I don't know how expensive bottled water is yearly but I know you can go through a pack fast and you constantly need to keep buying it. Its not easy or fun to always have to carry in a 24 pack of water in either. I know a filter helps but I don't know if that's saving a lot of money either. Whenever I go out in public I always drink the tap water and bring a water bottle to refill it. I haven't had any issues yet or have gotten sick. If I have no other option and have to buy bottled water I will but it can cost like $2-5 and that adds up if you keep doing so.
I only drink tap water and don't buy bottled water. Is that smart or not and are you saving a lot of money?
byu/chusaychusay inFrugal
Posted by chusaychusay
31 Comments
Depends where you live tbh
We don’t drink bottled water. Except when we fill a generic water bottle from the sink.
i usually avoid bottled water, mostly because it has that plastic, which seems bad.
so, i alternate between tap water and using my brita pitcher, the filters last a long time.
In wealthier countries with safe drinking water, yeah tap water is fine. Plastic bottled water is terrible for the planet and imo should be reserved for when tap water isn’t safe to drink
My family drinks tap but it’s filtered through a water filter pitcher. It’s refreshing when stored in the fridge and we change out the filtration every now and then.
A neighborhood nearby a city over from me recently had a scare where there were forever chemicals leaking through the tap, so if you’d prefer to be on the safer side, I’d suggest a filter instead (either pitcher or a sink attachment)
Keep filling that water bottle! If you have good water, it’ll be fine.
I will say that I don’t like my city water and we have a tap on our sink just for filtered drinking water. I totally fill up a large bottle for work since I refuse to drink the water there (historic military installation, so likely PFAS).
I only drink tap. Buying water seems foolish. Of course, where I live, the water is considered safe
99% of the time, tap water (from the city grid) is as clean as bottled, in some cases it is actually better
In the US the Flint, Michigan situation spread mass panic about tap water quality, when in most cases it is highly controlled.
Of course if you source your own water and not from the local grid, this does not apply. The bigger the city, the more secure you are, in general.
If you are in the US, you can check tap water quality at [https://www.waterqualitydata.us](https://www.waterqualitydata.us)
The overwhelming majority of locations in the United States have tap water that is safe to drink. If you don’t like the taste, there are filters you can buy to improve that. Buying filters is still significantly cheaper and much less environmentally damaging than buying bottled water. Bottled water marketing is a complete scam.
Tap water is fine in most places. If you’re concerned, you can look up water quality reports for your local water utility to see what they say.
Using a filter can reduce the amount of some remaining contaminants in tap water. Tap water must meet a bunch of regulations for quality and safety, but regulations are generally written to balance protecting human health with practical economic concerns and you might prefer to be more careful than the government mandates. Depends on your local water supply and your risk tolerance whether this is worth it to you.
Bottled water isn’t any more closely regulated than tap water, and tends to have the same types of contaminants. Buying it is for convenience, not safety.
Tap water is perfectly fine as long as there are no warnings about it where you live! Well done for the huge amount of extra single use plastic you will be saving by taking a refillable bottle with you when you go out as well.
I heard not long ago that bottled water costs 200 more than tap water!
that plus the huge waste and pollution of the plastic.
plus it contains microplastics so yay !
unless you are in a place where the water is unsafe it shouldn’t be a problem. I have always drank tap water.
I use a generic version of a Brita filter, for about $3/month. Very occasionally I will buy a huge pack of bottled water on sale, usually a store brand flat of 24 for about $4. As long as I use about 2 of those bottles instead of buying a single bottle for $2 I am coming out ahead.
When we lived in Yemen we put bottle water in a petri dish and it grew crap.
Not all bottled water is good
We have filtered water and ice on the fridge door I use for ice water. For my coffee, cooking, baking, and sun tea, our village tap is perfectly good. My wife had an energy supply of bottled water, but after a few years, the inside started having particles floating.
I usually just refill my container from the fridge dispenser. Tastes far nicer than tap water and less plasticky than bottled water
Like a lot of people I just get my water from my fridge run through a filter that needed to be replaced a long time ago lol
I filter my water at home and take a reusable cup everywhere. I only buy bottled water a few times per year for birthday parties.
I don’t know if it’s much of a savings as I have to replace my fridge filter several times per year.
We got a reverse osmosis water system and use the fridge filtered water. Has saved us so much
Its worked for me for 54 years.
Bottled water is so wasteful. Get a Brita pitcher if you don’t like the taste. They also make gallon sized jugs. I think it’s buzzard how people buy bottle water just to drink in their house.
I wont drink the tap water In my home , a few of the animals who got tap water have died of Non Hodgkins Lymphoma.
I only buy and drink the fill your own gallon jugs. They are .49 cents each.
Im not sure how that compares to tap water prices.
You’re missing out on all that microplastic flavoring.
Put a high quality whole home filter in and then buy a nice water bottle (probably around $600-900 total) Might cost a bit on the front end but it is worth the investment. Even big packs of water for $5 will ad up real quick. Let alone individual bottles.
i think tap/self-filtered water is both best pocket and environmentally wise, unless you live in an area where the local water is unsafe then drink bottled.
There’s this awesome system in Japan where any place there’s a source of natural spring water, instead of selling it to Nestlé, they test the water, set up taps, and allow people to come fill up bottles and tanks for a nominal fee. The water is certified safe to drink and there’s often a breakdown of the precise mineral content posted.
I am going to one spot tomorrow in fact to fill up about 120 liters.
Filtered water is cheaper than bottled water and removes some chloride and residue from old pipes.
I drink tap and use a Brita water pitcher and filter. If you get the filters at Costco they’re super cheap. Like $5 a filter.
1 filter will last 2~ months. I usually do 3~.
May tap water is fine without it. But it does taste better with it. And I have a pitcher of super cold water always ready to drink.
In my country you can’t just drink tap, you need to be careful. There was Jet Fuel found in the water systems in Hawaii, look up Red Hell Jet Fuel, I also lived in Illinois, it wasn’t a wise choice without filters.
Just depends, I’m in Florida now and it doesn’t seem bad here
I never ever buy water ever. We are blessed with drinkable water. Not everyone in the world is.
My local water utility is 16 HCF for $10. This translates to $0.08 per gallon.
Looking at Walmart, there’s a 1 gallon for $1.37.
So comparing the two cost, that’s 16x more of the cost.
.
People are recommended to consider 64oz a day.
So per year, you can either spend $250.03 on 1 gallon water bottles, or $14.60 of tap water.
.
And note, water bottle companies actually get their water from the tap and just add additives/flavor.