DIY in all we do.

[90VG]

Since I started mixing my own e-juice about a week after I got my first vape, it's so much cheaper and I can mix up anything I want, any quantity, any time. I even ran out of juice while driving, pulled over and mixed up 50mls on the side of a US highway.

So I started looking into making other things myself, and came up with some serious cost savings.

1. Make my own soda. I can make soda with Kool Aid and Stevia extract, carbonated (using a big rig, not a soda stream). My cost for gas/koolaid/stevia is $0.33 per 2 liter bottle. Stevia soda is very expensive at the stores.

2. I've started making fermented tea. Still working out filtration details, but I can beat the socks out of beer with some Lemon grass/Ginger or some cinnamon tea. I'm not done yet, so cost is not calculated, but I'm thinking about 50 cents per 2 Liter bottle. And you can tune the alcohol content to what you want, I like it around 3%. Have a drink, don't get drunk, and it tastes good.

I live in a small rural town, and cheap generic soda with HFCS is $1.80 a bottle. Big savings. 2 Liters of cheap beer is about $4.40.

The tea is interesting because you boil 4 tea bags in an electric kettle, few minutes. Let cool and pour into a 2 liter bottle. Add 2/3 cups sugar (mostly gets eating away), and toss in the yeast once it's at 90F then shake. Hold temp at 80F, and pop a ballon on top with a pin hole on the tip, when it's done, balloon goes limp. Pretty easy and no mess, nothing like making your own beer from scratch, that's a pain, plus you get different flavors, and it's actually pretty straight up natural.

That's my soda rig with a 2 Liter bottle for reference.

 

[Marie Miguel]

That's cool idea.

 

[rob33]

I keep 2½gal keg of carbonated water in the kegorator for natural soda mixes. Much more better for you than sugar soda.

 

[ENAUD]

Just wondering, how long does it take to carbonate a two liter bottle with that rig? I drink a lot of strait up carbonated water and this might be worth me looking into, like if I can carbonate up a bunch of bottles pretty quick and re-use them it would also save a lot of stuff from the waste stream...

 

[90VG]

You have to make up what you are going to drink first, then you have to get it cold. 35F or so. Once you hook it up to the tank and pressurize, you shake the bottle for about 2 minutes. When you shake, you can hear the gas flowing in and see the bubbles. After that, maybe an hour in the fridge for it to settle down, then it's good to go.

All in all, maybe 5 minutes total effort. But it takes a while for things to get cold, of course you can do something else in that time.

For just carbonated water? 2.5 minutes, and you get a little work out.

 

[90VG]

I can link on Amazon (not affiliate link) the stuff I have if you want. The tank you have to get locally. I think the tank full cost about $250 or something, doesn't matter to me, I've saved more than that in just the first year. I did the math, I'm saving money this way, and not hauling 2 liters of crap soda up 17 stairs to the fridge.

Edit: On a side note, you know those beers you leave next to bed that you think you are going to drink, but you don't before you sleep? In the morning, pour into 2 liter bottle. When it's about full, charge it up with CO2. Lol, works.

 

[ENAUD]

I can link on Amazon (not affiliate link) the stuff I have if you want. The tank you have to get locally. I think the tank full cost about $250 or something, doesn't matter to me, I've saved more than that in just the first year. I did the math, I'm saving money this way, and not hauling 2 liters of crap soda up 17 stairs to the fridge.

Edit: On a side note, you know those beers you leave next to bed that you think you are going to drink, but you don't before you sleep? In the morning, pour into 2 liter bottle. When it's about full, charge it up with CO2. Lol, works.

I used to brew my own beer, the got diagnosed with celiac disease, so no beer for me, but I know how to ferment stuff The cost of the CO2 rig won't be a problem, I never went the soda can route, always did natural carbonation in the bottle, but that's a lot of work, and takes time and space, the space, I don't have anymore. IIRC most folks used a spare fridge with some holes punched in them to carbonate their cans, I found it interesting that you are doing it by the 2 liter bottle...I'm going to do some more research on this stuff, as it is pretty cool to DIY everyday stuff, and yes, it can save boatloads of money. We watched TV for free for about eight years with my home made HDTV antennae, which I made out of some scrap metal and wood and some cardboard insulators.