My parents always watered down our juice too. I still enjoy my juice watered down and can’t stomach it at full strength. Start em young!

Plus, kids like any small container – anything just their size. If they balked, I’d tell them to drink water. They don’t actually need juice anyway.

I don’t see this as people commenting negatively, rather they are providing their experiences and alternatives.

Applause.

Kids don’t need juice. Buy the boxes for occasional treat (like soccer games) but other than that have everyone drink water 90% of the time. In the summer we make ice tea and lemonade.

When you think about it, how much of what you eat each day is actually what our grandparents would have even recognized as food when they were young?

Also, those saying soda = fruit juice are probably nitpicking and thinking of only non-caffeinated sodas in their argument, but not once has anyone actually said “non-caffeinated” in their comparisons. By not specifying, it is disingenuous to leave out that in the comparison, because that is a definite difference between the two…and you can’t tell me the people arguing for soda only serve non-caffeinated sodas.

I would also guess that those that are arguing soda = fruit juice also likely have a soda of their own beside them most of the time.

More on-topic of this post, we do have a few of these bottles, and primarily use them for water or sometimes milk. We do use disposable juice boxes, but not while at home and mainly as something we can have in the van for an out-of-the ordinary situation. It isn’t always about replacing entirely, it is often about reducing to achieve a balance.

Although I agree with the juice comments. Really, giving kids juice is just like giving them soda. Water or milk is so much better.

Other than the cleaning issue, however, I don’t understand the negative comments. The title of the post is “Litterless Juice Boxes: Do They Save Money If You Have Kids?”, which to me indicates a comparison between reusable juice boxes vs buying single serving juice boxes. The answer that question clearly is yes, unless the cleaning issue kills the savings.

This post isn’t about whether reusable juice boxes are better/cheaper than sippy cups or if water is better/cheaper than juice. While those are valid questions, they are not what this post is about. People complain when Trent writes articles that are too frugally hardcore and suggest giving up conveniences that people consider necessities, but when he posts an article like this suggesting a more frugal way to allow his kids to have their chosen treat there are comments saying it would be better for the kids to do without the juice or the “box”. I don’t even have kids, but I found the post useful. For me, it isn’t as much about the exact product as it is about thinking of alternatives to costly and environmentally damaging products that we all take for granted.

“One last category of examples, related to buying boxes specially for juice: Is there really a market for brownie pans, BabyCook machines, benchtop cupcake makers and a bunch of other unitaskers?

In this particular case, I think it’s mainly a marketing approach to reach people who wouldn’t necessarily think of a small plastic bottle as a juice box replacement. I haven’t seen the products that you mention in the wild, although I was looking at the BabyCook machine and it looks pretty useful for people who would like to make baby food, but are put off by the work. You could use it and then sell it, and maybe even break even (at least compared to commercial baby food in jars). I expect the market for most of these single-use items is non-cooks who are scared by cooking.