap your usual ‘frothy’ coffee for a filter version to save £1 a time. Pret now sell a ‘value’ 99p coffee which is half the price of its lattes and cappuccinos but for the same size. (12 oz)
Get a pre-paid card
This saves money and means you’re not holding up the queue fumbling for change. Starbucks knock 50p off the price of a fresh filter coffee if you pay by card so you pay just £1 a time. Load up the card in store, register it online and you’re good to go. And once the card’s empty flog it on eBay and you can recoup your cash as there’s a trade in Starbucks card collections with over three hundred currently listed.
Wait for the ‘wrong’ coffee
We all make mistakes so if a ‘skinny’ latte’s served up instead of the full fat version or one too many cappuccinos are made you could get a free drink if you step in quickly - it saves it going to waste.
Take your own mug
You can save 25p a day doing this at Starbucks, that’s over £50 a year even after you’ve taken off the price of a thermal drinks travel mug which will set you back around £6 at Tesco.
Wait till you get to work
If you can make it this far you’ll save even more cash. Lots of places have free coffee for staff and even if there’s a whip round to cover the cost when it’s your turn to contribute offer to bring in the coffee. You can then bag free coffee samples using one of the many ‘freebie’ sites. Right now Kenco is offering free samples of its new ‘Millicano’ coffee through its website.
