Friday, June 19, 2009

friday favorite - the brita pitcher


If your kids are anything like mine, they love juice! I do dilute juice a lot when I give it to my kids, but it is by far the beverage of choice. It's also so easy when we are going somewhere to just throw a few juice boxes in my bag and be on our way, but I know it's not the best thing for my kids and I need to get them to drink more water. I too could use more water intake but I never really cared for the taste of it. I grew up drinking Kool Aid and Hawaiian Punch, so drinking water with a meal was just not the norm for me.

In order to cut back on bottle water usage and the drinking of too many sugary drinks, we invested in a Brita Pitcher a few weeks ago. I have instantly fallen in love. The water tastes so much better! I think it tastes even better than bottle water which has a little bit of a plastic taste to it.

We have also invested in some good BPA free water bottles for the family. I bought both kiddos their own Nalgene bottle which they love, one in pink and one in blue of course! I love them because they are like a sippy with a spill proof valve inside!
Super dad is a fan of the Camelbak bottles, like this one:

But I really like the look of the new stainless steel Camelbaks..... because even drinking water can be cute right?!

Since switching to our Brita water system we are all drinking so much more water!! At first I got a little pull back from the kids, but they have quickly adapted and now are requesting water instead of juice! We fill our water bottles every morning and just take them with us.

The other huge benefit to using a system like Brita is the money savings. Water bottles were costing us a fortune every month and we wasted so much by throwing half bottles away. Plus all the plastic that was being used is such a waste. The Brita pitcher cost us about $25. Filters are about $25 for 4 but each one last you 3 months.... this comes to about $50 for this year and then $25 a year after that... we would spend that much in just a few months on bottled water. We did invest in BPA free water bottles, so that adds to our cost for this year, but you don't have to buy water bottles if you just drink water at home.

This is an easy and inexpensive little change that has big impact environmentally, financially and for your own personal health!

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3 comments:

Leigh Anne said...

LOVE the Brita. We have had one for YEARS...I'm talking going on a decade now haha. I use it for everything...coffee, tea, cooking. I don't even trust boiling tap water without filtering it first, LOL.

Oh and I am totally going to have to get one of those nalgene sippy style bottles...my DD will LOVE it!

Sheryl said...

Good for you guys for making the switch! We've been using Nalgene bottles for years, and were happy to see the BPA free kid-sized bottles come out recently... you can even get them at Target!
We have an Amway filter system that is right on our sink. Nicer than Brita because you change the filter once a year. When we did do Brita, I felt like I was CONSTANTLY putting money into those darn buggers, only to throw them away after a few months ;) And the little black flecks they release-- anyone else had that problem?
Anyway, you're right about shifting our thinking from juice to water. I always offer milk or water to my three-year-old. When he asks for juice, I'll sometimes give it to him (watered down). Motts for Tots is a great on-the-go version (although mixing your own juice-water combo in a Nalgene is nice, too!)
:)

Anonymous said...

This seems like a better alternative to using the filtered water from the fridge...those filters are SOOOO expensive!!