I’m wondering if I’ve exhausted all options for buying flavored water. For context, I dislike plain water and tend to go for diet soda or plain water. Seltzer is also not my thing as I feel it’s more carbonation versus flavor.
The Walmart “diet soda”/flavored water is $4.95 for a 12 pack. I drink a lot during the day so I probably go through four 12 pack a week, resulting in me spending roughly $20 on water a week. I could probably do some math to figure out if it would be better to buy the liter bottles which are $.84 a piece.
I have thought about buying a Sodastream or Ninja Thirsti, but the reviews have me hesitant and people say it doesn’t save money vs just making it more convenient in that you’re not carrying cases of water up the stairs.
Are there any cheaper ways to buy flavored water?
byu/Riksie inFrugal
Posted by Riksie
15 Comments
Get a DrinkMate soda maker and you can carbonate any flavor of water or even something like iced tea. You can buy any brand of flavor syrup from Amazon and make your own soda. If you’re not into flavors, you can just carbonate water or even add some lemon juice to it.
Have you tried flavour enhancers? The ones where you squeeze 1 or 2 squirts for about 500ml water. Those work great for me. I even add that to yogurt.
Some fruit? Like oranges or say orange juice. That’s what they sell in Germany. Basically upto half juice half (seltzer) water.
You can find juice “concentrates” that might be pricey per size but it’s less likely to have sweeteners or whatever.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schorle?wprov=sfla1
What about adding flavor mix ins? I use lemonade flavored packets in plain water bottles and just shake it up. There’s also drops you can squeeze in.
Buy a bottle of generic lemon juice for $3, put a couple of drops in your water, and you have flavoured water for months
Herbal tea. You can get lemon, ginger, chai flavored, cinnamon, orange, berries etc etc etc. Tons of flavors and affordable and can be served hot or iced. I like to use frozen fruit as ice in my tea.
Powder add in – but use less – check Aldi or Lidl
You can get “Mio” style water drops. The off brands are pretty cheap, just a few dollars and should last you weeks. Just a drop or two will add add a light flavor. I’m personally a big fand of the Real brand Lemon or lime juice bottles. It adds a sour taste that I like. Some might not be into that with flat water but the seltzer water is really good with it.
My cold brewed tea is 12.5¢ per 48 ounce jug. Check my Reddit sub retiredNebraskan.
I buy the Wylers lemonade packets at the dollar store. I make iced tea and throw a packet in and it is the perfect refreshing guilt free drink.
Check out Cirkul water bottle. After you buy into their ecosystem, the prices are very reasonable. A $3 flavor lasts me almost a week
I like my soda stream but it’s definitely not identical to the canned/bottled stuff. It takes getting used to. That being said, I know people who have figured out how to hook up much larger tanks of CO2 and it saves them a ton of cash.
If you like sugar free you can do herbal tea. Iced herbal tea is awesome, under $4.00 a box comes with a 20 count and can get the variety pack to see what you like. The have raspberry zinger, mint, peach …
I do Gatorade, there’s a discount store called Grocery Outlet that has the huge 9 gallon powder for $10 and only use half the recommended powder. Looked online and other places sell it for slightly more.
And there’s cucumber water, just put cucumber chill in a pitcher of water.
Lemon juice concentrate goes good with plain water.
If you want a caffeine boost iced tea with steevia sweetener ( the jar is cheaper than individuals packets) just a little changes the taste.
Dollar store drink mix singles. Tons of flavors. Cheap. I dilute them
I am addicted to Diet Coke and you can pry it from my cold dead hands 🤭 I buy the flats at Costco, drink 2-3 a day. I also have my emotional support water bottle, which I only fill with plain water. I have another water bottle I use for liquid IV, which I also get at Costco. They’re usually $30 for $30 packets. The water bottle I use for it is 40oz, and liquid IV is suggested for 16.9oz so I think it does fairly well.
Other sodas I like are zero sugar orange soda (diabetic) and the generic at Kroger 12 pack is $5 without a sale, usually can get it for $3.50 when I’m looking for sales. They have a lot of good generic alternatives for the same price. I drink maybe 4-5 orange sodas a week. With the Diet Coke, orange soda, liquid IV, and my ESWB, I’m pretty much covered for all my beverage needs 🤷🏻♀️