You might need two coffees each day to keep you functioning, but do you know what that habit is doing to your budget?

As the holidays fade and many of us head back into the office for one, two, or maybe even the full five days per week, it’s very likely that our habits will kick back into action. Workers have some very specific habits.

Coffees and beers. Not together, though we’re sure some crazy concoction exists down at your local bottle-o with a craft section.

Specifically, we’re talking about how many of each you might consume daily or weekly.

In the morning, you might only function with your preferred prepared caffeinated drink of choice, and you might need a second or third throughout the day. Coffee is one of those drinks we can grow to depend on, even though it can become a rather aggressive budget breaking habit.

It’s a similar situation if you regularly do what the song says: get on the beers.

If you find yourself at the pub with mates for a few schooners or pints regularly, or even a cheeky glass or bottle shared between friends, the habit of going out and drinking could be leaving a hole in your budget, and one you want explained.

So let’s explain that.

Calculating a habit

In simplsaver, you can add something to “Drinks”, and we won’t tell you what that’ll be. It could be anything: coffee, beer, bubble tea, a protein shake. Really, a drink is just anything you regularly consume that you want to calculate.

We’ll start with coffee: add a drink and name it coffee, punch in how much you normally spend, and then choose the frequency and how many you’d have throughout that period.

For instance, if you normally have two drinks every weekday because you drink them at work, you set the frequency to “Weekday” and the number to 2. You can add a note if it helps remind you what you’re consuming, such as a preferred order like “large almond flat white”. Hit save.

Immediately, you’ll get a line item for the beverage, and a dent to your budget. Touch that line item and you’ll see what your coffee hit is doing to your budget for the year, and the numbers might not be so favourable.

Prices for coffee can vary wildly across Australia, with the non-dairy milk adding a good fifty cents to everything. If you’re used to spending $5.50 twice a day on every business day, your coffee ritual is eating $220 of your monthly budget and making a dent of $2860 yearly. That might be more than your home insurance costs. Yikes.

Explaining the impact of a beer or three

Drinks with friends weekly can have a similar dent on your budget if left unchecked. Even though it may be lower in frequency, the cost of a schooner could be as much as $10, potentially making for a costly time.

Add that to your personal simplsaver list and see what it looks like.

Throw in a drink and add the cost, setting the frequency to however many times you’re out drinking and the number to how many you pay for. For instance, if you normally pay for three schooners every Friday at $10 each, you’re burning $1560 yearly into your budget and $127.50 a month.

Everything adds up

The point is that everything adds up and everything in your budget can be explained. When you’re trying to work out where your money is going, that explanation can help you make a dent in actually saving money.

You probably have more costs than just your drinking habits. You have phone, internet, petrol, and more, so add these and see what your regular spending is doing to your budget each and every month. If you’re trying to cut costs, it might just give you the path to work out what you can do without, and what you can cut back on to make things better.