Americans are Habitually Thirsty: It's Science

Yes, just like my title says, Americans tend to be slightly dehydrated most of their lives.  Whether it's because of our busy schedules or something else, I have no idea.  One thing is for certain, though, it is definitely not because there is no access to beverages.  From gas stations that seeel ridiculously large drinks for $.49 to fast food chains to smaller coffee shops, there are places to drink everywhere.

However, the most popular drinks are some of the most overpaid for.  Check out numbers 2 and 3.  That's right.  Bottled Water and Coffee.  We may not be able to completely kick the habit, but there are definitely some good reasons to think twice before making that purchase.  Could there be an alternative to this?

Soda

I just looked in the online version of the local grocery store ads.  A 24 pack of soda is on sale for $6.88.  However, if you look at the print, when the petty color pictures are not distracting you, it says you have to make at least another $10 purchase before that price goes into effect.  Is it worth it?

For this particular price, I would be hard pressed to say no.  It's $.28 a can.  But what happens when there isn't a phenomenal sale like this and the 12 packs are $4.88 a piece on a good day?  $.40 a can.  It may not sound like much, but how many sodas do you drink a day?  If it's more than one, how many of them come from the grocery store?  What about vending machines, where cans are $.90 a piece and bottles can be $1.50 or more?

Coffee

I'm one of the lucky ones.  I don't really like the taste of coffee.  However, I know most people do and most people need/want to drink it to get moving in the morning.  My roommates are like that.  One must have coffee or she cannot function and the other cannot get moving without a cup of tea.  It's totally fine... until you start doing the math.

Let's start with the home brewed coffee.  There was a study done by Yahoo! Financial a couple years ago that listed the Top Ten Money Drains.  Guess what was #1... coffee.  And their numbers were for home brewed.  Some cups, depending on which you buy, can run around $1.30 a piece.  There are 5 workdays in a week for most.  What is that a year?  $440.  One woman kept track of her specialty coffee purchases for a year.  Her total: $987.

Now on to Starbuck's.  Some of their drinks are upwards of $5 a piece.  Sure, they may be absolutely delicious.  But do you have $5 a day to spend on a drink?  That's more than some people can pay for lunch.  A woman did the math and she found that even at $3 a cup, once a weekday, you're looking at around $800 - $1000 a year in take-out coffee.  She even compared the price of coffee to cigarettes!  Do you really need a tall?  Even downsizing to a short will be better on your purse-strings...

Bottled Water

Now, finally, we reach the matter of complete convenience.  Not caffeine or taste.  Water in a plastic bottle.  This was my complete downfall until the beginning of this school year.  I would drink a case of water at least once every two weeks.  Sometimes more, depending on what I had going on.  I don't drink soda at all, and like I said before, I don't like coffee.  So, I became addicted to bottled water...

When I started thinking about making a switch to either tap water or buying a filter, it wasn't a matter of money.  I've started to go Green.  I found pictures like the one I posted above and knew I was definitely part of the problem.  The money I've saved since then has been a benefit, not an aim.  However, if it is an aim, here is what you're looking for.

When I was doing my research, this was a surprisingly popular topic.  I had over 4,000,000 Google hits.  What I found was a lot worse than I originally thought.  Depending on the brand of bottled water you prefer, some of them cost 10,000x more than tap water.  Let's go by the gallon:

Tap Water = $.0002
Filtered Water = $.20 - $.80
Bottled Water = $.89 - $8.26

I understand the concerns that can go with the convenience factor.  Some people feel/some studies have shows than tap water in certain areas of the United States is not the safest to drink.  You can look up the stats for your area on the EPA Safe Water website.  If you're worried about that, you can still go with option #2 - filtered water.  I did.  This is what I bought for $15, including filter:

Filters last 2 months for an average family.  Now, I'm going to stick with that, since I drink a lot of water, but if you're not like me, you might even be able to make it last longer.  Replacements are also about $10 - $15.  I had a friend help me pick one (he uses one that mounts onto his faucet), but if you don't have that luxury, here is a site that compares 10 different kinds of filtration devices for you.  It's a table, so it's really easy and quick to read.  You could even print it off and take it to the store with you, if you want.

PS - Plastic Bottles also use quite a bit of oil to make - annually it's at least enough to fuel 100,000 cars.