Saving $268 per year switching from liquid stevia to stevia powder extract

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JenniferW
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Saving $268 per year switching from liquid stevia to stevia powder extract

Post by JenniferW »

I just bought powdered stevia extract for the first time (100% stevia) from Bulk Supplements. It was a 2.2 lb bag for $44.50 including taxes and shipping.

I was shocked to find it has 25,000 40mg servings and that it only takes 160mg to sweeten a 12 oz mug of hot black tea. So the bag is good for 6,250 mugs of black tea. My guy and myself drink about 6 mugs per day between us. And so it turns out the single $44.50 bag will last us 2.85 years!

We used to spend $35 every 45 days on the cheapest liquid stevia we could find: on Amazon 2 x 8 oz bottles.

Calculated it out to be a savings of $268 annually for us. Pretty amazing. And it tastes the same.

Just thought I'd share in case others here buy a lot of liquid stevia like we did.

EDIT: 160mg is a "pinch" or 1/16th of a teaspoon. I don't pinch it with my fingers (never want to touch that stuff since it is so highly concentrated), but I have a measuring spoon labeled "pinch".

(All these measuring terms are American , not sure if they are the same in the UK.)

loutfard
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Re: Saving $268 per year switching from liquid stevia to stevia powder extract

Post by loutfard »

I'll have to thank you once more for yet another bit of inspiration.

I found a bulk 99.9% erythritol/0.1^stevia supplier in Germany. 5.60€/kg delivered to our doorstep. Compared to the 29.40€/kg we currently pay for 99.21% erythritol/0.79% stevia retail, we'll need about double the quantity. It'll still come out a lot cheaper.

JenniferW
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Re: Saving $268 per year switching from liquid stevia to stevia powder extract

Post by JenniferW »

I read something the other day in the news that erythritol was linked to cancer. I am not sure if it is true or not. I like erythritol as well for my low carb diet. I've used it in the past a lot for desserts etc.

IlliniDave
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Re: Saving $268 per year switching from liquid stevia to stevia powder extract

Post by IlliniDave »

The downside of powdered stevia is that if it get exposed to humidity it can harden up--still usable but a bit of a pain because you have to re-powder it. Something to be aware of.

Hadn't heard that about erythriol, though I did come across something about high levels in the blood elevating heart disease risk.

I'd decided to forgo sugar alcohols primarily because they tend to get absorbed into the blood and subsequently burden the kidneys and liver, and mine are showing signs of wear and tear. Probably no issue to a 100% healthy person.

For the most part I'm trying to avoid artificial sweeteners, but for occasional use I'm switching over to allulose, which is a naturally occurring sugar found in small amounts in things like raspberries because it is consumed by "good" gut microbes. I don't mind stevia if it's in something I buy. But I only use the equivalent of a couple teaspoons of sweetener per week. By equivalent I mean what it takes to provide roughly the equivalent sweetness of a tsp of table sugar. And although allulose is a natural sugar, what you can get as a sweetener is made from corn because it's not available in viable quantities from its natural sources.

loutfard
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Re: Saving $268 per year switching from liquid stevia to stevia powder extract

Post by loutfard »

Triple checked the erythritol bit. A lot of noise recently indeed about possible blood clot effects. That one is out for me. I'm not going to do industrially refined pure stevia either.

I'll grow stevia plants at home while using up the remaining stock of stevia/erythritol. I've found a place within cycling distance that shares small plants for free. In our climate, that should mean some fresh stevia leaves from late May to early November this year. The final harvest I can conserve by drying or making syrup. In winter, I have honey from our summer neighbour to supplement this. This should be plenty for coffee and tea for guests and for ourselves.

I spoke to my wonderful wife about this. She'll keep baking her tasty cakes for friends and family using plain sugar. Other than that, no more direct sugar use at home. Not on strawberries. Not on or in waffles. Not on or in pancakes.

Health improvement. 73.5€/year budget cut. What's not to like? I should have made this change ages ago.

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Chris
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Re: Saving $268 per year switching from liquid stevia to stevia powder extract

Post by Chris »

Over time, companies have figured that there's more margin in selling consumers excess water and packaging than anything else: body wash, detergents, foaming hand soap, ready-to-drink beverages, "ready rice", etc. So BYOW (bring your own water) and save.

