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Suze Orman<\/a> has spent the past few decades urging Americans to save more and invest wisely. The best-selling author<\/a> and longtime TV and podcast host<\/a> has also amassed a fortune of her own, reportedly worth tens of millions<\/a> of dollars.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite her financial success, she has repeatedly spoken out about one everyday expense: buying food and beverages, especially coffee.<\/p>\n The 75-year-old millionaire has said she won\u2019t spend money at coffee shops<\/a>. Instead, she chooses to make her own brew at home.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI do Cafe Bustelo coffee every morning,\u201d she told The Wall Street Journal<\/a> in 2024. \u201cI would drop dead before I bought a coffee \u2014 I do one cup a day and that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n Orman said that repeated small purchases can add up over time. She noted that money spent on coffee each month could instead go into an investment account, such as a Roth IRA<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Orman broke down the math: If someone spends around $100 on coffee each month and instead put that money into a Roth IRA<\/a>, the funds would grow to around $1 million<\/a> after 40 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou need to think about it as: You are peeing $1 million down the drain as you are drinking that coffee,\u201d Orman said to CNBC<\/a> in 2019. \u201cDo you really want to do that? No.\u201d<\/p>\n She told the outlet that she would never buy a cup of coffee, despite being able to afford it, because she would \u201cnot insult\u201d herself \u201cby wasting money that way.\u201d Takeout coffee is a \u201cwant,\u201d not a \u201cneed,\u201d she added.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a more recent interview with the Journal<\/a>, published earlier this week, Orman called eating out one of the biggest wastes of money.<\/p>\n \u201cWe still to this day eat at home,\u201d Orman said in the interview, noting that her wife, television producer Kathy Travis<\/a>, had prepared congee rice for lunch and meatloaf for dinner that day. The two of them sometimes eat at restaurants, but not because they want to. They view eating at restaurants as a way to meet friends and catch up. Orman added that she still worries about how the restaurant bill could impact her friends, and routinely pays for dinner.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf we go out to eat, the deal is we have to pay because I am not going to let people, who I know don\u2019t have the kind of money that we have, waste their money on food eating out,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Orman\u2019s aversion to dining out may resonate even more now that restaurant meals have become noticeably pricier. From December 2024 through December 2025, the cost of \u201cfood away from home,\u201d the category that includes restaurant and takeout meals, rose 4.1%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a>. That outpaced both the 2.4% increase in grocery prices and the 2.7% rise in consumer prices overall during the same period.<\/p>\n \u201cLook up McDonald\u2019s<\/a>. Look up Taco Bell<\/a>. Are you kidding me? $23, $30 just to go to McDonald\u2019s for whatever you eat there,\u201d Orman said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Suze Orman<\/a> has spent the past few decades urging Americans to save more and invest wisely. The best-selling author<\/a> and longtime TV and podcast host<\/a> has also amassed a fortune of her own, reportedly worth tens of millions<\/a> of dollars.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite her financial success, she has repeatedly spoken out about one everyday expense: buying food and beverages, especially coffee.<\/p>\n The 75-year-old millionaire has said she won\u2019t spend money at coffee shops<\/a>. Instead, she chooses to make her own brew at home.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nExtending that philosophy to food<\/h2>\n
Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n
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