When we first started reducing our budget drastically, I realized the astronomical amount we were paying for water. We were paying 35.00/ month for a deer park home delivery water cooler, and buying 2 cases of 35 bottles of water (for about 3.99 each) every week or two. Insane, right? It comes free (or almost free) out of the faucet. I just couldn’t stomach actually drinking faucet water. It tastes so weird to me. Obviously, if you can learn to love tap water, you can save even more. Most likely, if your reading this is the first place, your already spending a fortune in bottled water though.
I got serious. I cancelled Deer Park and invested the money I saved from that months Deer Park bill in 2 “Intak by Thermos” water bottles (in picture below), on sale at Wegman’s for 7.99 each. (Total – 16.00) The key here is to ONLY buy 1 per person in your household. When you have a bunch of these lying around, you don’t feel the need or responsibility to keep track of it, or clean it routinely because there is 10 more in a cupboard somewhere. Don’t buy cheap bottles. This is important because if your drinking bottled water to start with, your probably squeamish about taste, smells etc. I had collected a huge cabinet full of cheap bottles, none of which I would use because they made the water taste or smell funny, or they would look like they were 30 years old after a few months of dish washing. I chose the “Intak” bottle for a few reasons: The price wasn’t insane; it was made of really thick material that was more like an unbreakable glass than plastic; It had a wide mouth that was easy to clean well, It has a locking system so I can throw it in a bag and now worry about it leaking. It also has a dial that you can turn to keep track of how many bottles you’ve drank, but even I’m not that anal retentive.
Every morning, I’d rinse it out in hot water and refill from the fridge filter for work (if you don’t have a built in fridge filter, you can also buy a separate Brita fridge filter. The only problem was that my job consists of being in a building with mold in the water fountain or in my car all day with no access to a water fountain. So, I started buying 2 gallon bottles of Poland Spring water for 99 cents per gallon and storing them in my trunk. My water bottle holds 24 oz. and I go through about a gallon of water a week to refill that bottle. Every few days or so, I’ll put the water bottle through the dishwasher to sanitize it even better than my hot water rinses do.
I’ve done this consistently for five weeks now, and haven’t touched the leftover water bottles in my living room. I also drink WAY more water and don’t have a dozen disposable water bottles strewn over my office, car, bedroom, living room, etc. In total, I’ve saved 26.97 the first month (35.00 [deer park + [3.99 x 3] Disposable water bottles – 16.00 [2 Intak Water Bottles] – 4.00 [4 gallon bottles of poland spring]), and then 42.97 every month after that (35.00 Deer Park = 3.99 x 3 Disposable Water bottles – 4.00 Poland Spring Water Bottles).
In the next 12 months, I’ll have saved 499.64!
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I have to buy bottled water because our tap water tested positive for lead in our rental house. All the houses in the area are very old and have lead pipes and lead paint. We encapsulated the lead paint and wipe down surfaces. The problem I have with the tap water is that it tastes so salty and very metallic. The landlord reportedly used a water softener because the city has hard water. I do not feel bad about using plastic bottles because I work at Mohawk industries, which makes carpet and flooring out of plastic bottles. They buy bales of bottles from landfills internationally and domestically. They also use the bottles that we recycle at work, so I bring all my bottles to work instead of putting them in city recycling, which saved money when I didn’t have recycling. That way, I know exactly where the plastic bottles are going. Many city recycling services dump all the bins into landfills regardless of contents. I feel more environmentally conscious by recycling this way. I would not risk my health by drinking lead positive water.
Also, I tried several different filter pitchers, and they do not work to remove the salty taste of the tap water. I grew up on tap water and it was 100 times better than what we have now. I really wish that I could save money, and I do reuse the water bottles by refilling them at work in a city that has a different water plant.
I buy the 2.5 gal version as it’s cheaper than the single gallons but that would be harder to do when you talking to work. This is the cheapest way I’ve found to buy spring water but still looking for cheaper ways. We were buying the 5 gallon refillable jugs and filling up. We had a local water place that would sterilize our jugs for us. Note I can’t find a place to do it and I don’t feel the way most are cleaning their jugs is up to par. I’m also recovering from mold toxcity so was afraid to keep using the 5 hall jug dispenser due to not being able to throughly clean the inside. I would like to offer some advice though. You stated your only running through dishwasher once a week while rinsing daily. If mold is a concern from the dispensers, I would highly recommend washing with soap daily or getting more cups as you may not be seeing mold in your cup but mycotoxins are almost guaranteed to be present in your cup. Mycotoxins are what causes the damage in the body but you can’t see or smell it. If rinsing was efficient at cleaning the cup, refilling with water to drink is essentially the same as finding your cup out. Just something to think about. That’s also why mold can grow in a dispenser as theoretically it’s self rinsing itself each time someone fills their cup up. I used to do this as well, rinsing/dishwasher but having to learn all the ins and outs of mold for recovery, I learned to buy a few cups so you have a fresh cup daily. I have 4 stainless steel insulated cups that I rotate to make it easier.