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Saving money, San Pellegrino vs SodaStream
We made the change, and now our SodaStream is saving us money, the Earth and our waistlines. See the huge difference between San Pellegrino vs SodaStream. Then, start having more money every day by becoming debt free with the free 7-Step Credit Card Debt Slasher guide here.
San Pellegrino vs SodaStream, one saves money and the environment
We traveled to Spain several years ago to join friends as they wrapped up the last leg of their honeymoon in Ibiza. We had an amazing trip and brought lots of memories home with us. We also brought back an affinity for sparkling water.
Years later, Millennials worldwide would follow in our affinity for the fuzzy treat.
San Pellegrino Italian mineral water is the predominant brand served in Spain. Not only is sparkling water refreshing, but we also find we drink more sparkling water with our cocktails or wine than still water. It’s become our prevention for hangovers, and as we get older this is more important.
Later, we switched to Whole Food’s bulk packages of sparkling Italian mineral water. These include six, one-liter plastic bottles at the time cost just under $8. This was unconscious consumption.
We wised up and started buying two-liter bottles of Safeway-brand soda water for $1. It’s not Italian mineral water, but it did the deed.
We were drinking a liter a day throughout the week and two liters a day on the weekends. Sure, it’s only $9 a week, but it’s $468 a year. That’s the difference between San Pellegrino vs Sodastream.
It, also, created a lot of plastic trash. This bothered us.
Gifting a SodaStream for Christmas for double savings
David then played smart Santa. He bought me a $99.99 SodaStream Genesis Soda Maker with an online discount so it cost $79.99.
You will get free shipping on any purchase over $50, which helps get it to you even cheaper. Plus, if you download this app, you will get 2.5% cashback when you make your purchase!
We now buy 14.5 ounces of compressed CO2 cartridges at the Bed, Bath & Beyond store normally $15. For some reason, Bed, Bath and Beyond’s website and Amazon charge $29.99 for the same cartridges. Amazon also offers a 10% off coupon, if that’s easier for you.
With our 20% Bed, Bath & Beyond coupons, we pay $12 for 60 liters of water. Our net cost per liter is $0.20, which is about $1.38 a liter less than what we were paying for Whole Food’s Italian sparkling water and $0.30 less per liter than Safeway’s store brand soda water. That’s $654.84 and $140.40 in savings a year, respectively, and another difference between San Pellegrino vs SodaStream.
The basic differences with San Pellegrino vs SodaStream
SodaStream soda water
Like most soda water, SodaStream soda water is simply water infused with carbon dioxide gas under the pressure of SodaStream CO2 cartridges. The CO2 provides an effervescence and is often called sparkling water, club soda, soda water, seltzer water or fizzy water. Our household calls it fuzzy water.
San Pellegrino
San Pellegrino is sparkling mineral water bottled in San Pellegrino Terme, Italy and is similar to Perrier. Though mineral water can be sourced with natural carbonation. Carbonation isn’t natural to the water spring used by San Pellegrino. The company claims it adds the carbonation naturally during processing, whatever that means and whatever we care.
When we dine at fancier restaurants – that say they don’t serve soda water to force us to buy San Pellegrino or Perrier – it helps with the hangovers the same as above. San Pellegrino’s also acidic.
Mineral water
So, what’s mineral water, you ask? Well, it is what it says it is. Mineral water is water with minerals in it, such as salts and sulfur compounds, as opposed to spring water with “technically” no minerals in it. Like spring water, mineral water’s usually sourced from underground.
Mineral water can benefit your health, such as lowering blood pressure, increasing blood circulation, strengthening bones and promoting digestive health. It’s can also be a good source of magnesium, which strengthens bones, fights diabetes, PMS and migraines and reduces anxiety.
Perrier
Kinda confusing, huh? So, what’s Perrier, and is it any different than San Pellegrino? Like San Pellegrino, Perrier is a sparkling mineral. However, it’s naturally carbonated mineral water that’s bottled in Vergèze, France. Even though the sourced water is naturally carbonated, Perrier collects the water and carbonation separately and then combines the two again during production for quality control. Mother Nature’s amazing but not necessarily consistent.
