Thirteen Cents A Bottle
By Jim Bauer
@porwest (94577)
United States
October 18, 2023 7:26pm CST
What's my aim? What's my goal?
Always to save money wherever I can, especially with inflation continuing to be an issue.
I like bottled water. But do I need bottled water? I still buy bottled water. But I also drink less of it lately simply because, to me, it makes sense to make a small cut there.
Currently I buy Kroger purified bottled water at Ruler Foods for $4.99 for a 40-pack. Yeah, they get bigger and bigger, these packages, don't they? lol. And heavier. Yeesh!
That puts me right around 13 cents per bottle.
I drink about 4 or 5 bottles of water a day. So, if I drink 4 bottles of tap water and only drink the 5th bottled? I save 52 cents per day. If I do that for an entire year? I save $190.
What's $190 worth? If I did this every year, for 30 years that would be worth $15,163.06. Consider that my investment was $5,700. That $190 a year yielded me 3 times my savings.
Every penny matters and pennies add up. What seems like insignificant savings over time adds up to BIG MONEY.
It is the point I always try to make here. Mind your pennies and dollars will follow. Think of money in terms of pennies and not dollars and you'd be amazed how much money you one day can actually have from so little.
20 people like this
21 responses
@moffittjc (122112)
• Gainesville, Florida
19 Oct 23
I never buy bottled water strictly for that reason. I have water bottles/tumblers that I carry with me that I fill up with water. I have a water cooler at my office with delicious spring water that I fill up my water bottle with every day. I also drink 4-5 bottles of water per day.
Oh, and I'll drink bottled water--I have no issues with that--but I won't buy it. If someone else gives me a bottle, I'll drink it.
5 people like this
@FourWalls (70045)
• United States
19 Oct 23
Ditto. I have one of those double-lined 24-ounce cups in my car, and when I’m on the road I put ice in it when I leave the hotel. I carry a gallon jug of water with me (tap water in a re-used tea jug). That’s zero cents per serving, PLUS nothing else added to the landfill!
3 people like this
@thislittlepennyearns (63267)
• Defuniak Springs, Florida
19 Oct 23
You are alive!!!!
3 people like this
@GardenGerty (161546)
• United States
19 Oct 23
Very good point. I happen to like our tap water. If I was concerned with it though, I would buy a filter pitcher or figure out a home made way to filter cheaply. A few cents here, a few cents there, adds up to quite a few cents.
3 people like this
@porwest (94577)
• United States
19 Oct 23
Precisely. A Brita, for example, doesn't cost that much, although I have not looked into the cost of the filters yet to see if there is actual cost advantage. Sure, there's an environmental one. But so is there if I use the same bottle 4 times. lol
The tap water here the first few times I drank it was not so good. It actually did have a bit of a "musty" taste if that's the word I am looking for. But I have gotten used to it.
@kareng (64470)
• United States
19 Oct 23
You have a great point. I do keep a case of bottled water for whenever our water goes out (well) to have drinking water on hand for the start up and to avoid drinking that water or having to boil the water.
I also have a big cup that goes with me wherever I go and avoid buying bottled water or soft drinks.
2 people like this
@kaylachan (73496)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
19 Oct 23
But, by that logic, aren't you just moving the cost from one medium to another? Sure, it takes you longer to go through a case, but the times required to fill up a glass or bottle from the tap, wouldn't that just come from the water bill?
1 person likes this
@porwest (94577)
• United States
19 Oct 23
You evil devil. You made me do math this morning. But you bring up a good point, so I decided to do the calculations.
Based on my last water bill and water usage, including all taxes and fees as well as the water itself, the cost comes to 52 cents per gallon. I am using 16.9 ounce bottles, and so approximately 8 bottles equals 1 gallon.
4 bottles is of course half of that, so that means my cost to fill the bottles per day is 26 cents. That still leaves me a net gain of roughly 26 cents per day saved.
Adjusted, this brings my savings down to $94.90 a year, and over 30 years I'd have $7,079.74. I'd say still worth it.
