Sun Tea Savings

Robyn, over at Lentils and Rice reminded me about good old sun tea!! I had totally forgotten about this!! My Mom used to do it all the time during the 70's. It really is an old time frugal tip to use!! It will save you the price of whatever electricity you would normally use to brew your tea. Any teas can be used...we like just normal brown plain tea....but use whatever your family likes! You may have to experiment with how many tea bags to use for the strength your family likes. Be warned that it may take a few extra bags if you like it strong.....the water doesn't boil so the tea doesn't brew as strong as on the stove. Here's how we like it. My jar is an old 2 quart mason type jar. You can use ANY jar you have.....(I have heard that you can even use washed out plastic milk jugs painted black for a good strong brew! You can also set your jar on some black construction paper to attract the sun.) I use 8 tea bags in my 2 quart jar (ANY saved washed jar will do and use 2 if all you have are small ones!!!). Fill with water set in sun for 2 to 4 hours...it's done!!! I remove the tea bags add this to my 4 quart pitcher with one cup sugar then fill with water...all done!!! Do you ever stop to think about the products you drink and what they are costing you? I do !!!Remember water is always free (from the tap!!!)

Cost of Tea:

1 cup sugar (I buy sugar at my Save A lot $1.99 for 5 LBS- that's a GOOD DEAL right now as my local Krogers has sugar for $2.99 for only 4 LBS (it used to be 5 LBS but it recently shrank-sneeky) 5 pounds of dry sugar is equal to 11 ½ dry cups. So that makes the cost 17 cents per cup.

8 tea bags (I buy Tea at Save a Lot 100 bags for 99 cents so that's about 1 cent per bag.)

Water=FREE!!! We use 12 oz glasses at our home so our 4 quart pitcher has about 10 servings .....lets see the costs:

17 cents (sugar) plus 8 cents (tea) = 25 cents for 4 quarts of tea = 2.5 cents per serving (25 cents divided by 10 servings)!!! Pretty frugal drink for us so we drink LOTS during the summer!!!! Here's what our drinks cost per cup (12oz)

Tea 2.5 cents per cup

Coolaide 7 cents per cup

Pop 11 cents per cup

Milk 39 cents per cup

Tea is a very frugal choice for summer or anytime.... if you don't use a sweetener then good for you it will be even MORE affordable (If you use more than me or another kind (splenda, honey, raw sugars) just calculate accordingly)!!!