Money Saving Tips: Filtered Water...Not Bottled Water

How many of us buy the plastic bottles of water as opposed to use tap water or filtered water? We used to buy the bottled water consistently and just this year have switched to filtered water. There are many reasons to do this and our initial reason was to save money but after doing a little research I learned quite a bit about those little plastic bottles of water. Using filtered water not only saves you money but really helps the environment.
Let's start with the cost savings aspect as that was what first got us to switch to filtered water. We used to spend about $10 a month on bottled water. My husband took it to work and the kids liked to take theirs outside when they played or to sports games during the summer. So we averaged $120 a year on bottled water. Purchasing a filtered water pitcher, filters and stainless steel water bottles for each of us, cost approximately $110. We won't see our financial savings until next year but we no longer need to buy the plastic bottles of water. We filter our water with the filtered water pitcher and we each have a washable, re-usable, stainless steel water bottle for our water each day. The only thing you will need to purchase is the water pitcher filters periodically.
Now I want to talk about the environmental impact of plastic water bottles. They are recyclable but we still end up sending 2 million tons of plastic water bottles to land fills each year in this country. And the thing I found very surprising, is that it takes 1,000 years for one of these bottles to degrade in a land fill. Presently only about 13% of water bottles are being recycled. Even making these plastic bottles for the United States alone takes 1.5 million barrels of oil a year! That much energy could power 250,000 homes or fuel 100,000 cars for a year.
I am always looking for little ways to help save energy and am always on the hunt for ways to save money. Switching from bottled water to filtered water will save you money after just one year and if enough of us switch, we can make a significant environmental impact!
Below are links to the water pitcher and re-usable stainless bottles we use. The kids take their new stainless bottles of filtered water to soccer and outside to play and my husband uses his for work each day. These are great products that we have been happy with.

My CVS Picks Of The Week

My favorite CVS Deals of the Week!



Pantene Shampoo and Conditioner $4.99/ $3.99 with CVS Card/ $2.99 With CVS Extra Buck Award/ Then take $3.00 off 2 with the P&G Brand Saver Coupon in Sunday's insert bringing the total down to $1.49 each bottle!



Crest Whitestrips Advanced Seal $44.99 regular price/ Get $10 extra bucks at CVS and use your P&G Brand Saver Coupon for another $10.00 bringing your total to $24.99!

Energy Vampires!

Frugal Tip Of The Day - Energy Vampires!

Trying to focus more on green living I have been researching "energy vampires". Energy Vampires lurk in just about every home. Energy Vampire is the term given to those electronic devices that continue to draw energy even when turned off and not in use! The typical household has about 20 vampires draining power and adding an average of $200 annually to your electric bill.

An example of some notorious energy vampires is:
TV's, DVD Players, VCR's, PVR's, Computer's, Cell Phone and Cordless Phone Chargers, MP3 Player's and Stereo's.

Fortunately there are a few VERY easy changes you can make to reduce this waste of energy and help save yourself some money in the process.

First, buy power strips and plug in as many energy vampires as possible. It's wise to make sure you have one around your tv area. You can plug in your TV, DVD Player, VCR, PVR. Have another to plug in your cell phone and cordless phone charges, MP3 player too! Don't forget your computer and printers!

Second, unplug as any of these appliances as you can and remember to turn the power strips off every night. Coffee Makers, Toasters and Microwaves are easy things to unplug each evening. Be sure to unplug as many as possible when you are away on vacation too!

So make these simple changes and you can see a annual savings of at least $200 while conserving energy in the process!

Go Green To Save Some Green!

Save money on your energy with a small easy to make change...light bulbs! Yes, light bulbs. By switching from your incandescent bulbs to the compact fluorescents you can begin to save money on your energy bills. Yes, the compact fluorescents cost more initially at the store but they last longer which means you will need to purchase bulbs a lot less often and these energy saving bulbs use less energy adding up to even more savings! So on your next shopping trip, add compact fluorescent bulbs to your list.

These new CFL bulbs can save you 75% on your energy consumption and have a life span ten times that of your typical incandescent bulb. They also give off 75% less heat.
Consider this: If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an energy star bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs and prevent green house gases equivalent to to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars! Please check out this website www.energystar.gov I found a lot of great information for this tip from their website and they have many more ways to save energy posted on their site.