This tip comes from reader Kathie….
I stretch my daughter’s apple juice buy making it half water. I was going to by the Mott’s Tot juice but when looking at it the label said 50% juice. I figured I could add the 50% water at home and get a BOGO deal myself!
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{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
Great idea. I buy the lite apple juices and guess how they get lite. If you guessed that they added water you are right.
I do this all the time with apple juice. I like the juice, but find sometimes it is just too sweet, even the low calorie versions.
My kids love soda so I actually mix fruit juice with carbonated soda. They love it.
It sounds good! :)
I always dilute juice. Mainly for sugar reasons more than money–but that helps too. I dilute just about anything my kids drink that has sugar in it. Soda, tea, lemonade, etc. 99% of the time, they drink juice though.
i’ve dont this too for my 2 year old all the juice he drinks is just too much juice so i make his juice out of juice consentrate it calls for 3 of the containers but i just fill it up to the top with water which is probably 4 or 5 containers the consentrate come sin and he loves it but really loves watching mommy make it. so i get almost a gal of juice for 50cent (when i get the juice on sale)
I only buy 100% juice. Every cup that I make my 1 yr. old is 1/2 juice 1/2 water, that way she is getting lots of water, too. Makes for LOTS of diaper changes, though!!! I stock up when juice is $1 or less and stretch it by diluting! It’s healthier than buying the cheap juice drinks that have hardly any juice in them, but it’s also cheaper than the “cheap” stuff!!
I buy the V8 fusion juice which is pricey. I usually do about 3/4 water and 1/4 juice. One container lasts about 4-5 days. They are getting so much water and some fruits and veggies all day long. I agree they don’t need the sugar, but I also don’t want them to crave sweets. Great tip!! I don’t think the majority of people do this. For me it’s more than budget, this is for their health.
I think that pediatricians recommend diluting juice anyway and not giving more than 4 oz. of juice per day. (because it’s empty calories really, not much nutrition (unless it’s fresh squeezed). The main reason I always diluted my little one’s juice was that it gave my kids diarrhea, even white grape. A friend of mine told me about diluting the whole milk when I got to half a gallon. You just add enough water to fill it back up. I wouldn’t do this for children under 2 since they are still supposed to have the whole milk. But it def. stretches it out and makes it about like skim milk. I don’t really like to drink it straight but it’s fine for using in dry cereal, chocolate milk, etc.
I dilute my girls drinks as well. We do 1/2 water in almost everything. It gives them more water stretches my budget and cuts down the sugar. And best part is they cant tell.
We dilute as well…there is just SO MUCH sugar…and honeslty when they spill the juice it is not so tough to clean or get out of clothes!
I absolutely dilute juice, mainly due to the sugar and calories, but saving money is a nice plus.
Also, for those with very young children … they really don’t need juice at all. We do not give our 18 mo juice ever (except for an occasional taste if she sees us drinking it, but even that, not often). Saves a lot of money!
I mix OJ and seltzer for “orange soda” – tastes great and cuts the acid of straight OJ. It was terrific when I was pregnant and not allowed to drink soda.
My son is almost 5 and I still dilute his juice. I’ve always done it to cut back on sugar.
I used to go through alot of milk when my kids were younger and we would add 1/2 gal. of powdered milk to 1/2 gal. of whole milk but lately I noticed the powdered milk is as high as the regular. I do still keep it around for cooking though just so the kids dont drink it all up and I dont have to run to the store just to make mac and cheese
i mix tofu with peanut butter, stir together 1 to 1 (lb for lb) in a mixer or by hand til smooth. extends the p-nut butter to twice it’s volume, makes it smoother (add crushed p-nuts if you like crunchy style) and lasts twice as long for about $1.29 more. started doing it in the 70′s when p-nut butter prices went crazy, still a good idea. Adds more protein, also. (now i need a way to do this with gasoline for my car! LOL)
Wow, I love this idea. I think Tofu has no taste so you wouldnt notice the difference anyways.
I HAVE to dilute juice. I babysit, and with up to 10 kids (4 of which are my own), I would go completely broke! lol. they get apple juice for lunch and snacks, so I could easily go thru 1-2 containers each day sometimes, if I didn’t dilute.
Not only for my kids, but, for myself as well (my hubby even has watered down juices) I think they are almost too sweet when not. Saves money too as juice is a bit pricy in the stores. ;-)
We dilute almost all drinks. We fill a cup halfway with ice, then 2/3 water from the fridge door, then add a “splash” for flavor. Not only does it save $, but calories too. My husband and I do this for us, and our kids only like straight water or 2% milk. I also have Kool Aid in the big container, and add a small teaspoon too, just to give water a little flavor. Much better than a soda, and super cheap, since they go on sale for $1.49 a couple times a year – we stock up. Also, fresh lemon is great for straight water, which I do not like.
I don’t know if this is considered diluting but I made a really yummy drink that was an alternative to soda when my husband and I traveled to Europe this summer. We would buy carbonated water at an European grocery store (for about 30 cents you could get a big bottle) and then we would pour crystal light into it. I bought the crystal light months before our trip because i got it for super cheap and we called it our fizzy yum yum drink! It was wonderful and saved us a lot of money because both water and soda is expensive when you are touring around Europe.
I dilute Chocolate milk we buy in the refridg section with powdered milk to make it last longer……thats only when I buy the premade Chocolate milk in the 2 gallon jugs
however to cut costs and add to our stockpile,
.but we keep no less than 5 boxes of powdered milk at all times (25 gallons) …….we have a huge jug that I make powdered milk in ……and we also have like 5 of the GINORMOUS Chocolate milk My husband and daughter don’t complain anymore when I make powdered milk…because I always add in the Nesquick powder to the powdered milk….and they have no idea what they are drinking besides what they get from the store lol….
I am mean and only give water unless they are sick and even then its 1 part OJ to 3-4parts water.
They get 4-5 servings of fresh fruit everyday. No sense in wasting calories and added sugar in juice in my opinion.
I know drinking straight water is tough if you aren’t used to it though, even for me I have to add ice or no way will I be able to drink it.
Gatorade/Vitamin water is another one I always dilute with water. I find it just to sweet otherwise.
I do this too! For every glass of apple juice I poor, I poor some water in it too! Hubby hardly notices! And my girls are still young that they have never had it otherwise so they don’t know what they’re missing! Definitely stretches our overly priced bottles of juice.
I dilute my daughters juice still and she is almost 3. She doesnt know the difference and it increased her water intake!!