Frugal Athletes: Make Your Own Sports Drinks.

By Mr. FS

It’s summer, and the sales of various sports drinks are certain to increase dramatically. But even during the coldest days I see people toting their bottles of Powerade, Gatorade, and so forth. Are they worth it? Of course not. (As part of the research for this posting I was going to look at brands and prices at our local grocery store, but I decided it wasn’t necessary: they’re overpriced, for sure.)

Current research indicates that sports drinks aren’t even necessary except when exercising intensively for an hour or more. In most cases water is as good, or better. And in any case, what are you paying for? What adds the “power” or “sport” to these drinks? Basically two things: simple carbohydrates (often as high fructose corn syrup) and “electrolytes” (mainly potassium), and in some cases a few vitamins (which you could get for pennies in a multivitamin) or caffeine (which you could get with a nice espresso).

So if you really do need a “power” or “sport” drink, why not make one yourself? It’s couldn’t be easier. All you do is add sugar and Morton Lite salt to water (or tea), and flavor it however you want (generic unsweetened “koolaid,” etc.). Morton Lite salt (or any “lite” salt) is half sodium chloride and half potassium chloride—and so provides the potassium that’s the backbone of any so-called sports drink.

Here’s one recipe:

10 tbs sugar
¾ tsp lite salt (i.e., with half potassium chloride)
2 litres of water
Koolaid or whatever to taste

What I like about home-made sports drinks is that you can vary the amount of sugar/potassium. If it’s very hot, and I’m going on a long, hard bike ride, I cut back on the sugar, since what I want is a higher proportion of liquid to carbs. You can only absorb a limited number of calories per hour, so you don’t want more than you can burn during and shortly after the exercise. If it’s cool, I may up the sugar content, but lower the potassium, since I’m using the same amount of energy, but sweating less. I’m not sure that it really makes much difference, to tell the truth, but it’s fun to play around with, and helps—if only psychologically—to keep you in touch with your body. The best part, of course, is that this sort of sport drink costs literally pennies, and there are no bottles or cans to recycle or clutter up landfills.

By the way, there are also many great substitutes for those ludicrously over-priced ”power” bars, which are, like the sports drinks, just carbs and salt. Best is probably the humble banana (because of the potassium), or the equally humble peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but almost anything with complex carbs, a bit of sugar (simple carbs) for quick energy, and a bit of salt does just fine.

Cycling and Frugality: Lemond and Uggs

(a stealth post by Mr. Dr. Frugal Scholar)

Being frugal doesn’t mean depriving oneself of pleasures small and large. In fact, as you know, frugality allows one to indulge in pleasures beyond the means of the non-frugal. This is the point that Ms. Dr. Frugal Scholar made so well in her recent post on indulging in a pair of Uggs (strange name!). As we know, sometimes it is hard to reconcile expensive purchases within the tenets of frugality.

But I can do her one better.

I have a road bike, and not an old clunker from Goodwill. (That one Ms. DFS bought for me 15 years ago for $100, and I rode it into the ground). I now have a Lemond Zurich, and it wasn’t cheap. The last year these were made (the company is temporarily out of the market, after being bought by Trek), the Zurich went for $2,600. Of course I’d never pay that much-- I bought mine used on Ebay several years ago for $775 plus $85 shipping. That’s still not cheap.

However, expense is relative, and depends mostly on how, or how much, one uses a purchase. A Wustof knife for $100 is a good deal for someone who really cooks: it will last a lifetime. But it’s a waste of money if it’s used only for slicing Domino’s pizza. Ditto any other purchase one can think of.

So let me do some calculations. (Are you listening, Ms DFS?) Over the past four or so years I’ve ridden my bike well over 13,000 miles. Let’s say that I average 3.5 minutes per mile. (That’s about 17 mph.) Over 13,000 miles that adds up to 758.3 hours. Divide this by the price of the bike, and you get just over $1.00 an hour. That’s well worth it, and the cost per hour will keep going down; in four years it will be close to .50 an hour!

Here’s another way of figuring cost: 13,000 miles for $860 is only about 6.6 cents a mile. That beats any hybrid, and I’m not even counting the health benefits.

OK, I admit that I’ve fudged the numbers somewhat, because there have been additional expenses. I bought some mid-level clipless pedals for about $90 (road bikes don’t come with pedals or saddles), a cycle computer (to register time, distance, speed, etc.) for about $25, aerobars for about $90, various tires, tubes, shoes and cycling clothes, and I have paid for a few repairs and tune-ups. Even so the cost per mile or per hour is relatively small, certainly no more than 12 cents a mile.

And let me point out that I come out far ahead of Ms. DFS in the luxury-frugality competition. More numbers: MS. DFS’s Uggs and shipping were $93. In order to get the same return on her investment she will have to walk 775 miles (at $.12 a mile) before she gets down to the cost of a mile on my bike with all the extras included. Let’s say one can walk three miles an hour; that makes 258 hours of walking.

OK, I admit that this is just foolish, but the underlying question is not. How does one assign a dollar value to pleasure? Certainly I could have gone the same distance on a $200 bike, or a $400 bike. It might even have been 70% as much fun. (And Ms. DFS could walk 775 miles in sneakers.) But I think that because we so frugal in most areas, we can indulge in the few that are important to me. It’s a matter of triage. (Ms. DFS, bless her heart, has never raised a peep about the cost of my bike.)

You still have to decide if you’re going to make use of your bike. I see often see two-year-old bikes auctioned off on Ebay with only five or six hundred miles and for a $2,000 or $3,000 or $4,000 loss. (Yes, some of these bikes cost upwards of $7,000.) A common explanation offered is “I don’t have time to ride.” Of course it’s a good idea to sell something you aren’t going to use, but it’s even better to make sure you really like an activity before investing heavily in equipment.

So before you spend wads of cash on a good bike and all the extras get one from Goodwill (or a yard sale—or even a new one on-line for $200 as our son did) and use it for a few years. It will work just fine and you’ll discover just what place cycling occupies in your life. And you may never want a better bike, but if you do at least you’ll be sure it will get a lot of use.

So I think my bike was worth it, but am I fooling myself?