When I was in college, I was broke, but a snob. So rather than drink lots of cheap wine, I spent the same amount of money and bought fancy bottles of wine very infrequently.

Then I moved to China, had my housing paid for, an American salary in a country with a nearly 1:8 exchange rate, and lived the high life. And then I moved back to Chicago, bought a house, got a mortgage, and things changed.

My wife and I, for the first time in several years, were on a seriously tight budget. Until we had a decent safety net, we agreed, we’d only spend about $100 per month on booze – including in restaurants.

A few months later, we have that safety net, but I realize how foolish I was to be spending such obscene amounts of money on wine, when, in reality, much of the wine that cost over $30 per bottle gave me bad hangovers, had only mediocre success rates in terms of enjoyment, and created tons of waste. (Seriously – have you ever lived in a building where it takes ten minutes to take out the recyclables?)

Enter box wine. It’s changed my life.

Why didn’t anyone ever tell me that I could get a box – 3 liters – of delicious wine for $21, or roughly a quarter of the cost of similar wine by the bottle?

Black Box, Bota Box, Fisheye: all amazing boxes.

Good quality box wines produce far less waste, give me almost no hangover (most of the time), and, best of all:

You can have one glass at a time, without worrying about how long until the bottle goes bad.

If you’ve never tried a box wine, do so. And if you’re not sure which ones to try, head over to boxwino.com.