Sodastream for cheap sparkling water. Of course, you have to feed it with a special hose attached to a cheap 20lb bar co2 tank, rather than pay up for the sodastream canisters. The hose is $100 one time, A 20 lb refill is $10-20 and lasts us 6 months or more, drinking a few liters daily.
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Isn’t that really bad for your teeth? I’ve read the carbonation makes the water/soda acidic and damages tooth enamel. Does it taste better than regular water?
We like it much better than regular water. I never heard about the tooth damage, I’ll ask the dentist.
It’s definitely less harmful than soda with sugar 
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Also available in a hoseless option I believe. Though I haven’t got one of these yet for my SodaStream
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Yes. The paintball tank is a good solution and ideal as a space saver for a small apartment, etc. We went with the bar tank because we already had one on hand. We drilled a hole in the countertop for the hose and the tank sits underneath.
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The sugar in soda is bad for your health in general so in that respect sparkling water is better. But teeth erosion comes from carbonic acid (CO2 dissolved in water) so it’ll lower the pH of sparkling water to cause erosion regardless of sugar content.
A lesser evil would be to carbonate mineral water that is softer (less acidic) because it contains a bunch of salts that will somewhat neutralize the carbonic acid. Commercial brands like Perrier have a pH of 6 which is close to that of tap water. But that adds to the cost compared to tap water. The best may be club soda which has added sodium and calcium salts enough to completely compensate for the carbonation. You can get somewhat of the same effect by just adding baking soda to tap water prior to carbonation.
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This is really true, yet never stops surprising me when it works. I can think of two recent times when I asked for a student discount; they said they don’t have one, but gave me a 10% / 20% discount just for asking.
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There is a local restaurant supply store near me that refills the sodastream bottles for cheap. You might try to find one in your neighborhood. Also, you might need to purchase an adapter, but the supply store might sell it.
It’s been mentioned a couple of times before, but it bears repeating. I got an Obihai that handles 2 lines. So, my wife and I each have a different ring tone at home. Also, when she dials out, she has to dial **1 or something like that so that the Obihai shows her number to the person answering. We have it hooked up to a Panasonic cordless phone system that has enough range for our place.
Also, I have set up a HTPC. Using a FW deal from 2009, I added a video card, a dual tuner, and a wireless keyboard with mousepad to the PC which is connected to an outdoor antenna. It’s on Windows 7 and runs great with Windows Media Center. It can record two shows at the same time while you watch a previously recorded show. I have also added a 2TB external to store programs. There is always something to watch and we skip all commercials. You can even watch programs at 1.5x speed. Also, we can surf the web, show pictures, and use Amazon Prime Video and Netflix (using friend’s login), and all the other things you can do on a PC. We have only 1 TV that we use, so this works great. I have tinkered with Plex to get our programs into another room, but I dropped that project because we never use that other TV.
We have 5 lines with Cricket for $100 per month and regularly get discounted codes from Target about twice a year.
I buy steak whenever it’s on sale and vacuum seal it and freeze it. It really stays fresh for at least a month when there will likely be another sale.
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Soft water tends to have a lower pH than hard water as you say. However, the soft/hard distinction is not a measure of pH but of mineral content. By definition, soft water has less salts/minerals and hard water has more salts/minerals.
So, did you mean you should use a harder water instead? That would have the minerals plus would likely be higher in pH.
Just because it makes some acid doesn’t mean it’s strong enough to matter. This journal article seemed to think it didn’t.
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Yes I meant water that contains more alkali and alkaline earth counter ions will balance the acidity added by the carbonation process.
That article did not completely decouple the effect of pH from the buffering effect of various counter ions. It correctly observes that mineral water does not cause much tooth decay (hydroxyapatite dissolution rate).
Another study from 1999 compared orange juice at pH 4 with orange juice added with calcium and found the same results. pH is one accelerator of erosion but it can be balanced by buffering effect from mineral ions in the drink.
The main conclusion is not really a surprise (especially if you think of the dissolution reaction equilibrium). A mineral water rich in calcium is basically not going to dissolve hydroxyapatite (a calcium phosphate) much due to the buffering effect of calcium. So it’s true that it’s a much better alternative as far as limiting tooth erosion goes. Same goes with orange juice with added calcium.
But I’m guessing as far as sodastream use goes, people are not starting from commercial mineral water in general (otherwise it may not be that much of a money saver lol). If you do, then I think you’re probably fine. But unless you have high calcium content in the water you’re going to carbonate, the carbonation is still gonna increase tooth erosion.
I’m in luck. Very hard water in New Orleans where I live.
One thing I have not yet seen mentioned is commuting by bicycle. I started this about a year ago by getting a decent used bike and it has become a favorite hobby. By buying used (at a good price), I was able to try a few bikes to find the style and size I liked without losing much money. This has not only saved on gas and maintenance, but it has improved my health greatly. My commute is about 5 miles one way.
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Good for you katsup. Commuting by bike is really catching on here in Seattle, even though we have more than our share of hills.
If you’ve got a backyard, one thing I used to do is line dry my clothes instead of using an electric or gas dryer. You save on gas/electricity, the cost of the appliance, but most of all, the cost of clothes. I’ve found that hot dryers really kill clothes quickly. The heat causes the cloth to deteriorate. On the other hand, when I line-dry clothes, they seem to last forever.
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SAHM here, husband is a mechanic. We live in a somewhat affluent community, have three sons, and do pretty well (if I say so myself).
Here’s what I/we’ve done over the past 20+ years:
No cable tv (but do have TiVo’s).
Rarely went out to eat, when the kids were little we only went if there were kids deals.
Library - books & movies (I don’t buy any)
I refuse to purchase some grocery items - pop being the biggest one. I despise bottled water. I only get Starbucks when I’ve turned some online rewards into a Starbucks coffee gift card.
No vacations (were lucky when the kids were younger that we had a family cabin to go to; now that was sold)
Shop clothing clearance for out-of-season items (I saved a ton by buying sizes ahead for the boys, and they all got hand-me-downs). We have Lands End outlet stores nearby, so a lot of our clothes come from there.
Compare grocery prices - take 10 items that you normally purchase and figure out which grocer has the best prices overall - then figure out the best way to make deals at that store. (For me, it Target + Cartwheel app + sales + coupon + Target CC + teenager’s employee discount). People around here think that our local “big” grocery store has the cheapest prices, but I learned about 15 years ago that their prices were very similar to our local “pricey” grocery stores. Their “huge” sale on one item, I found was actually cheaper everyday price at Target… and that’s when I changed.
I recently ported our home phone # to Google Voice, and hooked it up to VoIP, that will save around $25/month.
We use Ting for our cell phones, for the five of us it runs about $80/month
I just upgraded our thermostat through our utility company. Bought a $200 wifi thermostat discounted to $125, then got a $75 credit on our bill, and will get a $25 credit annually - for them to bump up our thermostat a degree or two during the summer peak ac cooling times.
Our five vehicles are maintained by my husband, no major problems. We bought most of them new and have kept them for years (including my 1986 Camaro and 2002 Tahoe).
ETA - best thing I did was when DH inherited $10k from his grandmother I put it in Vanguard Healthcare Fund some 18 years ago. We never added to it, just let it sit… it’s now worth $120k and will be split 3 ways for our son’s college funds.
(Except for our oldest who got a full scholarship, I’ll give him his share when he buys a house).
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Even if you don’t have a back yard, an indoor clothesline is a worthwhile investment for preserving clothes. Be sure to rig up a fan to circulate the air in the room so they dry quickly to prevent molds/mildew for setting in.
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