Frugal Lemonade Recipe

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My children love to have friends over in the summer and I am happy to have them over. Of course within a few hours of playing comes the request of “I am thirsty what can my friend and I have to drink”. Being a frugal household my children are use to ice water as their daily drink, but when they have friends over I like to provide them with a little something special, on a budget of course, and our families frugal lemonade recipe is perfect.

All you need for this recipe is lemon concentrate (I get mine at Aldi) sugar, water and ice.

Measure 2/3 a cup of sugar out and place it in the bottom of a pitcher. Add 1/3 a cup of lemon concentrate. Fill your pitcher  2/3rds the way full with cold water. Stir until sugar is completely dissolved. Fill the pitcher  to the top with ice and serve.

If you want to make it easier for the children to pour on their own add the ice to the glasses and not the pitcher.

If you don’t find it strong enough, add more sugar or lemon concentrate. I find that a 2 to 1 ratio works best. So if your pitcher is bigger than mine try 1 cup sugar to 1/2 cup lemon concentrate. If your pitcher is smaller (or your budget is tighter) try 1/2 cup sugar to 1/4 cup lemon concentrate.

This recipe is adapted from The Complete Tightwad Gazette. Although not a cookbook the series does contain dozens of frugal recipes that my family enjoys on a regular basis. The book is a great resource for any family looking to reduce their expenses.

For a list of 52 different websites, apps, and stores our thrifty family uses to help us keep our expenses low, click here to visit our Thrifty Tools Resource Page.