Fun & Leisure Spending – Beverages

When it comes to my monthly grocery budget postings you’ll notice there are virtually no beverages listed and with good reason.  Nearly all of my beverage choices are part of my Fun & Leisure budget, which typically would include alcohol (wine, beer, liquor), ground coffee, any sodas or carbonated beverages, etc.  It also includes things like ice cream, chocolate and other fun and unnecessary (or are they?) treats.

 

On a daily basis I mainly drink filtered water and coffee.  Now that the price of seltzer or sparkling water has come back down a little bit and I can purchase it in twelve packs at my Winco Foods grocery store I have been purchasing it again.  As part of my attempt to get as many good nutrients into my daily diet as possible I started purchasing pomegranate juice at Trader Joes and will often mix a quarter cup of that into my seltzer.  It is delicious.

 

My favorite flavor

I started including beverages into my Fun & Leisure budget many, many years ago because these were items that I did not consider to be necessities.  While raising my children I made sure to have plenty of milk, which was part of my grocery budget and still is, as well as clean tap water for them to drink, sometimes juice if it was on sale.  During those years my Fun & Leisure budget was miniscule, sometimes nonexistent, because I focused more on the grocery budget and feeding my family.

 

The budget also includes these guys... 😍

Now that I’m an empty nester my Fun & Leisure budget has grown (yay!) and I am able to add more things to my life which is a luxury I really appreciate.  If you haven’t tried adding pomegranate juice to your seltzer water, you may enjoy it like I do.  Anytime we can add extra nutrients and anti oxidants to our healthy eating plan well, I think it’s a good thing.