Bottled Water Is The Biggest Scam of All Time

Think about the last time that you bought a bottle of water. How much was it? $1.50? That’s the average for a 20 oz. bottle. That means you’re paying nearly ten dollars for only one gallon of water! Sorry, no refunds. Why is it so expensive? It is literally just water and plastic.

The real reason that it is expensive is because Big Water knows that people will buy it for whatever prices they decide are fit. In reality, the consumer is only paying for two things during this exchange: the plastic, and the convenience. Imagine if you could just pay for the water itself...imagine...

Well you can, and it’s really easy, and markedly cheaper as well (as you could probably imagine). And the answer has been in front of you the entire time. I’m sure all of you, at least people in the U.S., have seen one of these before:

If you can’t see the image (hi RSS feed readers) then you can see that this is a water-filling station that is advertising water for only 39 cents per gallon - a far cry from the scam of 20 oz. bottles of water. Depending on where you live, the number could change, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it above 50 cents per gallong, which is still substantially less than anything in a bottle.

The only problem with getting your water through this method is initial investment. You really need three things:

1. A water machine

2. 5-gallon water jug(s)

3. A nice water bottle

When it comes to the machine to actually dispense the water, you could technically get one of those middle school cafeteria ones where you have to turn the jug upside down on top of the machine, but nobody wants to do that. Trust me, top-loaders become a pain, you’re going to want a bottom-loader, even though it is a bit more money. Here’s the one I have:

When buying one, I would just recommend whatever allows you to load from the bottom and isn’t too expensive. I’d say try to keep it below $200. That may sound like a lot, but I have been using mine for about 8 years now. I don’t drink tap water because I find it disgusting, and I can guarantee that I have saved myself far more money than what was spent on the machine. The machine doesn’t need to be fancy at all, you really just need to buy something that will cool and dispense your water. The hot water feature on mine is nice, but not necessary.

After you have the machine, you need the jugs. I would recommend having four of the 5-gallon jugs, as that’s how many can easily fit inside of a shopping cart. You will need to buy these at the store, which is a bit of an investment (or you can probably find some used ones on E-bay for way cheaper, who knows). Once you have the jugs, you bring them back home and put them in your machine, which is a very straightforward process of literally putting a tube in the jug and pressing a button. After you run out of water, you bring your jugs back to any store that has a refill station and you refill them. Then when you check out, make sure to specify it’s a refill so you’re not charged for the container. I usually do Walmart’s self checkout, which you just type "water" into the search and then hit the "5 Gallon Refill" option. Then, be amazed at how little all of the water is going to cost you.

Finally, you need a bottle. Find something that will keep your water cold for a long time. I don’t really have any brand recommendations for this one for right now (the best bottle I’ve ever used is some random wholesale brand that you have to buy in bulk) but I like the 20 oz. Klean Kanteen Classic Sport Bottle, it’s pretty good for when I go hiking or camping.

Sorry that this has nothing to do with what I usually post about, however I felt that it needed to be said.