Five Ways to Save...
Stretch Your Beverage Dollar!
by Stephanie Nelson, CouponMom.com
1. Skip the vending machines. When you enjoy soft drinks or sports drinks, buy them on sale at the grocery store or drugstore and bring them from home. Vending machines and convenience stores will cost you 5 times more.
2. Packaging. Choose the least expensive container, packaging can jack up the price of beverages. Skip the expense of individual packaging of juice boxes. A 2-liter bottle of soda is less than a 6 pack of cans. Making punch or lemonade from a powdered mix is less expensive than the 2-liter.
3. Seltzer. Health experts will tell you to cut back on soda and adult beverages to lose weight. Children only need one serving of fruit juice a day. Try an inexpensive, healthy and delicious alternative to carbonated soft drinks: seltzer water with a splash of fruit juice.
4. Tea drinkers. Instead of buying bottled iced tea from the store, make your own for pennies a glass. Try sun tea and you’ll save energy too. Just fill a big jar with water, add tea bags, and leave the covered jar outside in the sun for several hours.
5. Bottled Water. Water can cost as much as $10 a gallon when we buy it in individual bottles as compared to ½ cent per gallon when we turn on the tap. It you are unsatisfied with the quality of your tap water, it is less expensive to purchase a filter than purchasing bottles of filtered water. Factor in the filter and pitcher expense and it only costs 22 cents a gallon.
Stephanie Nelson is the Coupon Mom. Her web site, www.CouponMom.com, has 6 million members, and she is established as the nation’s top expert in couponing across the country. Stephanie has been on every major national television talk show and taught millions how to save money for the past 11 years. She has been called ‘”the rock star of the recession” by the Washington Post and her book, The Coupon Mom’s Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills in Half, is a New York Times best seller.