Killing our Keurig

A couple of years ago I fell into a trap.

Our coffee machine went down in flames. Without coffee, I'm an irritable zombie. The rush was on to find coffee, fast! At the time my husband and I were both working pretty well-paying jobs, and were purchasing things that people "like us" seemed to purchase. I had a nice car, we lived in a nice apartment, so why wouldn't we buy what the media says is the nicest way to make coffee?

That's the story of how we bought a Keurig. For two years we used it as intended, buying K-cups of flavored coffee and feeling a sense of entitlement every time I created a piece of garbage for every single cup of coffee.

As we have become more mindful recently, we decided the Keurig was one thing that needed to be addresses. We lived the idea of single cups of coffee. My dad makes a single pot of 12 cups and usually drinks it for two days before dumping the rest down the drain. We did a little research and ended up buying a reusable insert for the machine with a metal mesh filter for under $6. It's this exact one.

Attachment 2180
You can put a tablespoon-ish of coffee in it, make about two single cups out of it (if you really wanted to, I just make one because I'm picky), and then dump the coffee and start again. Not only are we not creating unending waste every day with used K-cups, we are not wasting any coffee in the process! As a bonus, it costs just a fraction of what the single serve cups did.

The coffee we were buying in bulk before was $22 for 80 cups. Not bad, but terrible coffee! Per serving it was (rounded up) about 28 cents a cup. If we each drink one cup a day, that's about $200/yr.

The new coffee we found at Aldi is $5 for like 2 lbs. I forget the amount of tablespoon servings, but I do know it's about 4 cents a cup, or $30/yr. $36 a year if you count our initial $6 investment in the insert. Now that's savings!

It's not much, really. The chance to reduce our household waste means almost as much to me as the chance to save the money.

Hope you enjoyed reading!

Wow, I could have written the first half of your post myself!

I, too, am a coffee addict. My kids tell me I would head-butt them if they came between me and the coffeemaker in the morning. And, I, too, fell in love with my Keurig. I had a subscription of pods come to the house regularly.

I became disenchanted when I realized that there was no way I could get a cup of coffee at home with the Keurig for less than .47 a cup. Also, I realized that using up those plastic things was not in alignment with my environmental values.

So I did what you have done--I bought the little cups you fill yourself, which worked fine.

At some point, my Keurig died, and then I was faced with, do I buy another Keurig? After a lot of thinking and walking the aisles at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, I decided to get a standard Cuisinart drip coffeemaker with a thermal pot. I think I do what your dad does--I make one pot of 10 cups, and it lasts me two days. I just put it in the microwave and it tastes fine!

I'm moving to VT for the summer (for the first time--we just bought a little house up there) and because this house is only 700 square feet, I'm trying to keep everything as small as possible. To that end, I'm not bringing my huge coffeemaker. I got a nice size French press in a thermal carafe and to heat the water I got an electric kettle. I know that may seem counterintuitive--two pieces of equipment instead of one, but the kettle is multifunctional, has a thermostat so you don't brew the coffee with boiling water, I can also use it for tea, and it should be a quick process.

I'll let you know how it works out!

Thermal carafe? Please tell me more about this as it would be the size I am looking for. I find small ones but never one that will take 10 cups.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by catherine

Wow, I could have written the first half of your post myself!

I, too, am a coffee addict. My kids tell me I would head-butt them if they came between me and the coffeemaker in the morning. And, I, too, fell in love with my Keurig. I had a subscription of pods come to the house regularly.

I became disenchanted when I realized that there was no way I could get a cup of coffee at home with the Keurig for less than .47 a cup. Also, I realized that using up those plastic things was not in alignment with my environmental values.

So I did what you have done--I bought the little cups you fill yourself, which worked fine.

At some point, my Keurig died, and then I was faced with, do I buy another Keurig? After a lot of thinking and walking the aisles at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, I decided to get a standard Cuisinart drip coffeemaker with a thermal pot. I think I do what your dad does--I make one pot of 10 cups, and it lasts me two days. I just put it in the microwave and it tastes fine!

I'm moving to VT for the summer (for the first time--we just bought a little house up there) and because this house is only 700 square feet, I'm trying to keep everything as small as possible. To that end, I'm not bringing my huge coffeemaker. I got a nice size French press in a thermal carafe and to heat the water I got an electric kettle. I know that may seem counterintuitive--two pieces of equipment instead of one, but the kettle is multifunctional, has a thermostat so you don't brew the coffee with boiling water, I can also use it for tea, and it should be a quick process.

I'll let you know how it works out!

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by razz

Thermal carafe? Please tell me more about this as it would be the size I am looking for. I find small ones but never one that will take 10 cups.

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This is the one I use now, and I love it. Not cheap, but worth it--it's paid for itself in my being able to squeeze pennies out of every cup

https://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-DGB...t+coffee+maker


These are the two items I got for VT

https://www.amazon.com/Aztecus-Premi...s+coffee+maker

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Catherine,

The addiction is so, so real. I have never heard of a subscription to coffee pods..I'm glad I'm learning about this now rather than before we started our journey to frugality!!

It's amazing what happens when you start thinking of space as a limited commodity. We have more than enough room in our house now, but will be downsizing when we move as well. Your new system sound very interesting, like it might even make really good coffee! The day my Keurig dies I'm going to be looking into even better, more efficient solutions like you did.

I was doing the big coffeepot and drinking it for days method. Then I decided to get a one cup. It cost 34 and I love it. No paper filter is needed either. So I get fresh coffee every day. If I want a second cup I just add a little fresh coffee to the used grounds for the second cup.

We have two french press pots. One makes 1-2 cups, one makes...a huge amount.

If we have extra left over from the huge one, I stick in it the refrigerator and call it "cold brew".

I have an old, old 10-cup Mr. Coffee (40 years?) drip coffeemaker. I make 10 cups at a time and store the carafe in the refrigerator as I prefer my coffee cold. Sometimes, I just put a scoop of grounds in a Mason jar with water to make cold brew. Often, I just make instant (sounds of PNW card being revoked), which I drink with cream.

My husband does what BAE does. I’ve never learned to like the stuff. But I do like the French press method for reasons of simplicity.

I pour a cup of coffee and make sure my coffee/cream/sugar ratios are perfect. I drink a third of it and add a little more. I drink half of that and add a little more. I always leave at least a third which drives my husband crazy. I also make it so strong you could melt a spoon in it. He fills half his cup with water first.
A Keurig would never work for me because of my fussy ways and the waste from the cups always annoyed me. My sister in law is always trying to get me to drink a cup with her vast amount of flavors which take up waaaay to much counter space. I demure.......
After my mom died my dad was doing the old make a pot and drink it for days trick and we were horrified. We believed he deserved a fresh cup every morning and he was getting his Starbucks for free.