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According to XTB, there has been a significant rise in coffee prices, including a 100% year-on-year increase in commodity prices. Consumers have already felt the squeeze, with the price of an average Americano increasing by over 12% in the last three years.

If, like many, you rely on a caffeine hit to get you through the day, here are some easy ways to keep a lid on your coffee spending.

The rising price of coffee in 2021

Due to the substantial price rise, XTB reports that the coffee market was “in serious chaos last year”. The ICE Arabica coffee futures contract is currently trading around $240 per pound, compared to $100 in January 2021. According to Fortune.com, coffee has posted “the largest price rise of any commodity in 2021 – a year that has consistently broken records across markets for energy and food.”

What’s caused this increase in coffee prices? Two key factors are extreme weather events impacting supply, and an increase in energy, shipping and labour costs. These costs are now being passed on to consumers, with XTB estimating the price of a cup of coffee could increase by 30%.

What are the most expensive coffee choices?

According to XTB, cappuccino-lovers pay the highest average price per cup at £2.75. Lattes are a close second at £2.74. The cheapest option is a single espresso at £1.67. The average prices of Americanos, cappuccinos and lattes have all increased by more than 10% in the last three years.

The major coffee shop chains charge very similar prices for regular coffees. Based on a medium Americano to take away, Costa offers the cheapest option at £2.85, followed by £2.90 at Starbucks and £2.95 at Caffè Nero (in Central London).

How to save money on your takeaway coffee

Here are a few tips to help you save money on your takeaway coffee:

• Most coffee shops offer a 25p-50p discount for bringing your own reusable mug.
• Sign up for loyalty schemes: Costa offers your ninth cup of coffee free, although Starbucks requires you to buy 20 regular Americanos to earn one free cup.
• For heavy (coffee) drinkers, the monthly subscription at Pret a Manger might be worth considering. It offers five hot drinks a day for £20 per month. At £2.40 per coffee, this might be good value for people drinking more than eight coffees a month.
• Look beyond the coffee shop chains: McDonald’s offers a cheaper option at 99p for an Americano.
• Consider ordering a smaller size or dropping the extras: although a painful test of willpower, losing the whipped cream, marshmallows and extra shot of vanilla might be a good option for your wallet – and your health.
• And the best cost-saving tip? Make your own coffee at home and fill up a flask.

Save money by brewing your coffee at home

For the more casual coffee drinker, the price of a cup of Nescafe Gold Blend is around 5p and the more upmarket Nescafe Azerais 10p.

If you’re looking to buy a coffee machine, Nespresso machines are a popular choice. Their machines typically cost upwards of £80 and require you to buy individual capsules to make a cup of coffee. There’s a wide range of speciality coffee types, costing around 35p-50p per capsule.

At home, I had a Nespresso machine that was small and easy to clean. However, the cup size was relatively modest and required two capsules to make a large Americano. During lockdown, my coffee-loving husband got through £150 of capsules in a month, so it was time for a rethink.

Bean-to-cup machines may be attractive to households drinking a large number of coffees. Budget models cost around £50-£100, with mid-range machines costing £300-£500. The beans cost around 14p for a large Americano, enabling us to recoup the higher initial outlay on the bean-to-cup machine after a few months.

How the savings can add up

A New Year’s resolution to buy one less takeaway coffee a day could add up to a substantial saving of £20 a week or £1,000 a year. Invest it for a few years in a Stocks and Shares ISA and you might be able to upgrade from a wet mini-break in the UK to a dream trip to Sydney.

According to Goldman Sachs, the S&P 500 achieved annual returns of 13.6% over the past 10 years. Although past performance is not an indicator of future results, investing £1,000 a year for five years would have resulted in a pot of nearly £6,000 based on these annual returns. It’s a good way to stop your morning coffee habit leaving a bitter taste in your mouth.

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Some offers on The Motley Fool UK site are from our partners — it’s how we make money and keep this site going. But does that impact our ratings? Nope. Our commitment is to you. If a product isn’t any good, our rating will reflect that, or we won’t list it at all. Also, while we aim to feature the best products available, we do not review every product on the market. Learn more here. The statements above are The Motley Fool’s alone and have not been provided or endorsed by bank advertisers. John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. The Motley Fool UK has recommended Barclays, Hargreaves Lansdown, HSBC Holdings, Lloyds Banking Group, Mastercard, and Tesco.

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Apparently, the colour of your car can say a lot about your personality.

Black is believed by many to be the ultimate power colour. It suggests that you are a serious, self-confident and sophisticated individual. White suggests that you like things that convey simplicity and neatness. A colour like red, meanwhile, gives the impression that you are not afraid of attention, or that you are aggressive or impulsive. Of course, it could just be that you find a certain colour pleasing on the eye!