1 person likes this
@kaylachan (73496)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
19 Oct 23
@porwest Now, when put that way, I understand. And, I'd say sorry.... but I am to smart for my own good sometimes.
1 person likes this
@porwest (94577)
• United States
19 Oct 23
@kaylachan The math is fun for me. I hated math in school, and mostly hate math to this day...EXCEPT when it pertains to money and monetary calculations. That's fun. lol
2 people like this
@RebeccasFarm (90741)
• Arvada, Colorado
19 Oct 23
Bottled water is not something I waste money on.
I don't need it.
1 person likes this
@RebeccasFarm (90741)
• Arvada, Colorado
3 Nov 23
@porwest I really cant..I wont stop if I have a drink. I know me.
1 person likes this
@porwest (94577)
• United States
3 Nov 23
@RebeccasFarm Ah. I can stop. I just usually don't want to. lol
1 person likes this
@porwest (94577)
• United States
3 Nov 23
@RebeccasFarm You can't or you prefer not to?
1 person likes this
@LadyDuck (472386)
• Switzerland
19 Oct 23
I do the same, I drink water from the tap during the day, the sparkling bottled water is on the table only in the evening with our dinner. I also never go to a cafe to have an espresso, I bought an espresso machine, an espresso costs me 15 cents at home and the equivalent of $ 3 if ordered at a cafe... The machine was fully paid in a very short time.
1 person likes this
@RasmaSandra (81617)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
20 Oct 23
I keep a large plastic jug of water in my fridge for drinking. I boil up the water and then pour it in the jug, I do not buy my water,
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (183946)
• United States
19 Oct 23
I hope you recycle those water bottles. There are tons of them littering our planet. Have a good day.
1 person likes this
@porwest (94577)
• United States
8 Mar
@LindaOHio My little tiny effort to save the planet, I guess. You know, we're all doomed in what is it now? 12 years? I can never tell because every time doom never happens, we get another 12 years to panic. lol
1 person likes this
@thislittlepennyearns (63267)
• Defuniak Springs, Florida
19 Oct 23
I bought a Cirkul water bottle with four flavors a few years ago and get flavors every month in the mail to try. Filters and flavors my water.
I don;t have to waste money on bottled water that way.
Glad to see you around these parts.
1 person likes this
@thislittlepennyearns (63267)
• Defuniak Springs, Florida
19 Oct 23
@porwest Well I got it on discount when I started so the starter kit was $5, I think you can still get that. Each filter is like 20 or 30 bottles of water depending on how "flavored" you want your water.
You can get the starter kit at Walmart for $20, and it comes with three flavored filters. Then you can get more flavors through the website or at Walmart.
I pay $25 or something for six filtres a month. by mail.
1 person likes this
@Beestring (14791)
• Hong Kong
19 Oct 23
Bottled water is expensive here. And we cannot drink tap water. I bought an electric kettle to boil water before drinking it.
1 person likes this
@porwest (94577)
• United States
19 Oct 23
@Beestring That's about what it is here. Most people buy multi-packs unless they are out and about.
1 person likes this
@Beestring (14791)
• Hong Kong
19 Oct 23
@porwest Its about USD2 for a 1-liter bottle here.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (70045)
• United States
19 Oct 23
I don’t do bottled water. The flavored carbonated water at Wally World I will buy but that’s hardly the same thing as what comes out of my faucet.
1 person likes this
@lovebuglena (45022)
• Staten Island, New York
19 Oct 23
But don't you actually pay for water that comes out of your faucet? And if so, shouldn't you take that into account? Usually, I don't even drink a glass of water in a day. And you drink many bottles. Impressive. I can't force water into me. I only drink if I am thirsty. Which is probably a bad thing.
1 person likes this
@thedevilinme (4190)
• Northampton, England
19 Oct 23
Bottled water came out of the tap so drink tap water
1 person likes this
@jefferson126 (3362)
• Shenzhen, China
19 Oct 23
Sometimes i buy bottled water,but basically,i boiled tap water,then drink.Now i avoid unnecessary expense as far as possible due to global recession.You calculate well for cost savings,wish you can meet your goal of saving soon.
1 person likes this
