Three days of really cheap drinks!

[Sandra Piddock]

Last weekend, I went on a 'girlie' trip to Folkestone with three friends. The trip included a day trip to France and Belgium, and we decided to maximise our money by taking a big flask of hot water to make tea and coffee, and bottles of soft drinks from Poundland, where two 500ml bottles or 4 250ml bottles cost just £1.

We stopped at a tobacco warehouse in Belgium, and decided to buy a drink there, as it was just 1 Euro for a beer, soft drink or coffee, but when we got to the counter, we were told we could have a free drink on presentation of the receipt. Some of us had two receipts, so we stocked up for the journey as well.

Do you try to keep down the cost of drinks and snacks on the move, or will you pay motorway prices, albeit with a grimace?

 

[Arch]

We tend to carry bottles of water, and sometimes make sandwiches.

We also make use of the free coffee stickers on McDonalds. You get a sticker on each cup and collect 6 stickers for a free coffee. But you can help the process along if you don't mind peeling stickers off discarded cups where the people haven't taken the sticker. Whenever I see a cup near the top of a bin, or chucked on the ground, I check for the sticker! I had a completely free coffee on Monday, thanks to that.

The good thing is, the cup you get your free coffee in has a sticker on it, so then you only have to find 5 more...

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

We have found it cheaper to purchase stuff from a supermarket and eat/drink that on the road (not least of all it deals with the 'allergy to dairy' issues and trying to effectively be a vegan in a service station - there are only so many plates of chips I can face in one day!
We only have a coffee when the driver needs to stay awake... this is usualy after a change over and even then it is only if the journey has been longer than 4 cups of coffee (2 each) from the flask!

snacks and full meals are often from the salad's & fruit section of the supermarket (even service station supermarkets are cheaper than the cafes), but I often 'treat' us to a large bottle of sparkling mineral water and refil a smaller bottle as needed to drink from... I certainly won't pay £1.99 for 250ml of sparkling water when I can pay £0.99 (or less) for a 2L bottle from the supermarket and simply refil old bottles (OK I know I am putting Arch out of a job here but a woman has to have principles ... ).

 

[Arch]

I certainly won't pay £1.99 for 250ml of sparkling water when I can pay £0.99 (or less) for a 2L bottle from the supermarket and simply refil old bottles (OK I know I am putting Arch out of a job here but a woman has to have principles ... ).

No, no, not at all. Reuse is far better than recycling!

I reuse bottles all the time.

 

[Sandra Piddock]

I fill empty water bottles with tap water and freeze them. They act as ice blocks to keep the food and other drinks cool, and of course, as they thaw out, you can always drink the water as well. Aren't we a frugal lot here?