So, which colours are most Brits going for when buying a new car? And why are those colours so popular? I’ve got the answers.

The UK’s favourite car colours

For the fourth year in a row, grey tops the list of the UK’s most popular car colours, according to figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

The data shows that 408,155 grey cars were sold in 2021, which is a quarter (24.8%) of all cars sold. In second place is black, with 337,351 cars in this colour sold, accounting for 20.5% of the market. White takes third place with 282,529 cars sold, or 17.2% of the total market. Blue, with 279,891 vehicles sold or 17.0% of the market, and Red, with 145,273 vehicles sold or 8.8% of the market, round out the top five.

The full list of the 10 most popular new car colours as established by SMMT is as follows:

Rank	Colour	No. of registrations	Market share (%)	Volume change compared to 2020
1	Grey	408,155	24.8	+2.8
2	Black	337,351	20.5	+3.9
3	White	282,529	17.2	-0.3
4	Blue	279,891	17.0	+1.4
5	Red	145,273	8.8	-1.3
6	Silver	111,549	6.8	-8.7
7	Green	17,927	1.1	+24.0
8	Orange	16,642	1.0%	-19.2
9	Yellow	8,952	0.5%	+31.3
10	Bronze	4,500	0.3%	+12.4

Why is grey so popular?

The popularity of grey could be due to a number of factors. SMMT says that grey “can be a sleek and deeper tone than other shades” and that it is “well suited to black trims and darker wheels”.

Furthermore, grey provides an appealing compromise between the traditionally popular colours of black and white. On a practical level, grey also tends to hide dirt better than other colours.

Grey may also be popular for financial reasons. For example, when it comes to resale value, grey is a “potentially safer choice”. It’s a neutral colour, so going for a grey car is similar to painting the walls in your house magnolia before you sell it.

The SMMT says that grey has a wider resale appeal than stronger colours. In fact, according to a previous study, black cars can lose up to 68% of their value when reselling.

What else does the data show?

In the run-up to the 2030 ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles, the research from the SMMT shows that there is a growing preference among Brits for ‘green cars’. Figures reveal that electric and hybrid vehicles accounted for more than one in every six car registrations, up from one in every ten in 2020 and one in every thirty in 2019.

And while there’s no doubt that greener engines are becoming popular, a matching green exterior is too. The data shows green cars were 24% more popular in 2021 than they were in 2020. 

Grey, however, remains the most popular colour of choice among Brits across all fuel types.

That said, white was found to be the most popular shade for mini and sports cars, while larger dual-purpose, luxury saloons, and executive cars were most likely to be black.

What else do you need to know when buying a new car?

Thinking of buying a new car in 2022? Colour is an important factor to consider, but it is not the only one. In fact, there are far more important factors to ponder, such as price, engine size and specifications, features and technology.

The most important thing when buying a car is to do your research before you take the plunge. That might include reading online reviews for the models you’re interested in or speaking with people who already own those models. This can help make a decision on whether a specific car model is right for you.

Finally, remember that you will need insurance for your new car. With car insurance premiums on the rise, make sure you take the time to compare quotes from various providers to ensure you get the best possible deal.

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Some offers on The Motley Fool UK site are from our partners — it’s how we make money and keep this site going. But does that impact our ratings? Nope. Our commitment is to you. If a product isn’t any good, our rating will reflect that, or we won’t list it at all. Also, while we aim to feature the best products available, we do not review every product on the market. Learn more here. The statements above are The Motley Fool’s alone and have not been provided or endorsed by bank advertisers. John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. The Motley Fool UK has recommended Barclays, Hargreaves Lansdown, HSBC Holdings, Lloyds Banking Group, Mastercard, and Tesco.

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Around 25% of Brits are worried that they are not saving enough for a comfortable retirement and fear they need a better pension. On top of this, rising inflation is making it harder than ever to keep up with the cost of living in old age.

Helen Morrissey, senior pension and retirement analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, has revealed two pension-boosting tricks that you may not know about. Here’s how to take advantage of payments and secure a better pension for your future.

The secrets to securing a better pension pot

Many Brits are unaware of how to increase their pensions to fund a better standard of living in retirement. The majority of people are restricted to an allowance of £40,000 per year. However, Helen Morrissey says that this shouldn’t stop you from contributing more whenever you can.

She explains that there are two ways some people may be able to pay more into their pension pots each year. If you are able to, this could be a great way to boost your funds and secure a better financial future.