Tonic water
Are soda water and tonic water the same? No! Gin & sodas and gin & tonics don’t taste the same, and here’s why.
Like some soda water, tonic water is artificially carbonated water. Unlike soda water, it is made bitter with quinine. Sodium salts and/or potassium salts, such as table salt and sodium bicarbonate or baking soda, are added during production to make tonic water.
Quinine comes from the bark of the cinchona tree and is native to central and South America, the Caribbean and western Africa. Quinine is used to treat malaria and is popularly believed to help with leg cramps and restless leg syndrome (RLS).
The taste difference with San Pellegrino vs SodaStream
An independent study done in Australia found that consumers could barely taste the difference between San Pellegrino vs SodaStream with water sourced from a top and other expensive bottled water.
“While the most expensive sparkling water brand Voss costs $6.38 per liter, it scored 5.8 out of 10 in the taste test, while sparkling water made using SodaStream and ordinary tap water (1,600%! cheaper than Voss) scored a near-identical 5.7.”
Can you make your own mineral water?
With the health benefits of mineral water that we shared above, you may ask, “Can I make my own mineral water to save even more money?” The answer is “yes, you can,” but it’s a pain in the arse and Department of Homeland Security might start keeping an eye on you.
Many of the world’s fanciest and most expensive sparkling mineral water brands from Perrier to Badoît to Vichy to Voss post their recipes publicly. If you’re so motivated, ask your water company for a report on your tap water composition. Then, order from Amazon and add to your tap water the necessary complement of minerals to achieve your preferred brand’s mineral-water mixture.
Once you’ve achieved your optimal potion, give your fancy mineral water a zerbert with your SodaStream, and – ta da! – you’ve bootlegged your favorite sparkling mineral water. However, that can be a lot of work and some of the minerals are expensive. So, it may not be worth your investment of time.
Rather, be happy with your simple savings from using your SodaStream with tap or filtered tap water.
SodaStream’s reducing our waste and waistlines
So, we save money and reduce waste because, like many others, we return our used cartridges to Bed, Bath & Beyond for recycling. SodaStream claims this saves 2,000 bottles and cans a year and helps consumers drink 42% more water per day.
Recently, SodaStream targeted the Coke and Pepsi market. It’s pitching its lower impact on the environment compared to soft drink giants. It should also position itself as a healthy alternative, as a liter of Coca Cola is 406 calories.
Switching out one liter of Coca Cola with one liter of SodaStream soda water would save you 21,112 calories a year. With 3,500 calories equaling about 1 pound of fat, you could theoretically save yourself 6 pounds a year. That may not sound like a lot but just as with money, every little bit helps – especially as we get older.
We mostly drink the soda water straight and never use SodaStream’s flavoring or mixes but do get creative. We add the standard lemon or lime wedge. Sometimes we add sliced cucumber or basil.
We make a lemon soda with lemon juice and agave nectar. We 10X that with a ginger concentrate boiled on the stove and add it to our lemon juice and agave nectar for a ginger ale.
If you’re looking to reduce your waste, waistline or expense, we highly recommend getting yourself a SodaStream.
The difference between San Pellegrino vs SodaStream is the difference between saving money, the Earth and our waistlines.
Salute!
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Ya know, I have been deciding on getting one of those soda streams, and after reading this it definitely seems like a good investment. (It doesn’t give a me an ROI) but it does allow me to save money on making drinks without having to buy a ton of sparkling water.
Thanks for the post guys 🙂
We love ours as you can tell from the post. I like to add a tablespoon of lime or lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of simple syrup in a 12 oz glass of sparkling water to make my on Limonata! Tastes just as good and it doesn’t cost $1.69 each!
As for the ROI, it’s pretty hard to calculate since we figure within 2 months we had the cost of the machine paid off from savings and since then they just keep adding up.
Good work.Thanks for sharing this content. Can you help me for giving video about How We Spoil Ourselves?
I couldn’t care less about the environment and would only consider this for convenience. Taste us going to depend on your tap.
Not willing to gamble it will suck.