Most of us don’t think twice about spending $7 on a coffee, or $14 if it’s two a week. It’s a small indulgence in a busy life. But what if we all chipped in that same amount and chose to spend it differently?

What if that coffee money could fund the kind of country we actually want to live in?

Turns out, it could go a long way.

💡 Just $7 a year could change lives

A recent study found that if the federal government boosted mental health spending by just $7.30 per adult per year, around $153 million in total,we could prevent:
– 313 suicides
– 1,954 hospitalisations for self-harm
– Over 28,000 emergency department visits for mental health reasons

That’s the impact of one coffee.

But what if we gave up one coffee a week, or two, and asked the same question across different areas of need?

☕ A coffee or a future? Here’s what that money could do

If every adult in Australia redirected $7 -$14 a week to shared priorities, it could add up to $1.5–$3 billion annually. Here’s where that could take us:

🏘️ Affordable Housing

• Fund tens of thousands of new social or affordable homes
• Support rent relief for low-income families
• Keep people safe, secure, and off the streets

📚 Public Education

• Hire more school counsellors and learning support staff
• Lower class sizes for better learning
• Fund early childhood education in underserved communities

🚑 Rural Health Care

•  Boost GP, nurse and allied health access in rural areas
• Fund mobile clinics and regional telehealth services
• Improve outcomes where help is often hardest to reach

🌿 Climate & Environment

• Support renewable energy projects in the regions
• Plant millions of trees and regenerate degraded land
• Fund water security and sustainable agriculture

👵 Aged Care

• Increase staffing and pay in aged care homes
• Improve home care options so older people can age in place
• Make dignity a baseline, not a luxury

💬 What if we had a say?

Now imagine if we didn’t just guess where to spend it, we got to choose.

Picture a national system of participatory budgeting, where each adult gets a voice in how their share of “coffee money” is spent. The government sets out the priorities, and we vote.

It’s already happening in some communities around the world. Why not here?

We’re used to thinking of change as something big and distant. But sometimes, it starts with a small sacrifice,shared widely.

What could we build if we all gave up just a little?

I’m not a researcher, and these figures are estimates based on publicly available data. But the idea is simple: small individual choices, pooled together, can make a big collective impact.

Shout out to The Conversation for the original research and article that sparked this reflection. Their work continues to inform smart, hopeful conversations across the country.

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