Statistics can be scary; you know, the kind that tell you exactly how much you’ve spent on chocolate, cigarettes, alcohol… (insert your creature comfort here) over the last 10 years.
I’m not going to bombard you with lots of preachy data, but I will tell you that I recently came across a study outlining that about one third of us in the UK say we can’t afford to go on a one week holiday. I thought, that’s a bit sad; we all deserve holidays!
Anyway, at the same time, I discovered that as a nation we’re drinking more takeaway coffee than ever before. If you’re a fan of your morning shop bought coffee before work, you’ll know that the average cup costs about £2.
So, this is where I propose the ‘coffee beans from your coffee machine’ plan. OK, it’s a simple suggestion really, but a helpful one — stop buying so much takeaway coffee and instead, invest in a small home coffee machine, stock up on decent coffee beans, then get yourself a flask and start making your own coffee. It’ll taste better.
Or even better, lose the flask, and just bring your coffee machine to work and get everyone involved. If you buy takeaway coffee every day, that’s £10 you can pocket away every week. You do the maths for six months.
And now, here’s the best bit — in 5-6 months time, you’ll have saved up enough to go away somewhere. It’s not going to take you to the Caribbean, but there’s loads of places you can go with a couple of hundred quid if you’re a bit creative with it.
Here are some money saving holiday suggestions you can try out once you’ve saved all the money making your own coffee.
1. Buy a cheap flight, then stay somewhere lovely and for free with couch surfing.
2. Go camping in the UK. There’s a lot of people with pretty gardens who rent out the space in the summer to campers. It’ll be cheaper, prettier and you’ll have more space.
3. If you’ve got any old friends who moved away, go and visit them for a week.