i used to be a diet cherry vanilla dr. pepper (or diet a&w cream soda) HOUND! and i have given them both up completely. now, i usually buy the flavored bottled water from walmart (ours is back by the baby food). it's only 50 cents for a large bottle, i'm pretty sure it's cheaper than the 4 packs. i alternate that with sweet tea in a thermos, and regular bottled water. when i'm at home i drink the "juice pop" mentioned somewhere. my favorite is light cranberry cocktail and tonic water.

for starters are you buying name brand or store? Also only buy 2 litters for use at home.
ALso give him a choice. He can have generic or have half as much of the name brand. My dh drinks oj like water and its not cheap becuase he wont drink anythink but premium. So i told him you can learn to drink the cheap stuff or you can have only 2 gallons a month. Or he could give up beer! He chose to drink less.

I worked with a guy whose best friend was a pop junkie. He drank lots of it every day, just like water. He started to have stomach problems and by the time he got to the doctor's to check it out, he had a hole in his stomach. He died a few days later. The phosphoric acid in pop ate the hole in his stomach. I know this is an extreme example and I still drink pop once in a while, but I have cut way down because it freaked me out. DH still drinks a 20 oz Pepsi every morning and I am trying to get him away from that. My concerns are more health related than $$ related. As for artificial sweetners being better for you than sugar, I won't even go there. I won't go near them. Iced tea is great. Even better is a tea that DH makes. Use 4-5 green tea bags, 1-2 mint tea bags and honey to a gallon of water. It's really good, a little sweet and good for you. And cheap.

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Frugal is being wise with your money and resources and cheap is forcing everyone else to.

My DH and I gave up soda completely. We are trying to eat better, so we gave it up. It was hard at first!! Now what I have been trying to do is I set a pitcher of iced water on the table at dinner, and we all have it ( 5 kids too) it cuts down on juice consumption too, and it's free. HTH

I like the pitcher of water idea! My DH drinks about 5-6 cans of sprite a day! He actually got a kidney stone and the Dr. said it was from all the syrup in the soda! Now he trys to drink flavored water and gatorade.

He was on the fruit flavored water, Gatorade, Powerade, etc. kick for a while. Tried powdered Gatorade w/ our water, but too much gave him a gut ache and heartburn (which he gets easy anyway). It is more expensive than pop. I read the post about the guy who died w/ a hole in his stomach and that freaks me out. He is not a healthy eater most of the time. I worry about his health but he did lose 25 lbs. on the flavored water and powerade (less sugar). I myself buy the GV brand crystal light. He did that for about a wk. and got sick of it. I hate that he has to have pop at all. What's wrong w/ water! Our budget can't afford name brand pop (unless its cheap) so maybe I'll go to generic. Anyway, it seems like it comes down to whats better for you or what you can afford.