JenniferW
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Re: Saving $268 per year switching from liquid stevia to stevia powder extract

Post by JenniferW »

Yeah, we make our own foaming hand soap by filling a foam dispenser with about a centimeter of liquid soap and the rest with water :)

I guess if the stevia powder hardens, I'll probably figure out some way to make liquid stevia out of it. I sealed it really well, hopefully it won't get too bad. I dunno. Can I mix a bunch of the powder with say vodka and then put it in my brown glass bottle w/ dropper?

EDIT: Should i keep the poowder in the fridge that way it stays dry? The fridge dries out stuff right?

jacob
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Re: Saving $268 per year switching from liquid stevia to stevia powder extract

Post by jacob »

Isn't it possible to repulverize it with a [good] blender, presuming you have one?

7Wannabe5
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Re: Saving $268 per year switching from liquid stevia to stevia powder extract

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

Chris wrote:So BYOW (bring your own water) and save.
True. It pays to keep in mind that humans generally need about 3 lbs of food per day to feel satiated, but a lot of that is going to be water.

OTOH, I think hard-azz frugalista Amy Dacyzyn once wrote that if you trying to be extremely frugal and you don't have a garden or much extra time on your hands, instead of buying expensive fresh produce you can just buy multi-vitamins and fiber powder at the Dollar Store to go with the expired white bread you picked up at the Thrift Bakery and the dehydrated TVP you picked up in the bulk food aisle :lol:

Biofact
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Re: Saving $268 per year switching from liquid stevia to stevia powder extract

Post by Biofact »

7Wannabe5 wrote:
Wed Mar 08, 2023 11:10 am
True. It pays to keep in mind that humans generally need about 3 lbs of food per day to feel satiated, but a lot of that is going to be water.

OTOH, I think hard-azz frugalista Amy Dacyzyn once wrote that if you trying to be extremely frugal and you don't have a garden or much extra time on your hands, instead of buying expensive fresh produce you can just buy multi-vitamins and fiber powder at the Dollar Store to go with the expired white bread you picked up at the Thrift Bakery and the dehydrated TVP you picked up in the bulk food aisle :lol:
I wonder if that is actually possible in terms of staying healthy and fit

jacob
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Re: Saving $268 per year switching from liquid stevia to stevia powder extract

Post by jacob »

Biofact wrote:
Mon Mar 20, 2023 7:50 am
I wonder if that is actually possible in terms of staying healthy and fit
I don't think that was as great a concern in that era.

IlliniDave
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Re: Saving $268 per year switching from liquid stevia to stevia powder extract

Post by IlliniDave »

jacob wrote:
Wed Mar 08, 2023 10:06 am
Isn't it possible to repulverize it with a [good] blender, presuming you have one?
Coffee grinder works well if it doesn't have coffee residue in it.

IlliniDave
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Re: Saving $268 per year switching from liquid stevia to stevia powder extract

Post by IlliniDave »

Biofact wrote:
Mon Mar 20, 2023 7:50 am
I wonder if that is actually possible in terms of staying healthy and fit
I'd guess it would be almost impossible to stay in optimal health in such a regimen. Way too many nutritional substances that weren't identified as vitamins would be missing: key amino acids, polyphenols, varieties of fiber, Omega 3s, etc., etc. I suspect 7Wb5 is sort of joking.

I was going to mention this in my journal which is overly nutrition-focused at the moment, probably still will. The key lesson comes from YMOYL where you very deliberately examine how your spending reflects your personal values. If you value good health highly, spending money in that pursuit is "good" spending. If you value frugality more highly than good health, you can take a ton of monetary shortcuts with nutrition, but chances are over decades you'll pay a price (although the expectation is that society should pay the cost). I've seen it asserted that the cause of treating the many maladies that stem from metabolic syndrome (the consequence of highly unnatural eating habits) is something like $4T annually in the US and makes up the lion's share (something like 90%) of total healthcare expenditures. My values are such that frugality is is subject to some higher goals one of which is pursuit of optimal health.

