How to Save Money

Save_money_-_buy_local · 21 June 2012 at 8:25PM

1. Drink out less. The last time I ordered a pair of martinis at a bar, I slipped the tender a twenty, and got just enough back for a tip. A recent national survey of restaurant owners found that people who ordered alcohol with their meals had fallen to less than a third, the lowest level in years. If you do drink out, choose drinks that require less labor such as a glass of house wine. It will go better with your meal.

2. Choose a domestic alternative.

3. Look for specials. Stores frequently use alcohol as a loss leader to attract customers. Skim the ads in the paper, or go through the liquor aisle in your market.

4. Lose your brand snobbishness. Have a taste test party. Some liquors, like Grand Marnier and Jack Daniels, are distinctive and very hard to duplicate. However, other liquors like vodka are a lot simpler and gain nothing through aging. Vodka gets its smoothness through charcoal filtering. In one of the most telling taste tests of the last few years, the NY Times did a blind panel test of the world's elite vodkas, including Grey Goose, Wyborowa, Stolichnaya and Chopin. As a lark, somebody slipped in London Vodka. The British London Vodka won shot glasses down.

5. Make your own. Home wine and beer making are legal under federal law, although both activities remain illegal in Alabama. In Texas, you're only allowed to brew 200 gallons a year for personal consumption. Check into your local regulations for specifics. It's easy to use home brew kits that will let you make your own ale, beer, mead or hard cider (see Resources below). Brewing is not difficult. You'll be feeding malt hops, water and corn sugar to beer yeast that will convert the sugar in the mix to alcohol. It will take a couple of weeks.

6. Distilling your own spirits in the United States is still illegal. Why? Taxes. More than half the cost of a bottle of whiskey, gin or vodka are the taxes. The ostensible reason for this last vestige of prohibition, is that making moonshine, or home made alcohol, is a dangerous process. Still, the activity is legal in New Zealand, so if you live there visit Ehow's "How to Make Moonshine" for instructions.