by Tricia
Well, it’s been tougher this time around, but my body has been cleansed of caffeine. Much to my delight, I have been able to transition to drinking just water and milk remarkably well. I wish I could say that I am feeling great, but I can’t. I seem to have picked up a bug of some sorts and I haven’t been feeling well. Perhaps my body was so out of whack for a while so that left me susceptible to something.
My husband is also doing fine with no caffeine as well. He was fine after one day. When scientists talk about genes playing a factor in addiction, I think they have something there.
This whole thing will save us money, no doubt. I think one of the nicest things about it was having a talk with our son today. He’s observant and watches what we do. He brought up the fact that there is no longer any soft drinks in our house and I was able to explain how important water is. He was able to stump my knowledge of things quite a few times, but that’s quite alright. After our talk, he grabbed a water from the fridge and handed it to me. Then he grabbed one for himself. He said he wanted us to be healthy. I’ll drink water to that!
It’s great that all of us are on board with no caffeine. We’re also committed to living a healthier life overall. That’s another reason why our grocery price book is going to be such a great tool. It can easily be modified to include key nutritional information and become an aid to menu planning (which is in the works). Each of us has a need with our diets now and I think that spreadsheet will help us meet them.
Hi Tricia,
Great to see you are cutting out caffeine. You might also consider looking in to caffeine free tea. My wife is English and got me hooked on tea years ago. She still drinks regular tea but I switched to caffeine free a long time ago. The trick is to put extra tea bags in so it’s nice and dark.
Hazzard
From the way you wrote this blog entry, it sounds like you are now using bottled water. If that’s the case, I suggest you switch to tap water or using a Britta filter. First, bottled water is very expensive (compared to non-bottled water), and shouldn’t be part of a low-budget scenario. Second, bottled water is a nightmare for the environment. Google the issue if you want to learn more, but the bottles are filling up oceans and landfills. Third, due to chemicals in soft plastics, bottled water may actually be bad for you. Fourth, bottled water is often just bottled tap water. It’s a total con. Consumer Reports has done tesating and found that over 50% of brands of bottled water actually have more junk (chemicals, bacteria, metals) in them than tap water.
Just get a britta filter or use tap water. And if you want it to be convenient, you can use refillable metal, glass or plastic bottles.
I agree with Margot about the bottled water, it’s wasteful to buy bottles and bottles of water that just get thrown out. But, we also prefer the taste of bottled water. We use a water cooler which we picked up at Target for about $70. We have two 5-gallon water bottles that we refill at the machines up at the grocery store for 25 cents a gallon. Cost wise compared to bottled we probably break even within 6 months, plus it tastes better than tap and I love the convenience of instatant hot or cold water.
Hi Margot – We are tap water drinkers. We have reusable bottles that we have filled with tap water and we put in the fridge to keep it nice and cold. It tastes much better that way. I probably should have been more clear when I said he grabbed water from the fridge. We have never really been into purchasing bottled water, except for a small stash we have for emergencies.
Tricia, you’re spot on with chilled water in the fridge. Something we picked up while in Australia is, we have some really nice clear glass re-corkable wine bottles that we use for water. At dinner, we’ll set out four glasses and one of those for our chilled beverage.
Good luck on kicking caffeine, I gave up Cokes long ago on taste grounds, but I don’t think I could kick my morning coffee 😉
That’s wonderful to hear that your son wants you to be healthy. It’s even more wonderful to hear that you didn’t lecture him, but agreed with him. So many parents will argue with a child about things like that when often they know more than we do! I am sorry to hear about the bug. I’m not feeling well myself today, but it has to do with stress and oversleeping.
I am so glad it is getting easier for you. Now I need to weed my husband off of iced tea.
Isn’t that great that you gave up soda! It will save you tons and tons… I remember just almost 1 yr ago when my hubby was told he was PRE diabetic… OUCH at just 37… he, with out me even saying, gave up his Mt. Dew addiction.. cold turkey… His numbers when down (with the help of our changing to CLEAN eating) and he is much happier now…
I now am thankful when I leave the store with NO soda in the cart and Know I saved atleast $10!
Using a pricebook is a great way to save money. When my hubby was out of work for a year using one really helped us cut down our grocery bill. I still have one.
I have my pricebook sheets that I record the information on, but I also have a little memobook that I carry with me in my purse. It contains the rock-bottom price for everything I buy. Usually I have a good idea of what a great price is, but you can’t always remember everything.
Glad to hear it’s working out for you. Wish I could stop drinking caffeine!
I’ve never heard what Margot is saying about bottled water being the unhealthy thing now. Lol. I’ve always drank tap water. I’ve had plenty of people tell me that they’re surprised I’m still alive, so the switch in what’s better now is just funny to me.
I had a written price book for a while but I found it just as easy to run a mental one, I pay attention to prices and stock up when things are on sale.
I did this as well, around two years ago. But, then slowly started drinking the evil Diet Coke again. I’m now back to almost solely drinking Diet Coke!! I need to start cutting back, as it certainly does eat away at the budget.