How much do you spend on beverages???

[atomic sagebrush]

:drama: We spend SO MUCH money on drinks, it's ridiculous. I bet we spend more on drinks than on actual food. I am so annoyed with DH and the big boys because if there's even one little thing in the house to drink, they immediately guzzle it down And we're kinda poor and should not be spending money on stuff like that, but if I don't, then DH and my older sons buy it at convenience stores instead which is even more $$$:nails: Plus I get yelled at which is never fun.

Here is what they absolutely MUST have and I get yelled at if it isn't here.

Lemonade
Bottled water (I have tried to get DH to take a metal bottle to work and fill it up but "that's why I make money, so I can buy bottled water.":mad:)
DH must have homemade fresh squeezed veg juice that I make because he won't eat vegetables (cost - $20 a week)
Milk
Beer (too much. :worry:)
Seltzer Water (which I buy for ME but then DH drinks it all)
DS 2 is supposed to have rice or soy milk because he is lactose intolerant but I haven't bought it in months. (mommy fail)
I also like to have Crystal Light for DS 2 because he is kinda chubby
Kool Aid (the little boys drink this sometimes)
Juice Boxes (for the little boys to take in the car and DH gets really annoyed with me if I don't have them)
DH also drinks on average 10 Monsters a week at $2.00 each (or more)
Coffee
Tea in tea bags
Herb teas when DH gets sick - he just expects them to magically be here.

Here is what they WANT to have and make snide remarks when we don't or else DH buys them at work for tons of money and DS 1 buys it at the convenience store for money that he should be saving for school!!

Pop (a variety - DH wants to have diet Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, and Mountain Dew always here and he buys it at work every day for $3 a day = that's like 100 dollars a month!! DS 1 has to have Pepsi.)
Smaller coffee drinks like Frappuchino (DH and DS 2 drink those)
Chocolate milk
Fruit juices
Lipton Green tea
Wine
DS 2 likes to have Sobe and/or Vitamin Water and if he doesn't have it on hand, he buys it at the convenience store for $$$ 4-5 times a week, which he is supposed to be saving that money for driver's training class.

OMG just writing it down like that makes my eyelids sweat. I am not exaggerating either! :suprise: I really think that is borderline insane!! Am I wrong? The problem is that if I don't buy it, they waste all their money buying it for higher prices so I feel kinda trapped into it.

[zanacal]

Eek - that is a lot!

We have standard tea and coffee and occasionally DH buys green tea. We have a couple of bottles of sugar free squash (cordial) in the cupboard and juice (usually orange) - when I buy that I get one type but if DH goes shopping he comes back with a fridge full. We also get through alot of milk (full fat, semi-skimmed and skimmed!). We've been buying coke/diet coke but only because of swaying and we'll stop that now. We get lemonade occasionally as a treat for DS1. They have cartons in their school lunch box. DH drinks either beer or wine at the weekend (which sometimes begins on a Wednesday!). That actually turned out to be more than I thought it would!

Ask me again when I have 3 or 4 teenage boys and my list will no doubt be much longer!!

[Glittergirl]

Wow that is A LOT--although you have big boys! Mine are still little and have NO control of what's in the house. i have the staple coffee, tea, milk, and OJ and DH has a fridge with soda (he only drinks on per day). i don't allow the kids soda--unless it's a special occasion like bdays or going out to eat and juice boxes are only for school lunches. But I guess it's hard for you cause its DH that wants the stuff in the house. Have you put it down like a budget and show him what it costs per month? He may rather put that money toward a new TV--heck he can get a new TV every few months LOL!

[nuthinbutpink]

I agree. That is a lot. We go through a lot too but I try and watch it. I buy Crystal Light and make a pitcher of drink with that. I make my own sweet tea(this is the South!) and we have a K-cup coffee maker. We use 2-3 K cups per day. They cost $8.99 for a 14 pack. I but Capri sun roaring waters(no juice) and they go on sale for 2/$4.00. We go through 1 1/2 boxes per week. I but La Croix sparkling water(12 pack) one per week. Me, DH and DD1 drink those. I rarely buy any soda anymore because it grosses me out. DD 3 drinks chocolate milk but I buy one that has water listed as the first ingredient and only has 3G of sugar per serving instead of the normal 25+ grams. Whole milk for DS(1 1/2 gallons per week.

So $4.00 juice boxes, own tea is under $1.00, 5.00 milk x 2, 5.00 chocolate milk, $4.89 la Croix, $18.00 coffee k-cups, crystal light $3.00, wine $12.00, maybe diet coke $4.50. That's per week. Sometimes we buy beer on weekends or wine or both!

[Flava]

That is a lot's of money for sure. Maybe you can show DH how much like glitter said. But why do you let ppl yell at you? I read this in your other posts too and Im sorry for that...Looks like my DH is to nice he never yell at me ( yeah just try lol) but he do yell at the kids and I hate that. But this kids can make us crazy I yell sometimes to and I hate that to...