1. Don’t stick to employer minimums!

If you receive a workplace pension, you will probably be aware of employer minimums. These are the minimum payments that you and your employer must make into your pension fund each month. While many people tend to stick to these minimum payments, it is possible to increase your contributions.

Employer minimums are simply guidelines that have been put in place to ensure that all workers receive fair contributions. However, there are no rules around increasing your own pension contributions.

You are free to contribute as much as you like into your pot – up to the £40,000 per year allowance. Helen Morrissey recommends taking advantage of your yearly allowance and contributing as much as you can each year. You can make contributions however you like. Therefore, you may want to consider making larger contributions during times when you have a bit of extra cash.

2. Carry forward

If you are unable to contribute the full £40,000 allowance into your fund, you could carry the excess into the following year.

Carry forward rules mean that, if you have any unused allowance in any of the last three tax years, you can use this to increase your allowance this year. This is an excellent loophole for self-employed individuals who may have a fluctuating salary.

For example, if, in the previous tax year, you only paid £20,000 into your pension fund, you could receive an extra £20,000 on top of this year’s allowance. Therefore, you could pay up to £60,000 into your pot this year!

Carry forward rules make it possible to increase your contributions when you have the funds available. Consequently, you won’t miss out on any of your pension allowances.

How to keep track of your contributions

Keeping track of your pension contributions makes it easy to know how much of your allowance you have left. A good idea is to make a note every time that you contribute to your pension fund.

You can also use your annual pension statements to keep track of how much you contribute each year. Once you access your pot, your annual allowance will reduce to just £4,000. Therefore, it is important to make the most of your annual allowances while you can!

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Some offers on The Motley Fool UK site are from our partners — it’s how we make money and keep this site going. But does that impact our ratings? Nope. Our commitment is to you. If a product isn’t any good, our rating will reflect that, or we won’t list it at all. Also, while we aim to feature the best products available, we do not review every product on the market. Learn more here. The statements above are The Motley Fool’s alone and have not been provided or endorsed by bank advertisers. John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. The Motley Fool UK has recommended Barclays, Hargreaves Lansdown, HSBC Holdings, Lloyds Banking Group, Mastercard, and Tesco.

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The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has generally been negative, but a few good things have emerged from it. We have been pushed to be much more flexible and open-minded than before to cope with the new normal. Businesses have also had to adopt changes to enable them to reap benefits in the short and long term.

One of these changes is the hybrid working model, which has been beneficial to employees and employers. In fact, some small businesses have saved an average of £4,000 monthly thanks to the model. Here’s how.

How is the hybrid working model saving small businesses money?

Rent

As the pandemic took hold and working from home became the norm, small businesses quickly realised they were renting too much space and paying inflated rental rates.

With the working from home (WFH) or hybrid working model, such large amounts of space are no longer needed, meaning reduced rental rates. In fact, research from Hitachi Capital Business Finance reveals that small businesses with fewer than 50 employees are saving around £4,000 a month on rent.

Utility bills

Energy prices are a hot topic right now, particularly following the news that Ofgem is raising the price cap by 54%. With the energy crisis significantly impacting both gas and electricity bills, many small businesses are deeply concerned about rising costs.

The hybrid working model has helped some small businesses to reduce some of their utility bills, leading to some significant savings.

Are there any concerns?

Undoubtedly, businesses are making huge savings, and so are employees. Many workers are happy that they don’t have to spend money commuting from home to office, as the hybrid model means they are needed in the office far less frequently. However, there are some concerns.

What will happen to employees whose jobs rely on workers being in the office, such as cleaners and catering staff? Does the hybrid model mean they lose their jobs? Some are worried that in the long term, the hybrid model may bring about productivity concerns because of lack of motivation, poor socialisation and distractions due to the lack of a good working environment.

And in light of Ofgem’s recent announcement, some employees are concerned about increasing home utility bills, which would be lower if they were in the office.

Take home

Like every business decision owners make, especially during the pandemic, many factors need to be considered first. The hybrid working model may or may not be suitable for your business, but if it is, it’s worth finding out whether you can save some cash.

The good news is that most employers claim that their workers are happy, and productivity hasn’t been affected. In fact, employees don’t miss the long drives to work or getting stuck in traffic on cold and wet mornings. They work better and have plenty of time to bond with their families.

Employers are reporting huge savings from not having to pay inflated rental rates and heating and lighting bills on the business side, suggesting that overall, it’s a win-win situation.

Evaluate your business and consider all positive and negative factors, and remember to include your employees in your decision-making.

