The thing of it is, if you reuse it, it might be worth it just for convenience. Its not easy to find clear antifreeze to begin with, then you have to buy UV dye and potentially an anti algae ingredient. $10 for antifreeze, $10 for GOOD blue UV dye (or more) and your distilled water is pretty cheap. I don't know off hand what anti algae stuff goes for. But iodine is pretty cheap. So figure $25 after tax. This stuff is what, a bit over $6 a bag, so you could get 4 bags for the cost of ingredients. If you change your fluid a lot or don't like to reuse it, buy the ingredients. But for the lazy watercoolers like me, this stuff is great. Better than wasting $10 on UV dye and then have it NOT turn out at all like the pictures.