Do you have a few little indulgences that consume a bit more of your money than you’d like? Just about everyone does; indulgences add spice to life and are often some of our favorite hobbies. Sometimes, though, our favorite things to eat, drink or inhale end up costing a bit more than what’s really reasonable. It’s not a business’s job, after all, to charge fair prices for its products – it’s to charge whatever the market will bear. Sometimes, the costs of life’s little pleasures start to get a little out of line. Well, you don’t have to pad some millionaire’s pockets anymore when you feel like satisfying your favorite indulgences. Instead, you can save a bundle of money with these simple tricks.
Love Craft Beer? Buy Growlers Instead of Bottles
This is truly the golden age of beer. Worldwide shipping has made it possible for specialty stores to offer great beers from around the world, so you can enjoy anything from a Trappist ale to a double chocolate stout just by driving down the road. What’s even better is that microbreweries are popping up everywhere. They’re making beer, cider, hard seltzer and more, and the quality standards are often extremely high.
The one thing that microbreweries aren’t, however, is cheap. A six-pack from a local brewery will definitely set you back far more than any mainstream domestic beer – but it’s hard not to pay the higher price when small-batch beer is often so much better than the mass-produced stuff. So, what’s the alternative? Buy a growler instead!
A growler is a large jug that’s usually made from glass or plastic. It’ll typically hold about 64 ounces of beer, which is just about the equivalent of a six-pack. Some breweries sell growlers directly, and others will ask you to pay a refundable deposit. The brewery will fill the growler with the beer of your choice. When you’re ready for more, simply clean the growler and bring it back for a refill. You’ll find that buying growler refills instead of six-packs can make it significantly more affordable for you to indulge your love of craft beer.
Love Vaping? Clean and Reuse Your Coils
If you love vaping, there’s a good chance that you use a powerful vape mod because that’s the way to enjoy the biggest clouds and boldest flavors. Using a powerful vaping device means that you’re going to consume a lot of e-liquid, though – and if you love sweet flavors as so many vapers do today, using a lot of vape juice means that you’ll need to replace your coils constantly.
The good news is that saving money on vaping is incredibly easy. There’s no need to switch to an unsweetened e-liquid that you don’t really enjoy, and you also don’t have to trade in the fog machine you love for a smaller device that doesn’t satisfy you. Instead, just buy a product like the ROBO2020 automatic vape coil cleaner. All you need to do is place your dirty coils in the device along with a little water, and ROBO2020 does the rest. After about a half hour, ROBO2020 removes the gunk from your coils and restores their original flavor. Instead of replacing the coil in your tank every day or two, you can reuse the same coil many times before discarding it.
Love Coffee? Buy It Direct from the Grower
Did you know that coffee increased in price more than any other consumer commodity in 2021? During a year in which prices for goods were out of control across the board, coffee lovers suffered the most. Thanks to poor weather and supply chain issues, the demand for coffee outstripped the supply by millions of bags. Whether you buy your coffee from the supermarket or a coffee house, you’ve probably never paid more for your favorite caffeinated brew than what you’re paying right now.
There’s no getting around the fact that coffee is going to remain expensive until supply and demand are more in line. If you don’t want to pay the high prices, consider switching to tea; it’s much less expensive. If coffee is the only morning beverage that can satisfy you, though, try buying it direct from a grower.
In the United States, the two states in which you’ll find the most coffee farms are Hawaii and California. Kona coffee comes from Hawaii, and it’s very expensive. Coffee grown in the Kau and Puna districts of Hawaii Island is just as good, however, and it’s much cheaper than Kona coffee. To save the most money possible, buy beans in bulk and grind them yourself. Commercial coffee farming in California is a much newer phenomenon, but it’s worth investigating if you’d like to save money on your favorite caffeinated indulgence.
Love Great Food? Buy Produce at the Farmers’ Market
One of the greatest things about buying food at the supermarket is that you can almost always get the fruits and vegetables you want when you want them. Have you ever paused, though, to think about why it’s so easy to find Belgian endives or fresh strawberries at your local market even in the middle of winter?
The reason why you can always get the produce you want at the supermarket is because most of the fruits and vegetables that we buy are grown by gigantic commercial farming operations in warmer climates and shipped around the world. The cultivars grown by those farmers aren’t selected for taste; they’re selected because they can tolerate shipping and can last for weeks in cold storage. If farming isn’t really possible during the winter where you live, the fact that your local supermarket gets regular shipments of fresh produce is a really great thing. If your local climate is a bit milder, though, there’s an option that’s significantly tastier and cheaper: You can buy your produce at a local farmers’ market.
When you begin to meet the sellers at your local farmers’ markets, you’ll learn about another option that’s potentially even cheaper: Many farmers sell weekly Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) boxes, and you can usually get your box from several convenient local pick-up points.
You’ll find that buying a weekly CSA box is often the cheapest way – by far – to get fresh produce. Farmers offer them at well below retail prices because there’s always more supply than demand when a given crop is in season. When you buy a weekly CSA box, you usually can’t choose exactly what fruits and vegetables you’ll get. However, you can always expect to receive produce that’s in season and extremely fresh. You can also expect to spend a fraction of what you’d pay at the supermarket.
Angela Spearman is a journalist at EzineMark who enjoys writing about the latest trending technology and business news.
