My Favorite Things-To Go Cups

I love the feel of an ice packed fountain drink in my hand. The look of a liesurely confident consumer. Sip and shop, sip and shop. Truth is I'm always thirsty from taking allergy meds daily so I always have a drink in hand. Enjoy the convenience and ease of picking up a nice cold iced tea almost anywhere I go but the cost is crazy. 
A while back my friend Carol walked into a staff meeting with the coolest cup she had picked up at Starbucks. Carol is always good for finding clever items like this one. This cup was shaped like the traditional fast food fountain drink paper cup with cheap plastic lid and straw. But this cup was so much more.

This reusable To Go cup was made of a clear hard plastic with a thick screw top lid and a hard straw that does not pull out of the top of the lid because of a clever knob at the bottom. Genious!! I wanted it instantly! The perfect car cup for my daughter who is often thirsty when I pick her up from daycare. Our drive was at least a half hour or more so to keep her happy I would hand her my drink in the traditional flimsy paper cup. She would play with the straw, pulling it out all the way and then not be able to stick it back in because the straw was too flimsy or she would shove the straw all the way in the cup and then start screaming from the back seat that she needed my help finding the straw again. And/or the lid would crack and the whole cup would go to crap, again causing panic. Oh! How many times has your crappy lid slid off as you lift the cup (or have been thrown to the floor) flooding the passenger seat, your purse and car floor with sticky pop. Ugh.

So you see this new discovery was the answer I had been searching for. Still the feel of holding an ice cold fountain drink but the lid won't pop off or crack. The straw will keep its shape and won't pull out. Best of all I could fill it up at home saving lots of money.  I go to Starbucks right after the meeting and buy a tall and short version of the cups for about $25. Ouch! Expensive but I had to have them and of course they are reusable therefor a good green investment. That isn't rationalizing is it? It's common sense.
We really do use these cups all the time because we are always thirsty and always on the go.

Since then I have found less expensive versions of this cup. Pictured is a set of To Go cups I just found at Walmart for under $6 a piece. Price is great and we like the polka-dot pattern (also known as poke-abots by my 4 year old) but what really sold me, what really made me snag three of those babes off the shelf was the packages of replacement straws (4 to a pack) for only $1.50. Sweet!!