I grew up in Anchorage, where the water was always good. So the idea of paying for drinking water has always seemed scandalous. Well, it did right up until I tasted the tap water in Newton, Mass. After that, I understood it better; but I still couldn’t see myself ever paying for it.
Thanks to gross dorm water, I did invest in a Brita in college. But once I moved off campus, it was mostly just a container to keep some water nice and cold. I rarely replaced filters, and I really couldn’t tell the difference when I did.
So you can imagine how horrified I was to realized that Arizona meant buying water is something of a necessity. I hoped we could just bring the Brita along, but Tim nixed that idea. He’d been down here before. He knew from personal experience that the filter didn’t quite take the taste away.
I was suspicious… right up until I realized that our shower water actually smelled. And not in a good way. It just filled the bathroom with a very… chemical-y smell. To use the technical term. (Come to think of it, I don’t notice the odor anymore. Which is somewhat worrying.)
Finally convinced that we needed non-tap water, I sat down and started researching water delivery services. Then I did the math and wanted to cry. Eight 5-gallon jugs plus a cooler each month runs around $45. That doesn’t include taxes, other fees or the refundable bottle deposit. Presumably, you wouldn’t see that again until you quit the service.
So you can probably imagine how thrilled I was to see a Craigslist ad for a cooler for $55. It even came with a water jug — and the lady was nice enough to deliver it to us. I felt like like part of the frugal royal family that day!
We did debate sinking a little more money in and getting a couple of extra water jugs. This would reduce the number of times Tim had to run out and refill the water. It’d be $12 per 5-gallon empty jug, or for about $6 we could get some 3-gallon full jugs at Sam’s Club. A cashier assured us she reused hers with great success, so I was all for it. To my surprise, though, Tim said it wasn’t a big deal to him. We should just save the money since we could. (Were sexier words ever spoken?)
Once the water-jug question was settled, things fell into a routine. Tim refills the jug two or three times a week. We have to remember to keep quarters around, which is annoying. On the other hand, our complex has a (usually working) refill station, which keeps things convenient.
A few days ago, though, I saw the stack of Sparklett’s bottles on my neighbors’ patio. It got me wondering just how much money we had saved.
If we went with Sparklett’s, our plan would be $47.99 a month, plus a $1.96 energy charge and 8.3% sales tax. That’s a total of $50.10 a month. In other words, we’d have paid $350.70 by now.
Our cooler cost $55 to get, and water is 25 cents per gallon from automated machines. So there’s no sales tax. Tim generally refills the jug twice a week. That’s $2.50 a week or about $10 a month. Once you add in the cooler, that means we’ve spent about $125 on water.
For those of you playing the home game, that’s a savings of $225 in 7 months! And that doesn’t even include the $48 bottle deposit.
Do any of you have a water service? Or do you refill the water yourselves? (Those of you who don’t need either, count yourselves lucky!)
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We live in Phoenix and have never had a problem with our Brita taking away all chemical smell/taste, so I guess we're lucky. I paid big money in college to have five gallon jugs and 16 oz water bottles delivered to me, but have not found it necessary since. Since we try to be green whenever possible, Brita is the best possible solution for us.
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Abigail Reply:
April 13th, 2010 at 5:29 pm
You are lucky! One of the upstairs neighbors says you can still taste the chlorine — if only somewhat — after they've finished filtering their water. Perhaps we just live in an especially bad area.
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We're some of the lucky ones, but I just wanted to say how much I LOVE these types of stories! Personally, sometimes frugality can be an endless treadmill, plod-plod-plod, so when we get to measure our savings, it's inspiring. Yay for you and your fat(ter) wallet!
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I once lived in an area where I had to buy water. Didn't realize it until I questioned why I'd been inexplicably vomiting since moving there…apparently the chlorine was the highest legal limit in water, which apparently was beyond the Brita's capabilities. Started buying bottled water and I was never sick again. Unfortunately, they didn't have the water fill-up arrangement you have, so I'd just watch for gallons of water to go on sale and stock up. Generally could get a gallon of water for $1 and sometimes 3 for $1. As an added perk, when people were clearing the shelves to stock up for tornadoes, I knew I already had enough water!
Also, your article reminds me to be grateful for the public water in Chicago, which is supposedly some of the best in the country. I use a Brita since I figure our pipes are old, but it's just fine from the tap too. Living in a HCOLA, I'm used to paying a lot for everything, but having good water from the tap is one way I save money – thanks for pointing it out!
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We actually have a well so we don't pay for water except for the filter once a year. =)
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Part 2 of my comment. When we go to our rural home bottled water is even more important, as the water supply is very delicate there and every year there's at least one "boil water" advisory. I mean, it's bad enough that they put big sandwich board signs out on the highway near our house, warning everyone and deliver flyers in the mail. Even when it isn't an advisory, there are visible particles in the water and it's kind of a yellowy brown colour. Gross! I'm not even totally comfortable washing the dishes with tap water there!
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I'm very sensitive to the chlorine in water and can't stand even the supposedly "great" water here in Vancouver. And I don't like really cold water so a Brita (aside from taking up valuable fridge space) is kind of useless. Besides, I tried one in Calgary years ago and found the water still tasted…funny.
I've had Canadian Springs for about a decade and average between $30 & $40 per month for water. We use it for drinking, making coffee, tea, oatmeal, etc. and for all cooking. I have a crock on a wooden stand and pay $4/month for that. It doesn't use any electricity and I couldn't imagine living without it. I'm still not a big water drinker but I never, *ever* drank water before the advent of bottled water!
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I grew up in a rural area where we used water from our well. So I never purified or drank bottled water.
Then I moved to a larger city and had my first taste of tap water. Yuck. Now we have a purifier attached to the sink spout, and we keep large (about 2 liter) reusable plastic bottles in the fridge to drink from throughout the day.
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