Several Christmas's ago, my in-laws got our family this neat coffee machine. I'd never heard of it before, but from the look of it, it was a single cup coffee maker. It was called a Keurig Coffee machine.
It was such a sweet design and promised to satisfy my addiction to caffeine one cup at a time. In opening our present, I thought to myself, “I wonder how much a single servings cost?” Since Christmas, I've found a lot of deals and seen what are good, OK, and bad prices. It's hard to believe the variances in prices of k-cups.
K-cups are the refill cartridges that you insert into the unit that contain the coffee grounds. It allows you to become your own home Barista! :) Here is a short tutorial on what the Keurig is and some of the different K-cup options.
So in being the thrifty guy I am, I'm always looking for the best deals on purchasing K-cups. After all, I need to fuel my addiction, and getting the best deal is in my best interest! For me, determining a good deal comes down to how much I'm paying per K-cup. So, over the last year, I found three common price ranges for K-cups, what you'd expect to pay at particular stores or sites, and suggestions on where the best deals are at.
Price ranges
- High – $0.85 – $1.00/K-cup – most commonly you'll expect to pay these prices at your local grocery, Target, Shopko, or Walmart. Also, these are most commonly for the premium roasts.
- Medium – $0.50/K-cup – commonly K-cups will typically cost about $0.50 at most regularly price websites. The key is waiting for the real deals to come about and stock up!
- Low – $0.25-$0.33/K-cup (I call this a ThriftyGuy Deal!)
K-cup deals
- Keurig My-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter – (less than $0.21/K-Cup) – if you are looking for a do-it-yourself K-cup and looking to save money, then check out the Keurig reusable filters. These units offer a lot of long terms savings at the cost of your convenience. So let's break down the savings. Take a 33.9 ounces tub of Folgers coffee. If you spent $10 on a tub of grounds and spent $9.75 on the reusable filter, then 33.9 ounces = 960 grams. 10 grams per refill cartridge would give you 96 K-cups. For just one tub of coffee, it'd average your cost to $19.75/96 = $0.21 per K-Cup. If you used the refill cartridge over the life of two tubs, then it'd only cost $0.11/K-cup. With this unit, the savings keep mounting the more you use it!
- Sam's Club – (about $0.33-$0.55/K-cup) – Sam's has a lot of great bulk deals, which can help ya get some pretty good deals. On average expect to pay between $0.33-$0.55/K-cup.
- Keurig.com – (about $0.62/K-Cup for members) – has a lot of great savings for members and subscribers to their newsletters/deal alerts. They offer about 160 varieties of K-cups and for members, you'd expect to pay about $0.50-$0.75/K-cup. No that sweet of deal, but I highly recommend signing up for the deal alerts to get the best deals. (typically member price is $0.62/k-cup or $14.84 for 24)
- Amazon.com – ($0.30-$0.60/K-cup depending on variety) – Amazon offers a wide variety of K-cup options and is probably one of the most competitive sites for all their Keurig products. Expect to save about 30% on average by buying your Keurig products online vs buying them directly in a store. Just today I noticed that the Keurig filters were $7.90 vs $17.88 at my local Walmart! That is a savings of 45% over retail.
- Starbucks.com – (around $0.83/K-cup) – if you are addicted to the premium Starbuck's blend, then check out their website. They offer 14 different coffee blends, and one of the more expensive places to purchase K-cups. Oh, by the way, you can get them a little cheaper on Amazon.com. (Personally, my favorite is the Pike's Place blend!!)
As addicting as caffeine can be it's always helpful to try and score a good deal on your grounds. Hopefully, these tips will help ya save a few dollars on your next K-cup purchase. I'm sure I've missed a few, so I'd love to hear from some of our readers on how you save money on Keurig products. Also, how do you like the Keurig? Would you recommend it to others?
10 Comments
I’m a thrifty guy also. I love coffee and drink literally pots per day, so I always have bulk coffee. When I want a single cup, I use a pour-over. I also have an AeroPress which I love. Each of these use very inexpensive filters and I find that they are less intrusive than a large Keurig type machine. They are also very easy to use. Just add hot water! Since my wife drinks tea, we always have hot water.
Pots per day?! Wowser. Thanks for sharing your experience with us.
The package deal at Costco seems to be the best deal around I’ve found. Its one of the higher-end models too and comes with a variety of flavors to try.
I’ve converted my non-coffee drinking husband to a loose tea addict. Its completely doable in this machine and tastes great. Works to pour it over ice too. And its healthier than the soda he was drinking!
Great article. I didn’t learn anything from it because I’ve been doing the exact same stuff for the past 12 months, but the breakdown and presentation of the material is perfect.
Additionally, Keurig has super friendly customer support. Just yesterday, I was having a problem with my machine. Called customer support, they walked me through the solution and when they asked if there was anything else they could help me with, I replied, “you could give me a free box of coffee for the last 8 K-Cups that just got destroyed,” and within 20 minutes, he sent me a coupon for a free box of 24 K-Cups and free shipping.
DON’T FORGET TO REGISTER YOUR MACHINE!!!!
I never tried this so I would like to get one for my hubby! Thanks,
They go for about $150-$200 new. Ya husband would appreciate it I’m sure! :)
I have been a loyal Keurig user for a couple years now as it makes a lot sense for me since my wife doesn’t drink coffee. So I get a fresh and hot cup on demand and don’t have any waster. I use the reusable coffee filters exclusively and really like them. Otherwise, it is just to darn expensive to use K-cups.
Agreed! Long term it doesn’t help ya save money by buying the K-cups. They provide a nice convenience though when you are in a hurry.
I’ve never used one of these new coffee machines, but just end up making a small pot at home. It works out fine, but perhaps for a single cup we might be better with one of those single-reusable K cup options.
Ya the single reusable K-cup is the best option in terms of savings. The Keurig helps ya ensure there is no coffee or water waste either.