You don’t have to buy outrageously priced cups of Joe to go any longer. Making coffee at home is fast, easy and costs only pennies rather than dollars.

As the economy tanks, people of all economic levels are looking for ways to save money without eliminating the most pleasurable parts of their lifestyle. Coffee purchased at boutique shops can be a budget breaker. But when the need for caffeine calls, what can a struggling American do? Many people don’t make their own coffee because they don’t feel their brewing quality comes close to the professionally brewed variety. It takes only a few concepts to master and the coffee you brew at home will not only rival what you can buy for $2, it will surpass it in freshness, taste and yes, cost.

Step 1 – The Basic Coffee Pot

For drip coffee, any brand of coffee maker will do as long as it has one very important feature. It must have the ability to let you pour coffee in the middle of the brew cycle while it stops the drip. The best drip coffee comes from a system using paper filters. An oily bean, such as French Roast, makes for excellent coffee. However, the paper filter soaks up a lot of excess oil and in systems that have a built in filter, all that oils seeps through and dances around in your cup.

Step 2 – The Coffee Beans

Start with beans and use any grinder to release the flavor just before brewing. If you’re not familiar with the variety of coffee beans available, stick with French Roast. Coffee is much like wine, there are a hundred varieties and blends available but we’ll make this easy for beginners. If you have a social conscience, look for the “fair trade” symbol on the coffee package and then you can be assured the farmer was paid a fair price for the product. Shop around for beans and make sure you know whether you’re buying a pound or 12 ounces. Some of the large membership warehouses have good deals on great beans. Once you have your ground beans, measure two tablespoons of coffee for every 6 ounces of water.

Step 3 – Additions

How do you like your coffee? Black? A little cream? Cream and sugar? Make sure that you’re adding something that will improve the flavor for you, not take away from the quality. If you’re purchasing half and half, read the label. You want two ingredients: milk and cream. A lot of half and half marketed today is “ultra pasteurized” which contains many additives that allow the product to sit on the shelf longer. It may last longer, but it won’t make your coffee taste better.

What about the water you use? Do you drink your tap water? If you won’t drink water from your tap, then don’t make your coffee with it. Use a filtering system that you keep in the refrigerator or attach to your faucet. You just can’t make good coffee with bad tasting water.

Need your coffee to go? Get a travel mug with a closing or locking top that can take a tumble without spilling. Make sure the interior is stainless steel and insulated. While your coffee is brewing, fill the mug with super hot water to prepare it to keep your coffee as hot as can be. If you don’t want to lug around a travel mug all day after you’re done, grocery stores and discount stores now carry disposable coffee cups and lids.

Step 4 – Time is money

How much time does it take? Give yourself a good 15 minutes to make your morning coffee. That’s much faster than driving to a coffee shop, waiting in line and then driving to work or school. Getting up a few minutes early is worth saving a few hundred dollars over the course of a year.

Step 5 – Now, let’s make coffee!

With the filter in the coffee maker, add the ground coffee and water using two tablespoons of ground coffee beans for every six ounces of water. Start the brew but do not put the carafe in its place yet. Let the water heat up and fill the basket of grounds. When the water and grounds mix gets up to the top of the filter, put the carafe in place and let the coffee drip through. Once the carafe is filled with all the coffee, pour it on top of the grounds again to let it drip through a second time. NOTE: Do not pour the coffee into the water chamber. This second soaking really gets all of the flavor out of the coffee grounds.

Let all of the coffee drip from the filter into the carafe. Once it’s all out, immediately pour the coffee into your cup or travel mug. Many coffee makers don’t bring the temperature of the coffee higher than a good drinking temp. If you’re going to add cream, you may want to microwave the coffee for about 20 seconds prior to adding the cream. Make sure you use a microwave safe cup for heating, generally not the travel mug. You do not want to microwave your coffee after adding the cream as this will have a negative effect on the flavor. You also do not want to leave the carafe filled with freshly brewed coffee sitting on the warming pad as this will leave your coffee tasting old and burnt.

That’s all there is to it. You’ll want to experiment with amounts of ground coffee beans, but these are the basics that will help you save money and time. It’s also great when you don’t have to rely on someone else to make something so simple. One warning: once you start making coffee for friends, they are going to love spending time at your place!