Saving $$ on Beverages & Getting Rid of Soda

Soda – why would you want to get rid of soda?? It’s SO delicious – although I was SO addicted! In fact, a lot of people are! America sleeps and breathes soda! I know people that even have it for breakfast! Really? Did you know that Americans spend almost $12 million dollars a year in just soda! WOW! The cost of soda was actually affecting our budget believe it or not. And the more I bought, the quicker we would drink it! When you’re on a really tight budget the last thing you want to do is drop $20 on soda!

Not only does the cost of soda get pretty pricey, but it really isn’t healthy for you anyways. In an effort to be healthier, I decided to cut back BIG time on soda. It’s impacted not only my health in a good way, but also our budget. So how in the world did I get rid of soda? By having OTHER drinks in the house. Ideally you should of course drink water instead, but there is only so much water one can handle!! I have found that if I spent more money on other beverages like lemonade and juice, I never want soda. Yes, it is still a beverage expense, but healthier for our whole family.

 

Simply Lemonade is my splurge drink – I LOVE it! Nothing is more tempting to me than a cold glass of Simply Lemonade with crushed fresh strawberries mixed in!! You can mix things up a little bit by crushing fresh (or frozen) raspberries, strawberries, or any other berry of your choice to mix into your lemonade. It is MUCH more tasty than soda and healthier too! All you need is the lemonade of your choice (make sure it’s true lemonade and not filled with high fructose corn syrup or food dyes!) and your choice of fresh or frozen fruit!

Scoop up a spoonful of your favorite berry to put in your cup and dump it in! Then mash mash mash! Mash up the berries so that the juice pours out into your cup! I personally don’t mind the chunks of fruit in my drink but if it bothers you you can strain it out later. Once you’re done mashing up your fruit just pour in your lemonade and stir!! If you haven’t had strawberry or raspberry lemonade like this you are certainly missing out!!

I love my Box Tops cup!! 🙂 Of course it’s hard to see my lemonade in a pink cup though! But I have noticed a big difference – we almost never buy soda anymore. Between sweet tea, lemonade, frozen juices, pineapple juice, making smoothies, and any other beverages we can think of not only has our family slashed our “beverage budget” but we are also much healthier too! If I have something different than water to drink in the house I don’t feel the need for soda, and now that we’ve been without soda for the past month, I really don’t even want it anymore!