Saving Money on Bottled Water

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!