I hate bottled water.  Not only is it bad for the environment, it’s also bad for you!  Drinking water out of plastic, BPA filled water bottles is not good for your health.  Studies have proven that some bottled water is just tap water that’s been put into a plastic bottle. Why pay for something that you don’t have to?

I hate when I see people drink bottled water and then throw their plastic bottles in the trash. Plastic never breaks down, so those bottles are around for the rest of time. How sad. There are alternatives to bottled water (duh). I try to make sure that I never consume bottled water, for the benefit of my health and the Earth’s!

I always make sure that I am carrying a water bottle with me. I prefer a bottle like the Klean Kanteen . I used to use a Sigg bottle but after the BPA fiasco I went through last year, I’ve ditched that and gone with a brand that I have more faith in. I’ve seen stainless steel water bottles at Costco as well. Check your local grocery or sports good store for one.

Do you hate the taste of tap water? Purify it for free, or invest in a filter. We’re looking at purchasing a Big Berkey system. I just need to save up for it!  I’ve decided that this is something that is very important to me, and I drink a ton of water, so I don’t want it laced with fluoride, chlorine, and other crap!

The point is: no matter how you drink your water, please don’t purchase bottled water.  Not only is it a waste of money, but it’s bad for the Earth.

What type of water do you drink? Are you worried about the quality of your tap water?  (Poll below!)

Mr. Money and I are still trying to figure out what we want to do for our anniversary trip.  We’ve been going back and forth between Hawaii, Colorado, or even traveling up to Michigan to go camping.  I thought it would be neat to go back to the place we met and fell in love in Colorado, but it’s like a 19 hour drive from where we live.  That’s a lot of driving!

We’ve thought about just going back to Colorado and staying with his mom (she has a huge house) and doing our own thing.  We love Colorado in the fall and it would be a great trip.  However, I don’t want to put all those miles on our car driving out there.  I want our car to last many, many years since I hate having a car payment.

It seems almost silly to think about paying to rent a car to drive out there when we have two perfectly (now) operating vehicles that we own.  I’m just thinking though- if it cost us $200 for the week to rent a car it may be worth it.  It’s about 3000 miles round trip.  If we took our own vehicle, we’d have to get an oil change when we got back (or do it ourselves) which would cost around $30 roughly.  We’d also be adding wear and tear on the vehicle.  We’d still have to pay for gas, but at least if we rented a car we’d eliminate the worry about the number of miles we’re adding.

Here’s some math I’ve been calculating.  The Mileage Reimbursement rate for 2010 is 50 cents a mile.  The mileage reimbursement rate includes the cost of operating the vehicle plus gas.  If we drive our own vehicle out there, the mileage reimbursement rate would be $1500 round trip!  If we didn’t use those numbers and just paid for gas, it would cost us at least $250 just for gas.  I looked up the cost for a rental car and it’s about $222.07 for a week.  Add in gas for a compact car ($190 total) and we’re at $417.  All in all, we’re really out $167 ($417-$250) to rent a car versus driving our own.

Do you think it’s silly to consider renting a car when we own one?