How much can I save just drinking water?

Goldiegirl

PenniesMake£s wrote: »

Has anyone else worked this out or switched to just drinking tap water to save money?

I try to drink a reasonable amount of water a day for health reasons. But I also enjoy drinking tea and coffee ( both decaf) and a glass of cola once a week. I'm not adverse to a glass of wine either. Although I've switched to own brands, it has never occurred to me to cost each cup of tea or coffee, and I've never considered just drinking tap water to save money - for one thing it'd be too boring to have no variety.

thriftwizard

I drink a fair bit of water and always have; in that I'm joined by OH, DS1 & DD2, who is a health & nutrition nut. But DS3 would drink a gallon of fruit juice a day, & DS2 thinks Coke should come out of taps & spends silly money on whey protein drinks. DD1 & TDiL (Trainee Daughter-in-Law) are somewhere in the middle, but I've hit on a fairly inexpensive dodge that keeps the bills down with them, and the boys have to buy their own drinks now.

What we have instead is cordial, usually home-made, with cheap fizzy water; at 17p per 2litre bottle this doesn't bust the budget in the way that a £2 2L bottle of fizzy would. I make cordials out of whatever's done well in the garden & down at the riverbank, or is cheap on the market; Cherry Plum (3 trees in the garden) and Lime (10 for £1 on the market at the moment) is the current seasonal favourite. OK, it's still a sugary drink, but it's very refreshing & usually raises a smile. I can make up 10 bottles from one preserving-pan full, and it's nowhere near as sweet as commercial cordials.

The other inexpensive drink we make a lot of is ginger beer. Nothing could be simpler to make; again, it IS a sugary drink at the end of the day, but a number of people (including DD2) think we don't get nearly enough B vitamins in our typical Western diet, and lightly-fermented drinks are one way of boosting your intake without taking pills. Be that as it may, a glass of HM ginger beer certainly puts a bit of fizz into your day!

tuskel

I think you could definitely save a lot of money, because that seems an awful lot of drinks to buy! Just add up what you spend in one week and see.

Fruit shoots have had a lot of publicity lately, they are full of sugar. And also, fruit juices generally are not that good for you, because most of the useful fibre and other micronutrients from the actual fruits have been thrown away, leaving basically just water and sugar. Tea and coffee also dehydrate you slightly.

I personally drink lots of water, even though I love a cup of coffee. I have been trying to reduce my coffee intake (and gone decaff since I noticed being shaky after drinking three cups in the morning!), my OH drinks a lot of tea, orange juice and likes wine, and our daughter is very happy with just water, as I didn't even get her used to juice when she was a baby (OH kept telling me to give her diluted juice, but kids don't actually need it if they eat fruit).

If you want my opinion, I would totally cut the milkshakes, Fruit Shoots and sparkling water, replace juice with squash and actual piece of fruit, and drink other drinks only sparingly, apart from water. Honestly, water is the tastiest thing if you are properly thirsty!

tuskel,
sincerely

dktreesea

chirpychick wrote: »

I drink diet coke/diet pepsi and fizzy orange eek!
Hubby drinks copious amounts of tea and coffee but is trying to drink water more often.
Almost 3 year old drinks Milk, Water and very dilute squash now and again.

I know that my fizzy drink consumption must cost a small fortune, I know it.
We don't drink alcohol or smoke and so that's kind of been my excuse for justifying it but I do think I really need to kick the habit!

Mine too. I drink at least £12 of fizzy drinks a week. Then there are the coffees we have outside the house, usually caffe nero a couple of times a week, which works out around £5+ for two coffees, so say £11 there. We go through a jar of instant coffee a week at home, so another £5,. The rest of the household probably spend at least £10 on fizzy drinks between them. Then there's milo - not cheap at £4 a tin. At least a tin a week. Milk comes in at a couple of pints a day, £1 for two pints so £7 a week.


£49. :eek: A week. I think I might stop adding up for now . Thank goodness no one drinks alcohol. If that's the cost for a non alcohol household imagine the cost with alcohol!

kboss2010

At one point, my OH and I were meeting at a coffee shop after work every day and in one year I worked out that we had spent £1,500!!!! That stopped pretty quickly after that.

Apart from a homemade coffee in the morning and the occasional pot of green tea, I only drink water. My OH drinks juices, squash, fizzy stuff and milk and we spend about £4 a week on the stuff.

Buying ground coffee for breakfast costs us about £3 a week.

Caterina

HappyMJ wrote: »

How much does the thermos cost?

I have one from a skip (practically new, free) and one I paid around £5 in tk maxx several years ago.

chinagirl

Very interesting thought!
I spend a small fortune on drinks for our household of 5x adults. Never added it up before. Don't think I'd persuade my lot to swap to water, but I certainly could, so would reduce the bill by 1/5 .
I drink water and more find diluted squashes are too sugary. I drink a lot of Lidl Lemon & Ginger herbal tea, just stepped in boiling water, no sugar. I hope that's healthy, but I drink it because I love the taste;)
Still, as to a total swap, that would be extreme, as think you do need some treats in your life, and there are other ways to save a penny:money:

firesidemaid

I drink tea (sainsburys basics, fairtrade) and tap water with the occasional squash.


A while ago I persuaded the OH to downgrade to squash and value fizzy water.


you are right though, in that anything other than tap water just ends up going down the toilet (literally)....

LadyDee

VfM4meplse wrote: »

From a dental and dietary health perspective, the best policy is to avoid drinking sugar in all its guises - that includes fruit juices (esp for kids). Fruit teas can also be highly cariogenic. Anything fizzy is designed to erode teeth. Milk is fine though, the lactose neutralises quickly in the mouth.

Water is an ideal substitute for everything. Except it isn't particularly interesting to drink!

I slice a lemon and use that in the bottom of a filter jug in the fridge. You could also use a fresh orange or a lime to ring the changes. I change the fruit once a week. It's lemon week this week, so 30p for a weeks flavoured water (plus the cost of the filter of course), but more interesting than plain water.