Home espresso machines are a horrible way to try to save money. Most of the time that strategy backfires. Most people use the foolishly simplistic math you show above and completely miss the point that the biggest cost for retail coffee beverages is labor costs -- what employees are paid -- and not equipment and supplies.

That means most of the cost of home espresso is replacing someone else's job with your own labor. And let's face it -- people are lazy. We can't even mix our own lettuce to make a salad, so we spend more and buy that stuff pre-bagged for crying out loud. What makes anyone think that people will so readily surrender their own free time and laziness of having someone else worry about the supplies and making it for them?

Then add that most home espresso machines are pieces of junk. Making decent home espresso typically requires a decent amount of money and time to get something pretty good at home -- and there you're break even at best. Most of the time, people tire of the lower quality and labor effort of home espresso machines -- making them this decade's version of the home exercise treadmill. They just burn a big hole in your pocket and gather dust, and the owners just end up back in line shelling out $2.45 again as before. Just this time out the price of a home espresso machine that's rusting in the corner of the kitchen.