Money Down The Drain: How Much Does Bottled Water Cost You?

Bottled water is a real luxury. Most of us just stop in at the store, grab a bottle and go on – we never stop to think about how expensive it can be when we do it every day. The important thing is that we get water into our bodies and we’re healthy, right? Of course. But we can also protect our wallets (not to mention the environment) a little bit at the same time.

Here are a couple of options that can help you kick the bottled water habit and save some money at the same time:

The re-usable bottle: Yes, it’s lean, mean and even green. Not to mention with all the trendy designs, it’s becoming a fashion accessory. It’s also vastly cheaper to use your own personal bottle to tote your water than it is to purchase a plastic bottle of water at the convenience store. If you purchased a $1.50 bottle of water every day for a year it would cost you roughly $540. A single re-usable bottle costs around $5-$15 depending on how nice you want it to be.

If you’re worried about the quality of your tap water and want to make sure your water is as pure as possible, you can purchase a water filter, or a filtration systemfor your home. This can run anywhere between $15 to $100 depending on the type of filtration you want. So, if you wanted to plug the leak in your wallet permanently, you’d be looking at between $30 and $115. Compared to over $500 for the convenience of purchasing pre-bottled water.

Do keep in mind though, this cost does not include replacement filters, so before you buy make sure you understand what the long term expense of the filters is – that way you aren’t simply replacing one money leak with another!