Mr. Frugality: Dollar Tree Finds

I am known to be frugal with bad habits- but what about replacing a bad habit with a cheaper, and healthier, alternative?

I walked into Dollar Tree today and saw that they had generic brand lemonade, 1.89 liters for a dollar. Keep in mind that this is about 64 ounces [US]. I bought some to taste it and it was OK- it tasted like a power drink or a lemonade like gatorade flavor. It still contains high fructose corn syrup like soda does, but the caloric intake seemed smaller. Scientific method time.


Is Dollar Tree lemonade cheaper and healthier for you than main brand soda, such as Coke or Pepsi?

Let's take a look at the health consequence reduction first. For soda, let's take a can. For a can of Coke, you are looking at 150 calories down the old gut. A can is 0.35 liters. Thus, you are taking in 428 calories per liter of Coke drinken.

The lemonade at Dollar Tree is 1.89 ounces. There are 400 calories per bottle. Per liter, you are sucking down 212 calories. While the lemonade is not an ideal replacement for soda (water is), you are cutting calorie consumption, assuming you drink the lemonade at the same rate as the soda, by 50%. That should slow down the weight gain or knock off a few pounds. The lemonade also contains less sodium than cola, which in cola it packs on even more consequences.

We can now safely say that, at the same rate of consumption, you are downing less calories by drinking the acceptable-tasting lemonade.

What about price? That depends if you get the cola on sale, perhaps. Say you picked up three 12-packs for $11.00 USD of your favorite main brand cola. That will cost you roughly 31 cents per can. If a can is 0.35 liters, you are paying roughly 88 center per liter of cola (on sale). What about the lemonade? At $1.00 US per 1.89 litre, you are paying 53 cents per liter. Let's look at this information in a graphic:

Thus, we can conclude the following:

1) If you assume it is "healthier" to consume a less caloric drink as healthier, then the Dollar Tree Lemonade is healthier than main brand Soda.

2) Dollar Tree Lemonade, per liter, is cheaper than main brand soda.

Oh, Powerade is there for a dollar too. Should see the $/Liter for that, too.