The one thing you do every day that's costing over $1,200 a year.

By ZOE LAWRENCE

A year ago, I stopped buying coffee.

Not because I don’t like it. There are few things I love more than a really decent flat white on a weekday morning.

But my daily coffee started to become so much more than coffee. It was my crutch; the one thing I would rely on to get me out of bed in the morning. And I never made my own coffee, so my day at work was only a good one if I’d managed to get down to the coffee shop by 10am.

I was spending a minimum of $4 per day on coffee. That $4 bought me just one cup.

More often than not, I’d also add on some toast or a muffin – so I was forking over $6 or $7. Sometimes I’d want another coffee in the afternoon, putting me past the $10 mark.

$10 isn’t a lot to spend in one day. But it really, really adds up – something I didn’t quite realise until I saw a statistic that buying coffee every day for a year is the equivalent of spending $1,277.50.

Just FYI, you should know that this post is sponsored by Shout for Good. But the opinions expressed by the author are 100% authentic and written in their own words. 

I couldn’t believe it. That amount of money could buy me:

• A laptop;
• A trip to Fiji;
• A one-way flight to Europe;
• A gym membership; or
• A really nice handbag.

Breaking it down, even a small amount of money per day can make a huge difference – maybe not to our own lives, but absolutely in the lives of others.

When it comes to charity, even tiny amounts of money can contribute to a really significant change. Take, for example, the charity Foodbank – with just $10, they can provide 100 Aussie kids with a bowl of cereal and milk.

That’s breakfast for all those kids that don’t usually get breakfast. Food for thought, right?

Don’t hate me – but I’ve always been a little bit hesitant to donate a lot of money to charity, thinking that I don’t have a lot of spare change. After all, my job has never paid a fortune. I can never afford extravagant holidays, clothes or shoes.

But I never thought twice about handing $4 over to my coffee shop in the mornings. Money that could have gone towards something much more worthwhile.

And as you must already know, I’m not the only Australian with a coffee problem. According to a 2013 report from DeLonghi, 90% of Australians aged 18 and over drink coffee – a third of whom drink 3 – 4 cups per day. Only about half of these Australians have a coffee machine at home.

All up, Aussies spent about $773 million on coffee beans and associated coffee products in 2013, and bought over 2 billion cups of coffee.

Our coffee industry, incidentally, is rolling in it – in 2014-15, it’s estimated to be worth about $4.3 billion.

That’s a ridiculous amount of cash that could really be going towards making a difference.

As a result, I gave up the coffee. It wasn’t easy to do, but I did manage to break the addiction eventually – and I’m saving that money for bigger, better things.

These days, I’m also sure to donate a few dollars to charity wherever I can. It doesn’t matter if it’s a big or small amount.

I may not be Oprah or Bill Gates. But a lot can happen from a little, and it’s really easy to make a huge difference to people in need – just by donating a very small amount.

I still sometimes buy myself one of those coffee shop muffins though…

What good cause would you put your coffee money towards?

Monday 29th September is World Coffee Day, and Shout is encouraging consumers to ‘Shout’ (donate) the value of their morning coffee to their favourite charity via the Shout App. Click the button below to donate now.

Scroll through our gallery of charitable celebs…

Shout

 is the first of its kind. An App, website and platform that integrates the act of giving into multiple, everyday touch points. Shout truly values micro-donations, knowing that when these seemingly insignificant amounts are amassed they have the potential to create larger, more regular income streams for not for profits.