海角大神

I often meet up with a good friend of mine that I鈥檒l call Dave.

You rarely see Dave without his trusty bottle of Powerade at his side. He seems to thrive on the stuff. He鈥檚 as thin as a rail and doesn鈥檛 seem to eat too much, so I guess he uses it as some kind of special 鈥淒ave fuel.鈥�

Anyway, I happened to glance at Dave鈥檚 Powerade bottle and I noticed that the label indicated that the flavor was supposed to be 鈥渙range,鈥� while the substance inside was a brownish-yellow, as one might expect from a 鈥渓emon鈥� flavored iced tea.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 an awfully strange looking orange Powerade there, Dave,鈥� I told him.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 because it鈥檚 not Powerade.鈥澛�

From there, Dave proceeded to give out a lesson on frugality.

It turns out that Dave likes to make his own homemade concoction to drink when he鈥檚 out and about.

When I quizzed him on it, he told me that all that was in it was some tea, a pinch of sea salt, a spoonful of powdered vitamin C, some raw sugar, and a bit of lemon juice. It鈥檚 a recipe that鈥檚 actually聽聽(if you鈥檙e looking for one with more specific quantities). That鈥檚 a recipe that鈥檚 far cheaper per quart than Powerade and, frankly, much more appealing, at least to me. So,聽the recipe is cheap.

He buys the tea, salt, vitamin C, sugar, and lemon juice in bulk. So,聽the recipe gets even cheaper thanks to bulk buying.

He makes large batches of the stuff at home in a water cooler that stays on the top shelf of his fridge. That way, he can just dispense out a full container of it whenever he wants. So,聽it鈥檚 very convenient once it鈥檚 made.

Rather than buying a plastic bottle or something to keep it in, he uses old Powerade bottles until they鈥檙e almost beaten into oblivion because he really likes their form factor. So,聽it鈥檚 cheap because he鈥檚 reusing things.

In at least this little instance of his life, Dave is a pretty frugal guy. He makes his own 鈥渟ports drink鈥� at home, makes it in bulk with bulk ingredients, and dispenses it into a bottle that he鈥檚 just reusing. Mostly, his 鈥渟ports drink鈥� is completely unnoticed, but when it actually came up in conversation, it became a positive conversation topic, too.

Dave鈥檚 homemade Powerade is a perfect example of successful frugality.聽Dave was able to take something he liked and recreate it himself, then he was able to break down that process so that it was as cheap as possible.

Because of that process, Dave gets a beverage he seems to absolutely love at a聽far聽cheaper price without losing out on any of the tactile or flavor sensations that come with the original product.

Frugality is all about finding the least expensive route to the true solution you want.聽I can鈥檛 think of a much better example of that than Dave鈥檚 homemade Powerade.

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