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I just received my annual water bill, a tiny 158 dollars. It informed me that I will pay .00375 cents per gallon.
When bottled water is even 5 a pint or 40 per gallon, that is roughly 10,000 times higher. It is often at 30,000 times higher.as many venues charge 15 a pint.
Even at a buck a pint , that is still thousands of times more , for exactly the same stuff that falls, every time it rains.
I do have a water filter through the fridge, but, the water straight from the faucet is fine.
I could see if bottled water was maybe ten cents a pint, for the packaging and the like, but….!
For the 40 percent of the population that is good at math, please, check my figures to ensure accuracy. I am a part of the 80 percent that are not good in math.
Please, before we talk stocks and bonds, etc., cease getting ripped off buying water. And I will not talk about wasting money on green hair, body piercings, tattoos and the financially challenged buying expensive German brand SUVS , financing them for eight years, etc.
Michael, where do you live that a years worth of water is only $158? Is that for a house or something else? The only bottled water I use is distilled water, which I use for drinking water after our water was contaminated with cryptosporidium in 1993 here in Milwaukee. The distilled water is also chlorine free. I buy two gallons a week at a little over a dollar a gallon.
The best well water I’ve ever had was at a small rental cabin that I stayed at over night right, next to the shore of Lake Superior this past summer in upper Michigan. It almost fizzed coming out of the faucet.
I work in NYC. There is no need to drink bottled water. Yet bottled water is distributed at most work events. It’s an enormous waste. Most bottles are not recycled, and even recycling plastic produces a huge amount of waste. They could easily have paper cups and a pitcher of water. Or, as one department meeting I go to, where they serve food, says in their email reminders, bottled water will not be provided, please feel free to bring your own.
Worse than this is the general attitude that tap water is bad or dirty. I work in research science. It’s maddening that scientists think this way. I find it difficult to trust their professional science thinking when they are scared of NYC tap water.
It’s easy to reuse bottles by filling them with tap water. In the winter especially, when chlorine is added to the water, I fill an electric kettle with water and boil off the chlorine. When it cools, I have water for two or three days, or I refill my bottle. It’s cheap and easy and doesn’t produce a pile of empty bottles.
As a thrifty person, I can say that there is no shortage of things that folks spend $ on that seem foolish to others. But, it is kind of important not to jump to conclusions when you look at that case of bottled drinking water in someone’s shopping cart.
Virtually all children who are growing up these days participate in team sports like soccer. For every game some parent has to provide bottled water. Then, of course, there are those whose source of water comes from a well and tastes terrible, or is cloudy/colored. And, how many CPAP machines or others with disabilities who are buying gallons of distilled water? And, finally, there are places which have very, very hard water and without bottled water, they must either have a water softener or buy bottled water. Water softeners increase sodium levels and folks with blood pressure issues must watch this.
If you are fortunate to live somewhere with delicious, soft, safe tap water you should enjoy it because a lot of people cannot.
Requiring parents to provide bottled water is a terrible idea. It teaches bad habits as all those bottles used resources when they were made and will pollute the environment when they are discarded (perhaps 30% of water bottles are actually recycled). Surely everyone can bring their own reusable bottle and one parent can bring a larger supply of water.
As a former public health nurse, I appreciate most of your reasons why some people must purchase water, but I think these are somewhat rare situations. I had never heard of the custom of parents having to provide bottled water for their children’s sports teams. I’ve raised three children who participated in sports and was never asked to do this. My kids, to this day, bring their own, from the tap in a large container that, in high school, seems to also serve as a fashion accessory, judging by new ones being purchased regularly at TJ Maxx.
Hmm water, eating out, food delivery, over catering for home hospitality, being a PITA about saving a buck. We all have our vices. Everyone is dysfunctional in their own special way.
Sunday (or weekday) drives with no particular destination, just to clear your head or enjoy scenery, wasting gas.
Everyone has their treasures, hobbies,etc. we really shouldn’t be tut-tutting others for what they spend their money on if they budgeted properly.
There is also the issue of the impact on the environment of all those bottles. I have traveled in some places where it’s not safe to drink tap water (also no ice or raw veggies) but in much of the US that’s not the case. I won’t say everywhere, I haven’t forgotten Flint.
My fridge has a filter and dispenses cold water. That’s what I drink.
No filter in my fridge. I just use the Brita in a carafe which I occasionally remember to change. I drank straight from the tap most of my life and still do unless I want it really cold.
On Cape Cod many towns have banned the sale of water in bottles, but not anything else in the same size bottles.
Some towns then reversed their vote. I Suppose it’s some feeble effort for the environment. But if you want a case of Poland Spring you just go to the market in the next town.
The problem is not the bottles, but the people who use them. We recycle them all, but I honestly don’t know what happens after we drop them off. Probably not what we hope.
This is amazing. I was just drafting a post on the same subject. Yup we buy spring water and I was just thinking why. Our tap water is safe, but I actually think the spring at $2.29 a gallon tastes better.
Only buy those individual bottles when on sale and you can get a case for around $3.30 for 24.
Water, water everywhere but I’m still making my coffee with that stuff from Maine.
A lot of bottled water is actually tap water. It appears Poland Spring isn’t tap water, but most of it isn’t from Poland, Maine, either. Reading this, you might be better off with tap water. And if you are going to boil it, why would you not use tap water?
Really? I never even thought of using my Brita-filtered water. Every morning, from tap straight into the coffee carafe.
Me too. My palate is nowhere near educated enough to taste the difference between coffee made with tap water and coffee made from the Kirkland bottled stuff. For me, bottled water is only about convenience, not taste, and as time goes on, I find it harder and harder to justify the bottles. Taken collectively they are an ecological catastrophe. I keep a couple of cases of bottled water in the pantry only in case a significant earthquake disrupts our water system.
I’m not a water snob–I drink mostly water from my tap–but there are times that I appreciate bottled water.
Years ago, at a time when the only bottled water I knew of was Perrier, I would often make late night driving trips across the South. This was also before all-night convenience stores were common. The only available drinks were from outside vending machines, and all the choices were soft drinks. I’ve never been a fan of carbonation, and I can remember saying, “I would pay the same price for a can of water.”
I was part of the market that Coke and others finally tapped, but not the part that bought the ad campaign.
Edit: Come to think of it, I may not be a snob, but I am a Humble bragger about my cheap water.