Save Money on Fruit Juices- The Fat Dollar - Money Saving Tips and Ideas that Work

The Fat Dollar Money Saving Tip - Save Money on Fruit Juices

Save Money on Fruit Juices

Savings: $63.87 a year and 20,440 calories (5.84 lbs of fat)

If you take vitamins with your breakfast, or at anytime during the day, take them with a glass of water instead of using your precious fruit juice.

This will have several beneficial effects. First is simple enjoyment of the juice. Since swallowing a pill or capsule requires a gulping effect, you will not have the chance to savor the taste of the juice. Saving your juice for sipping allows you to appreciate and enjoy the taste of your fruit juice.

Another benefit is possibly overall better digestion of your virtamins and supplements. The standard recommendation is to swallow a pill with 8 ounces of water. When you take your pill with juices, you probably drink half of that, because the sweetness and taste of the juice slows down your instinct to drink. The vitamins may not digest as effectively with smaller amounts of liquid.

Money saving coins The low down on the dollar savings

Of course, at The Fat Dollar, we look at the benefit of money savings. We will assume that you drink an extra four ounces of orange juice if you use that to take your morning vitamins, instead taking them with tap water.

Our local Sam's Club sells 128 oz of Tropicana Orange Juice for $5.88* . At this price, 4 oz of orange juice (about a half a small glass) is $.18.

Tap water compares at an average $1.50 for 1000 gallons (source American Water Works Association), which makes the cost less than 2/10th of a cent per gallon. We'll call it zero for our purposes.

Filtered water will cost about $13.99 for 40 gallons (the filter used for this number was Consumer Reports high rated Clear20 CWS100A countertop water filter at a cost of $13.99* per filter) which translates to a filtered water cost of $.35 per gallon, or about 3/10th of a cent for 4 ounces of filtered water. We'll be generous and use 1/2 cent for our comparisons. After all, you've got to buy the water filter pitcher (about $16.00* on Amazon.com as of 10-27-10), plus add your own tap water. We want to have fun with our numbers, not exhaust ourselves with 1/10th cent precision.

* all prices are quoted as of 10-27-10

So, our comparisons:

Daily extra 4 oz of orange juice: $.18/day x 365 days = $65.70/year

Daily 4 oz of filtered water: $.005/day x 365 days = $1.83/year

Therefore our calculations show that taking your vitamins with water instead of orange juice will save you $63.87 a year. If someone handed you $63.87 in cash, what you would be able to do with it? Savor your orange juice while you consider that.

A Bonus: Smaller Waistline

While it's hard to put a dollar value on it, there are also calorie savings when you use water instead of juice to take your vitamins.

Calories in 4 oz of water = 0 (zero)

Calories in 4 oz of orange juice = 56

Calories per year saved = 20,440 (that's 5.84 pounds of body fat!)

Wait, There's More

Those savings are small change, though, if you are taking certain medications. For example, cranberry juice can increase the effects of warfarin, a blood thinner. Antibiotics can react with orange, apple, or grapefruit juice. A fruit juice may increase or decrease the effects of the drug, depending on the exact nature of the specific drug. Taking your medication with fruit juice may risk an overdose of the drug, or it may just render the drug nearly useless. It is important that you read the information sheet provided with your medication to see if fruit juices can alter the effects of the drug. Your pharmacist should also be a source of valuable information.

As a precaution, skip the fruit juices for taking your prescription medications. Consumer Reports and WebMD have good articles on mixing fruit juices with medication.

So there you have it. Save money, lose weight, and possibly even save your health, by taking your vitamins and medications with water instead of fruit juice. It's simple, it allows you to enjoy your fruit juice (rather than gulping) and we had fun calculating the savings for you. That's The Fat Dollar way.

Now ... try Making Your Own Shampoo

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