Thrifty Thursday - What are YOU drinking?

I decided to keep my first Thrifty Thursday idea simple. This week's suggestion is something that many of you probably do already. While being in school, I used to always have a case of bottled water in the house to take with me during the day. This year I decided that enough was enough and I was no longer going to buy bottled water. I used to think that I was being thrifty by only buying bottled water when it was on sale and "stockpiling" it so I never had to buy it at regular price. But, hey, you save even more money if you don't buy it at all! So now I have this little guy...

Although the cost difference doesn't seem huge at first, it is saving me money to take water to school in a reusable water bottle. I was probably spending about $5.00 a month on bottled water which works out to about $60 a year. And one of these types of bottled water costs about $5-10 (or in my case, free thanks to my fabulous dude using his witty charm to get one for free from a coworker). So, sure not a huge deal... I'm saving about $50 per year. But I am also finding that by using this thermos I waste less. When I used water bottles I would always find partially empty water bottles in all sorts of places: the car, my bedside table, my school bag, my purse. By the time I found them again, I would have no idea how long they had sat there and so I'd dump them out. Now, when I get home from school, if there is any water left in the bottle (which there usually isn't, because I drink a lot of water) I pour it into a glass and finish drinking it throughout the evening. This encourages me to drink more water too, since this holds just under a litre. This is also obviously a more eco-friendly method because it minimizes the trash, although I am a crazy recycler so a plastic water bottle would never and I mean NEVER make its way to a garbage pail instead of a blue box.

As far as a time comparison, I know it's a bit of a stretch, but I am going to say that doing things this way does, in fact, save me some time. It just means one less trip to and from the car when unloading the groceries, since I'd have to go back out to get the case of water. It also takes me less time to grab the thermos from the cupboard and fill it with tap water (yes, I use tap water, I'm not entirely convinced bottled water is any better... I do have a Brita but I think I've changed the filter about twice ... ever) than it does to go into the cool room and get one out of the case. So, that means I save about 2.65 minutes per year. And in this busy life, every second counts. :) ... yeah, I know, it's a stretch.

I know that bottled water just makes more sense in some circumstances, so I'm not promising I will never buy or drink it again, I am just cutting it out of my everyday routine. Have a thrifty Thursday! See you next week.