Use a Water Filter

Benefits
Environmental Benefit: ★★★☆ ☆
If you drink bottled water, then using a home water filter instead reduces the energy costs of bottling & recycling all those water bottles, and keeps them out of landfills.

Money Saved: ★★★☆☆
The cost of a water filter, changed every 6 months, is much less than paying for all that bottled water! The little GE filter cartridge we use for our refrigerator water is good for 750 gallons, and costs around $30 which comes to 4 cents per gallon!

Lifestyle Benefit: ★★★☆☆
When going hiking or traveling, there's no doubt bottled water is convenient. But we've got a collection of sports bottles saved over the years that we just fill with filtered water and ice before leaving the house. Unless a trip is more than one day, this takes care of our needs. You get peace of mind knowing that your drinking water is safe.

What We're Doing
The pictured filter is installed behind our refrigerator - with installation being just a matter of the one screw you see and attaching the water using standard connections. The filter cartridges just twist off and twist on once the bracket is installed - they're super easy to replace. The hard part is just remembering to replace them! We usually write the date we installed it on the filter cartridge, so we can check later when we think of it. Probably a better idea would be to write a reminder on your calendar 6 months down the road! These cartridges remove many chemical contaminants (like pesticides, etc.), cysts, lead & mercury - check the label when you buy them as there are different varieties - the cheapest ones don't remove lead but that was an important feature to me, particularly since we have young children.

A Little Humor

"How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is clearly Ocean."
— Arthur C. Clarke