What would REALLY happen if you didn't buy a daily coffee and saved the money instead?

Daily Mail​

17-05-2025

The price of a takeaway coffee has soared in recent years.
Some towns, especially those in and around London, have already seen the price of a takeaway coffee nudge beyond £4 and experts say we're just three years away from the £5 cup of coffee becoming the norm.
And in the past decade, it has been repeated time and time again: 'Stop buying coffees out and you might actually be able to save some money' - or better yet, it's the answer to saving for a house deposit... second only to ditching the avocados.
Now, savings platform Flagstone has crunched the numbers to see if the debate stacks up.
It says the average daily spend on a takeaway coffee is £3.40, amounting to £102 a month.
This is based on buying a takeaway coffee every day (not just the regular working week).
If the money was diverted each month into a savings account and compounded annually at an interest rate of 4.5 per cent, it could add up to nearly £7,000 over five years.
Putting £102 a month into a savings account compounding annually at 4.5 per cent over five years would grow to £6,849. This assumes that each monthly deposit earns interest at 4.5 per cent annually for five-years.
The magic of compound interest, branded the eight wonder of the world by Albert Einstein, is to partly to thank for this.
Compounding is the addition, repeatedly, of interest to the principal amount of a deposit.
It describes what happens when you earn interest on both the money you initially deposit in a savings account, plus the interest you have already earned on that starting amount.
If the same tactic was adopted for money spent on regular nights out, it could prove even more lucrative when it comes to helping to build up a savings pot.
The average person splashes out £317 on nights out a month, according to Flagstone, making it one of the biggest black holes in monthly finances.
If this sum were redirected monthly into a savings account instead, it would grow to £21,285 over the five years.
The second highest earnings opportunity could come from doing more housework yourself and putting the money you would have spent on a cleaner into a savings account.
While having a cleaner can save time, spending on cleaners rose by 9.4 per cent last year, driven by increases to the national living wage.
Currently, the average monthly cleaning cost is £150. If this money was saved instead - and compounded at 4.5 per cent interest - you could earn an extra £10,072 after five years.
People spend around on £237 average a month on meal kits, meal deals and takeaways.
Putting this money into a high-interest savings account instead would save £15,914 over five years in a 4.5 per cent savings account.
While cancelling subscriptions Subscriptions to Disney +, Amazon Prime, Audible and Apple TV and funnelling what you would save from this into a high-interest account would save between £536 and £537, per subscription, over five years.
The table below allows you to see the daily spend, monthly spend and finally, how much it would save you over five years.
If you were to stop spending on all of the above, you could save £76,479, if you placed the savings into a savings account offering 4.5 per cent interest. This figure relies on saving across all categories above.
This is well over the average deposit on a new home, which is now around £53,414
Savers can currently get easy-access accounts payng 4.75 per cent, but this is likely to fall over the next six months as the Bank of England base rate is prediced to fall.
Claire Jones, head of strategic relationships and new dusiness at Flagstone said: 'Spending on common items like nights out and coffees might not seem to have a huge impact on your bank balance.
'But reducing outgoings and redirecting that money to high-interest savings accounts could prove lucrative for individuals keen to focus on their wealth goals.'