Anyway back to drinks we use to drink diet pepsi none stop. But we stop that and now we have to buy the V8 and V8 fusion and it's a lot of money!! We also buy club soda and different juices for the kids but we make them drink water too. And juice boxes for the school lunch and in the car sometimes. But we limited that because they wanted juice box all the time ! I cook the green tea so DH can take it to work .
So this is what we have now the V8 drinks , club soda , juices and the green tea bags. We don't really buy any alcohol maybe once in a month some wine or beer but there are time we don't buy any for months.
I don't know how much we spend on it but Im sure when this ttc is over and I can stop the V8's it will be a lot less money.

[zanacal]

We yell too much in our house too. I keep telling DH we need to impose a no shouting rule in our house - but I'm usually the first one to break it. Must try harder!!

[swish]

We don't spend much on non-alcoholic drinks, we buy a carton of juice a week (used to be 3 when I drank it!), milk, sugar free squash and just drink Tap water. Dh does go through a lot of beer and quite a bit is spent on that! :)
Atomic, I would show dh the total too, maybe that will shock him. I'm sure it gets much harder with older children as you can still control what little ones have!

[lindi]

I just typed a whole answer and lost it. I think this is totally crazy, atomic. We're weird: I buy almond milk, hemp milk, and cow milk (maybe $10 a week?) for DS and to have in cereal, and we all drink filtered tap water at home, I put filtered tap water into a stainless bottle for DS for preschool, and then DH and I buy a coffee at a coffee shop every day. My accountant said we spent a huge amount on coffee- I think because most people who drink coffee every day make it at home? We go out-, but its really like $4 a day, so $28/week, bringing our beverage total - granted we're 1/2 your family- to a whopping $38 a week.
But to me, the craziest part is that they get mad at you! What's that about?
But I understand- when I was a smoker and spent time dropping into convenience marts I would buy a diet coke or a diet snapple- and then you start thinking of it as something you "need" it's weird. Once I quite smoking, I quit the opportunity to have them all the time and I don't miss them at all. Sweet drinks kind of make me feel gross in my mouth now. I am personally against aspartame now too, but I know some people don't mind it.
I would offer some sort of reward- bought with the $$ you save- for a temporary break- just say you want to see if everyone can do it for one month- that's all. They can pick ONE beverage for the whole month and then you can find a deal and buy it in bulk. No cheating.
Drop the koolaid for the littel ones, its food coloring (proven bad) and sugar and not even juice. Buy big bottles of juice and a few stainless containers and fill them in the am and if DH gets in the car hand them to him to bring along.

with DH its a little trickeir on the bottled water thing. show him this: http://articles.cnn.com/2009-07-13/health/bottled.water.safety_1_bottled-water-bottled-brands-water-suppliers?_s=PM:HEALTH

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Health/story?id=728070&page=1

http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/briefs/bottling-our-cities-tap-water/

if he doesn't care about his health, then just take empty plastic bottles out of your recycling and fill them with tap water you run through a brita and put in the fridge.

Also show them this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch

and this: http://www.slideshare.net/JeffBennett/plastic-bottles-ocean-pollution-draft-1401540

[TTC5]

Whoa that is alot!

We go through around 2-3 litres a day of milk/oat milk mostly through the use of cereal though.

I hardly ever buy anything to drink, it is water from the tap here unless it is a special occasion. During swaying though we are going through 2lt pineapple juice a day. So all up, a week it costs us around $35.00 a week.

[Zivic-Bubac]

Here's our list for the week: ( my girls are little, so I decide what we buy or not which is much easier)

- 3 -4 liters of full-fat yogurt , DH likes it as well and I NEED it for swaying purposes LOL!
- 4-5 liters of fruit yogurt ( DD2 doesn't drink milk, my bad :worry:)
- 2 liters of milk
- bottled water ( our tap water is REALLY poor quality)
- grapefruit juice for me ( swaying, only af->O)
- 100% OJ for me but DH often drinks it :mad: it's super expensive
-100% lemon bottled juice - it lasts longer then 1 kg of lemon + you don't have to bother squeezing it lol!
-beer - well I yell bcos of it, it is so not necessery, I never drink any alcohol, esp not beer and DH buys it behind my back
-I buy green tea in filter bags, it's much cheaper and I made it at home

I don't allow any fizzy drinks to my girls but Idk how it's going to look like in a few years when DD1 is older :worry: I used to obssesively buy Coke as I was addicted and I spent quite a money on it, but I stopped for swaying and now I spend that money on 100% OJ :rofl:
My girls drink water and DD2 doesn't like juices, just fruit yogurt so I can't say we save money on juices as we 'have' to buy fruit yogurt to her.

How much is too much spent money depends only on income. I think we spend too much on drinks, but I was reading our list and the only thing I can live without is beer :rofl:

[TTC5]

Z- what does the grapefruit juice do for swaying blue? Is it good?

[Zivic-Bubac]

Z- what does the grapefruit juice do for swaying blue? Is it good?

I ran on a thread I can't find now where lots of boys' mamas said they were drinking grapefruit juice which made me start this thread http://genderdreaming.com/forum/showthread.php?4244-What-s-the-story-with-grapefruit-juice&highlight=what%27s+story+grapefruit+juice. It is on Atomic CM list for increased CM, it's alkalizing and something about it sways blue ( like in green tea and OJ) so I'm drinking it af->O and it has absolutely no effect on my O date :agree:

[TTC5]

Awesome, I'm going to get some of this tomorrow!!! Does it taste ok?