The Backlash Against Bottled Water

It seems a few people have gotten wise to the fact that bottled water is a rip-off. You may remember when bottled water first hit the store shelves. It was promoted as a "clean" and healthy alternative to ordinary tap water. The problem is a lot of that bottled water does not come from some fresh mountain springs or a melting glacier in the Swiss Alps. Much of it is simply filtered tap water.

Despite the fact that bottled water sales are still big business, and there are now even "designer" bottled waters fetching as much as $1,000 a bottle (I'm not kidding), some people have gotten smart, and are switching to tap water.

This includes restaurants, by the way. Some restaurants in New York City now advertise the fact that they serve filtered tap water. It tastes every bit as good as the stuff that comes out of the bottle, it's certainly cheaper, and in some cases its just plain better for you. I used to live in New York, and I have to say it's probably the best tap water I've ever tasted.

I have to admit, I used to purchase bottled water. I bought the discount stuff at Big Lots, but it was still money that was going to waste. I couldn't drink tap water for a time because of a medical problem I had involving my bladder...the chlorine in the water really irritated it. It was at this time I discovered the Pur filter.

You've no doubt seen Pur or Britta filters at Walmart or the local hardware store. Pur even makes filters which flavor your water now. You may have wondered if buying those filters is worth the money. Let me answer that question: it is.

A standard Pur filter which mounts to your faucet will provide 100 gallons (on average) of filtered tap water. The tap water in my town happens to taste terrible, so the Pur filter is a must-have item in my house. The filter, with faucet mount, costs about $25-$30. If you were to purchase 100 gallons worth of 12 oz. bottles of water averaging 79 cents a bottle (the price I was paying at Big Lots), you would be paying more than $842. The Pur filter saves me $828 for every 100 gallons of drinking water that I use (the replacement filters are $14). I replace my Pur filter about 2 times per month, sometimes less. Over the course of a year, I am saving $19,872 per year by drinking filtered tap water, rather than bottled water. Of course, I never drank ONLY bottled water, but some people do, and now you can see what this is costing them. For those who drink higher-priced bottled water, such as Evian, the cost would be more than twice that much...for water.

Water is important. We all need it to live. A person can live a lot longer without food than they can without water. But all of us can definitely live without bottled water...and your bank account will be richer for it.