Cheapest Offline Place To Buy K-Cups For Your Keurig

I just went price-shopping for K-Cups, and what I found was NOT what I expected!

Using my Keurig 2.0 is so convenient, especially since I’m the only coffee drinker in our house.  My husband and children drink hot chocolate, and they use the Keurig to make that too.

I have the Solofill and a K-Carafe reusable filter, but nothing quite beats the convenience of grabbing a pre-filled K-Cup and tossing it in the machine.   There’s no need to use a separate paper filter or fill it with grounds (which, let’s face it, can be pretty messy when I’m not really awake yet).

What I would really like is a way to pre-fill several K-Cups with my own coffee all at once, so that when I’m in that early morning stupor, I can just grab one and throw it in the Keurig.  And, my brother roasts his own amazing coffee, so I’d love to be able to use that in the Keurig quickly and easily.

There are several kits you can buy for that sort of thing, but the cheapest for me in Canada would come to about $0.50 per K-Cup, not including the cost of the coffee.  Not as much as a savings as I’d like.

However, I started looking into an easier solution: buying commercial K-Cups in bulk.  And what I found is quite surprising.

I looked at the cost of major brands and the store brand for three different stores: Walmart, Costco, and Canadian Tire.

What I found was NOT what I expected.

Let’s use $0.66 as our baseline, because that’s what the bulk K-Cup stores around here usually sell them for.

I researched the prices of three of my favourite blends, and used the store brand version as a comparison.  It’s interesting to note that the flavoured coffee in each of these brands cost the same as the non-flavoured blend.

Here’s what I found:

Costco:

Van Houtte Original House Blend – 96 for $66.99 or $0.69 each

The Original Donut Shop – 96/$62.99 or $0.65 each

Folgers Lively Columbian – 80/$47.99 or $0.59 each

Store Brand “Kirkland” – 200/$86.99 or $0.43 each

Walmart:

Van Houtte Original House Blend – 30 for $19.97 or $0.66 each

The Original Donut Shop – 18/$12.57 or $0.70 each

Folgers Lively Columbian – 30/$18.97 or $0.63 each

Store Brand “Our Finest” – 12/$6.97 or $0.58 each

Canadian Tire:

Van Houtte Original House Blend – 30 for $17.88 or $0.59 each

The Original Donut Shop – 40/$19.88 or $0.49 each

Folgers Lively Columbian – 30/$17.88or $0.59 each

Store Brand “Frank” – 30/$14.88 or $0.50 each

What blew me away is that, according to these prices, the best place to buy coffee is the same place you buy your windshield wipers and patio furniture: Canadian Tire!

Granted, the cheapest place to buy the store brand K-Cups is Costco.  But I’d rather spend 7 extra cents per cup to avoid the crazy parking lot, crowds and huge check out lines … and have to pay for a membership for the privilege of even entering the store.  And, I prefer to stay away from store brands when it comes to coffee anyway.

With these prices, I think I’ll be stocking up at Canadian Tire the next time I go K-Cup shopping!

Do you use a single-serve coffee maker?  How do you keep costs low?