Another thread got me thinking about drinks for the summer. Normally we go thru 12-15 gallons of milk per month. This will go down a bit this summer. Bottled juice the kids can finish off one of those in two days. So we do not get those too often unless they are on sale. Frozen, concentrate is not that much better priced, at least I do not think so. I recently got a big container of powdered Tang and Lemonade for the summer. I have noticed that these are both quite sweet if you mix it according to the directions. I can add about three more cups of water than what it asks for so it is not so sweet, thus making the powdered stuff last a little longer. If I am making kool aid, I do only add 1/2 cup of sugar to it. Of course my kids do drink tons of water in the summer. Sometimes I add slices of lemon, lime or even orange to flavor it up a bit.
So any other ideas for juices, etc?? I would love if someone had a recipe for those fruit flavored waters. Might have to experiment a little.

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Nothing is as important as passion. No matter what you want to do with your life, be passionate.
Jon Bon Jovi

We stick with water, milk and tons of powdered drink type lemonade (I don't like it, but the kids sure do!)

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~Happiness is a large family~

Have you tried home made ice tea? We drink it by the gallon and it's cost effective and I can control the amount of sugar I put in it. I also add a little apple juice to it to give it a zip. I also make it decaf so I don't have to worry about the girls missing naps (don't want that!) We also make home made lemonade. The recipe calls for a lemonade sugar that you add to cold water. It's great and again, I can control the sugar. Hope this helps. We have also tried raspberry ice tea too... freshly brewed but it's expensive so I try to get that when it's on sale.

Good luck.

I'm with you on the tea. The rasberry is good too - have you tried just buying one box of the small flavored tea bags and adding one to your pitcher.

One of my favorite things to drink is juice mixed with soda water (seltzer or club soda). It makes the juice last a lot longer, and seltzer is really cheap! My favorites are to mix it with apple juice, cranberry juice, grape juice, cran-grape juice (you get the point!). You may want to try a little of each (types of carbonated water) because some of them can taste a little bitter and kids may not like that. It's a lot better for them than drinking sugary drinks, and lets the juice get stretched a lot further. My little 6 year old bil loves it and asks for some "fizzy juice" whenever he comes over HTH!

my kids drink mostly water!!! and we just got the ridge hooked up today so we have water in the front of the fridge!!(it will help the fridge from getting opened up soo much!!

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Kelly mom to 3 great girls A Peanut, a monkey and a little burrito.

I love the juice and seltzewr water idea! I am cutting out all sodas and the kids are protesting big time. This would help me alot!

My kids are really just water drinkers...they'll sometimes drink milk (skim) for lunch or dinner but otherwise they want water, sometimes with a squeeze of lemon or lime in it.

Another family of tea drinkers here. My kids will drink both regular and green tea. You can easily control the amount of sugar.

I find that they drink more tea than plain water. I'm happy since it helps keep them hydrated, as long as it's decaf.

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SAHM of 4

August food budget (groceries/take-out): $500.00/$75.00
Total spent: $238.97/$14.12

July budget/spent: $500.00/$650.00

Have you tried adding extra water to the frozen juices and bottled juices too?

My mom used mix it 3/4 juice with 1/4 water to stretch it. We never even noticed. When it is hot out and you are thirsty you'll drink anything.