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Some offers on The Motley Fool UK site are from our partners — it’s how we make money and keep this site going. But does that impact our ratings? Nope. Our commitment is to you. If a product isn’t any good, our rating will reflect that, or we won’t list it at all. Also, while we aim to feature the best products available, we do not review every product on the market. Learn more here. The statements above are The Motley Fool’s alone and have not been provided or endorsed by bank advertisers. John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. The Motley Fool UK has recommended Barclays, Hargreaves Lansdown, HSBC Holdings, Lloyds Banking Group, Mastercard, and Tesco.

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The electric vehicle (EV) revolution is well and truly upon us. Ahead of the 2030 UK ban on the sale of petrol and diesel cars, the EV market has experienced a boom over the last year.

This is reflected in both a significant increase in online searches for EVs and increased sales of EVs. But which are the most popular EVs right now? And what do you need to know before purchasing one? Read on to find out.

What’s happening in the electric vehicle (EV) market

In a difficult 2021 car market marked by sales that were nearly 30% lower than pre-pandemic levels, electric vehicles proved to be a bright spot.

Figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show that a total of 1.65 million cars were registered in 2021, which is 1% higher than in 2020 but 28.7% lower than in 2019 before the pandemic.

Of these registrations, 190,727 were for battery electric vehicles (BEVs), which is higher than the figure for the previous five years combined. Registrations for plug-in-hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), meanwhile, stood at 114,554. In total, electric vehicles accounted for 18.5% of all new cars registered in the UK in 2021.

Aside from the increased sales figures for EVs, Google Trends data shows that search interest in EVs has increased dramatically, with the search term ‘best electric cars 2022’ seeing a 2,100% increase.

Which are the most popular electric vehicles (EVs)?

As electric vehicles become more common on the road, their social media appeal is also growing.

With this in mind, car insurance comparison site Quotezone combed through Instagram and TikTok to find the EVs shared or bragged about most often by users.

The research revealed that Tesla leads the pack when it comes to online popularity. The two EVs that received the highest number of hashtags were both Tesla models. These are the Tesla Model 3 and the Tesla Model S, with 1,300, 591,645, and 371,892,974 shares respectively, on TikTok and Instagram.

In third place is the Audi e-tron with 167,907,366 shares, followed by the Porsche Taycan with 92,971,382 shares. The Ford Mustang Mach-E, with 34,411,216 shares, closes out the top 5.

Here is the complete list of the top 10 most popular EVs according to Quotezone:

Rank	Electric Vehicle Model	Total no. of social shares
1	Tesla Model 3	1,300,591,645
2	Tesla Model S	371,892,974
3	Audi e-tron	167,907,366
4	Porsche Taycan	92,971,382
5	Ford Mustang Mach-E	34,411,216
6	Nissan Leaf	23,141,917
7	Volvo XC40 Recharge	16,205,825
8	BMW i3	15,927,608
9	Kia EV6	13,813,314
10	Hyundai Ioniq 5	12,493,489

What do you need to know before purchasing an EV?

Aside from the obvious benefit of being less polluting, electric vehicles are much cheaper to run than fuel-powered cars. Credit broker Norton Finance says that EVs usually cost about £106 less per year to run, saving owners approximately £1,492 on average lifetime bills.

With electric cars, you also don’t have to worry about paying congestion fees. Furthermore, EVs are said to hold their value better than their petrol and diesel counterparts.

However, there are a few drawbacks to be aware of.

The lack of a widespread EV charging network in the UK means that finding a charging point can be difficult at times, especially if you live far from a major urban centre. However, the government is taking steps to address this. For example, it has been announced that beginning in 2022, all new homes and buildings in England will be built with EV charging points.

It’s worth noting that electric vehicles can be more expensive to insure than petrol- and diesel-powered cars. Therefore, before you close the deal on one, take some time first to compare car insurance quotes to increase the odds of scoring the best possible deal for your circumstances.

Finally, there is the issue of buying costs. Right now, EVs are generally more expensive to buy than their petrol and diesel counterparts. If you have decided that your next car will be an EV, the good news is that there are plenty of ways to finance the purchase, including unsecured personal loans, personal contract plan (PCP) or hire purchase.

What’s more, you may be eligible for a government grant of up to £1,500 to purchase your next EV. Check out the gov.uk website for more on this.

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Some offers on The Motley Fool UK site are from our partners — it’s how we make money and keep this site going. But does that impact our ratings? Nope. Our commitment is to you. If a product isn’t any good, our rating will reflect that, or we won’t list it at all. Also, while we aim to feature the best products available, we do not review every product on the market. Learn more here. The statements above are The Motley Fool’s alone and have not been provided or endorsed by bank advertisers. John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. The Motley Fool UK has recommended Barclays, Hargreaves Lansdown, HSBC Holdings, Lloyds Banking Group, Mastercard, and Tesco.

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