My kids (well at least my older child who is 8) started asking for/drinking soda a couple of years back, which was a habit I was trying to kick at the time and didn't want my kid starting. At first my wife would buy things like sprite/7up/root beer since they didnt have caffeine, but I wasn't too thrilled about those options either and I knew it would be difficult to move back to water or juice all at once.
So I started purchasing powdered drinks such as Lemonade, Gatorade, Kool Aid etc from Sam's.
The powdered versions of the drinks run about $7 ($10 for Gatorade) for a large container that the package says makes 34 quarts, however I have found that since they are powered, I can control the strength of the mix I make, and a sweet spot (pun intended) is to make the mix at about 80% strength . My kids cant tell the difference and an 8oz serving drops from 60 calories to 48, so I can usually get around 42 quarts out of a package. Better yet, they occasionally have discounts where you can get them for $5.98/container and I'll buy several at that time.
I purchased a couple of 2 quart containers and mix up two different flavors (we typically rotate between lemonade, pink lemonade, blue gatorade, original gatorade, and Kool Aid varieties depending on what is available). We have a PUR water filter on our sink so the water used in the drinks is better quality and the total cost is a fraction of soda or even similar drinks purchased in packaged format. I drink them too when I have an urge for something sweet and is a good alternative to purchasing and drinking soda. We can usually go through a 2 quart container in about 2-3 days and then I'll often wait a day or so after before I make more until the kids complain so they drink water in the meantime. Since I've been doing this (for about a year and a half) my kids have never asked for soda once. Also, if we go somewhere for like a picnic I just mix some lemonade up and put it in water bottles or a small jug and we can all have drinks.
I haven't calculated the total savings, but I know its significant. We used to purchase 24 packs of soda which would probably last 2 weeks for $7-9, now a $7 package of powered lemonade lasts 2 months or more.