My kids will most certainly always choose a cold bottle of water if it is available.
And I would rather them drink the water than soda, more juice, or more milk…
So for a while I was also buying the bottled stuff & having it all the time.
But it is expensive, and everytime I saw that big stack of empty bottles it made me cringe…

So we bought a Berkey water filter. It is expensive, but it will pay for itself in very little time.
It filters out everything, and the water tastes great. And you can use it for emergency purposes also, like, if there was no water we could take the creek water and filter through it to drink. And then we bought everyone an insulated stainless steel water bottle to use. We just fill them up with our filtered water before we leave the house. I am never caught without mine! That thing does not sweat, and will keep ice in it for for over 12 hours! Even if you have it out in the hot sun (soccer games) or leave it in your car. (Got mine from flylady.net as it is the best I have been able to find anywhere! you can unscrew the top to put ice in it, and then drink out of the smaller spout…remember it needs to be “double wall” stainless steel or it is not insulated!)

I feel much better about our water habits now that I am not wasting so much money and not buying all that plastic…yet if I am out of water I will buy it and not feel guilty as I know I am doing what is best for my health at that moment!

I say, do what you love! Money is for spending on the things you love, and the things that are important to you. If bottled water is so important to you that you’re willing to write a post about it, then it’s obviously worth your money. You’ve clearly throught this through.

Personally, I do what your commenter Stefanie does — put it in a Brita filter, and stick that filtered water in the fridge so it’s nice and cold.

I like the planet. I don’t mind bottled water, BUT – I choose to use refillable water bottles when possible.

BUT MY THING IS (and I haven’t read your 80 other comments so if I’m duplicating something, sorry), I need water to be COLD, and I think icecubes made in my own freezer aren’t as good. Maybe with refillable bottles stored in your fridge for on the go use, you might be more inclined? I am always getting water bottles as swag, so I have no shortage of bottles – and so I try to remember to keep a few filled up (with tap water) in my fridge ready for me to grab as I walk out the door. If it’s cold, it doesn’t taste like tap water to me.

ULTIMATELY if the choice is bottled water or none, it’s kind of crucial to your body systems that you stay hydrated, but dude, I’m pretty sure you can kick the habit. (And actually, I get very pissy when people throw beer bottles away – recycle that shizz).