This post is inspired by today’s article on Punch Debt in the Face. Debt Ninja admits to being an El-Cheapo, McCheapster on his honeymoon and skimping on a few things that he should have just bit the bullet and bought. It made me think of my own cheapness when it comes to vacationing. Of all the things I spend money on during a trip, the thing that irks me most is buying bottled water.
One of the things that I inherited from Babci is a very acute sense of smell. What that means is when I have a drink of water from an un-filtered tap, I almost want to gag because the smell and taste is so strong to me. My husband claims he can’t notice the difference between our filtered and unfiltered water, but it is VERY noticeable to me.
I HATE buying bottled water for environmental and economic reasons. At home, it’s easy. I just fill up a Nalge bottle with some filtered water and take it with me in the car. On vacation though, sometimes I feel trapped into buying it. I felt especially trapped at Disney when I had no car and a bottle of water was $2.50. With a family of 4, that’s like $20/day in water. Anyone who’s been to Florida knows how nasty the water smells and tastes there. Luckily, my in laws were also on vacation and had a car, so they gave us an emergency case of water. I can’t tell you how thankful I was for that delivery. My SIL also hates paying for water, so she understood my predicament.
If you don’t have someone super nice to bail you out, I also discovered 3 other tricks that worked great. I usually work out when I stay at hotels. (I don’t have a gym membership at home.) Anyway, almost all hotel gyms have a water cooler with fresh, cold, clean and FREE water. When I went to the Disney gym and discovered a free source of water that didn’t smell like a swamp, it felt like I hit the jackpot. That on it’s own was a big enough motivator for me to get up early and hit the treadmill. I felt like a camel. I’d drink like a gallon of water when I was at the gym and then would fill up my bottle before I left to supplement my day’s needs.
Plan B is using the ice machine. All ice machines use filtered water. At night, I would fill the ice bucket and any empty bottles I had lying around with ice. Come morning-time, I would have fresh clean drinking water to use as I saw fit.
Plan C is visiting the mother’s room and/or nursing stations. A lot of amusement parks have them now. My youngest was only 5 months old when we were in Disney, so I discovered my 3rd free water source when I was going in to nurse. The water is there as a courtesy for new moms who need it to mix formula, rice cereal, etc. I wouldn’t use this option now that my kids are older, but as a new mom I had no issue topping off my water bottle before I left. As an aside, those infant/mother’s areas were really a lifesaver. A lot of people thought I was insane bringing an infant to Disney. It actually was fine because of all the accommodations they had for feeding and diapering our wee man.
I hope these 3 tips help you save a few bucks on water during your next vacation.
Do you think these methods are extreme? Would you be like my husband and be fine with the swampy tap water? Or would you fork out the $100 for bottled water and not think twice about building it into your vacation budget? After all, you are on vacation and you should cut loose from your frugal ways once in a while.
Personally, I’d rather take that $100 and spent it on an amusement park pass or excursion instead but that’s just me.
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