Woman too broke to buy coffee pods has simple solution when guests visit
Americans are now struggling to get even their morning coffee. TikTok creator Kat aka @kat71766 recently took to the platform to talk about this. In the video, the creator says how she can afford rent but not coffee pods. She says whenever she has guests over, she does something that solves the problem momentarily. "So since the inflation is now so high, I can no longer afford coffee pods, so whenever I have guests coming over, I just like to go and get coffee at the machine in my apartment. I have my coffee ready, in case they want coffee because I'm too embarrassed to say 'yeah, sorry I don't have coffee,'" she says, before showing how she gets coffee right now.
"I don't have a coffee machine anymore because my apartment has one that is amazing! Let's go down later sneaky sneaky," read one comment while another user wrote, "Not something to be embarrassed about. Use those amenities," to which the creator replies, "Yes I definitely will!"
"You could tell me that your apartment has coffee and we could go together. That's not embarrassing. That seems like a flex," writes another.
However, despite struggling with finances, Americans don't seem to give up on their coffee. According to a report, US coffee sales at retail alone in 2023 hit a solid $18.9 billion of the global total which makes the country the world's largest coffee market. “A major shift is taking place towards a more tech-driven, to-go model de-emphasizing the human aspect while ‘permissible indulgence’ spending cushions the sector against economic trouble," said Mathew Barry, insight manager food & beverage, Euromonitor International during the National Coffee Association’s (NCA) recent ‘US Coffee Outlook 2024’ webinar.
Among these, ready-to-drink coffee remains the top performer in terms of growth, which has slowed but still comes in at number one. However, the report also reveals how sales are expected to decline in the US in 2024. "A slowing segment overall has not damaged coffee. Sales were up 24% for the first three quarters of 2023 over the same period in 2022," Barry added. Americans do not want to be cutting back on things like coffee as they believe that it's not going to solve their problems.
"As small treats become increasingly more expensive with inflation, now is a great time to do the math on how much they are really costing you. I don’t believe that cutting out your daily takeout coffee will fix all your financial problems or make you suddenly able to afford a house but I do believe that many frequent small purchases may add up to a lot more than many people realize," Ashley Rittershaus, a certified financial planner (CFP) and founder of Curious Crow Financial Planning tells Fortune.
While cutting back may not be a sustainable option, looking for cheaper alternatives and minimizing usage may help you save a bit of money in the long term.