This Sounds Like A Trick Question ...

[bednobs]

my husband has just blithely informed me that buying unground coffee beans is better value because when you grind a kilo of beans, you get more than if you bought a kilo of ground coffee.
Please tell me he's not right!

[Sunk]

He is wrong.
The weight is the same.
The volume might be slightly different.

[bookbinder]

Ah! 'you get more'... yes, but you might get more cups of coffee, dependant on how big a spoonful you put in your coffee cup.

[AuntPollyGrey]

Well he is kind of right in that the volume will be greater. You measure coffee by volume into the coffee maker, not by weight, so a kilo of whole beans, once ground up, will give you more measures of coffee for the machine. It also depends on the price of the beans vis-a-vis ready ground.

[Buenchico]

His logic definitely seems to be wrong but the basic idea that buying whole beans can work out cheaper than buying ground ones may still be true.

That's simply because you often have to pay more for ground beans than you would for the same weight of whole beans. (i.e. you're paying for the grinding process as well as for the beans). It's nothing to do with the amount of coffee you get from a given weight though!

[bednobs]

the beans are twice the price of ground.
He puts 3 spoonfuls in the machine

[Herbgardener]

Do you have a grinder?
Will he grind the beans?
Has he worked out how much time and money it will take the grind the beans?

[AuntPollyGrey]

Whatever the price difference its much nicer to have freshly ground/brewed coffee.

[AuntPollyGrey]

About 20 seconds to grind 3 tablespoons of beans in an electric grinder.

[bednobs]

i hate coffee so couldn't care less about the taste. However, i do care about my bank account :)

[Fitzer]

If the beans are twice the price of the ground then I don’t think they can be the same coffee as I’ve never seen that kind of price difference between ground & bean of the same coffee.

[AuntPollyGrey]

Make him pay for the coffee himself lol!

[bednobs]

we have a joint account. Plus if i make too much of a fuss, he might start to look more closely at the outgoings and see stuff to my disadvantage :)

[Canary42]

A kilo of coffee beans might under some circumstances just produce a little less than a kilo when ground, allowing for wastage stuck in the grinder ;-)