Biofact
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Re: Saving $268 per year switching from liquid stevia to stevia powder extract

Post by Biofact »

IlliniDave wrote:
Mon Mar 20, 2023 8:22 am
I'd guess it would be almost impossible to stay in optimal health in such a regimen. Way too many nutritional substances that weren't identified as vitamins would be missing: key amino acids, polyphenols, varieties of fiber, Omega 3s, etc., etc. I suspect 7Wb5 is sort of joking.

I was going to mention this in my journal which is overly nutrition-focused at the moment, probably still will. The key lesson comes from YMOYL where you very deliberately examine how your spending reflects your personal values. If you value good health highly, spending money in that pursuit is "good" spending. If you value frugality more highly than good health, you can take a ton of monetary shortcuts with nutrition, but chances are over decades you'll pay a price (although the expectation is that society should pay the cost). I've seen it asserted that the cause of treating the many maladies that stem from metabolic syndrome (the consequence of highly unnatural eating habits) is something like $4T annually in the US and makes up the lion's share (something like 90%) of total healthcare expenditures. My values are such that frugality is is subject to some higher goals one of which is pursuit of optimal health.
Sorry for being lazy and not searching your journal for posts on nutrition, but would you care to link some posts directly or care to do a small write up of what would you do in terms of satisfying these criteria for nutrition: spend as little as possible (not considering bulk buying or discount in prices), be as nutritionally healthy as close to optimal as possible, be as simple as possible (meaning, it requires as few different food items/ingredients as possible). You can sacrifice taste, repetitiveness, and a little bit on "healthy" to gain on savings (though I think this ratio of price/healthy is not really affected except on the extreme sides of either).

IlliniDave
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Re: Saving $268 per year switching from liquid stevia to stevia powder extract

Post by IlliniDave »

Biofact wrote:
Mon Mar 20, 2023 8:34 am
Sorry for being lazy and not searching your journal for posts on nutrition, but would you care to link some posts directly or care to do a small write up of what would you do in terms of satisfying these criteria for nutrition: spend as little as possible (not considering bulk buying or discount in prices), be as nutritionally healthy as close to optimal as possible, be as simple as possible (meaning, it requires as few different food items/ingredients as possible). You can sacrifice taste, repetitiveness, and a little bit on "healthy" to gain on savings (though I think this ratio of price/healthy is not really affected except on the extreme sides of either).
I didn't really approach the topic from that direction. I judged myself to be in serious enough declining health that I hit the rails of my important+urgent quadrant so for now am aiming for maximizing nutrition to help fix as much as I can and what it costs me is secondary and I haven't looked at trying to optimize costs. I guess I'd rather spend the money now to expand the healthy portion of my life span than spend it later at the pharmacy and on the operating table. Homesteading with good sustainable farming practices is probably the cheapest way to go in the long haul, but you have to pretty much dedicate your life to it.

To avoid completely derailing the thread, in a nut shell I'd say try to eat at least 30 different plants per week (things like coffee and spices count too), emphasizing non-starchy ones, organic whenever possible; and avoid all processed-in-a-chemical-factory foods and processed seed oils (canola, soy, corn, etc.), eat wild-caught fatty fish and grass-fed/grass-finished beef, grass-fed dairy/ghee for main sources of protein/fats, and a couple types of prebiotic fibers (I use psyllium, inulin, and allulose which is a sugar/sweetener that humans can't metabolize but your gut bugs do). And lots of EVOO. Also consider other supplements/vitamins (too complicated to elaborate on here). As important, practice some form of intermittent fasting. I restrict my eating window to 3-4 hr/day to give me a good 10-12 hours or more of a daily window for autophagy/cellular repair/and cellular maintenance.

One caveat is I am doing what I am doing for therapeutic reasons--a healthier individual might be able to get by with a less drastic regimen. A second caveat is I can't yet claim any specific amount of success yet. Many of my superficial markers have improved somewhat over the last 2+ months, but I won't have an "after" for all my late 2022 blood work until May.

The 2023 turn to health starts around this post in my journal, although I don't think I answer your question very well.
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