Frugal Tuesday - Our Water Filter System

When deciding to move out in the middle of no where one of my biggest concerns was water. Our bodies are made up of and need a good supply of fresh clean water daily and I wanted to make sure we had something that would work for us where ever we were. So, I started doing research. It seemed like every filter out there which was any good at all had to be hooked up to our water pipes or used power and since we weren't sure what type of water or power system we were going to have it just didn't seem practical or workable. But where could we find a water filter which would not only filter out contaminants but also be easy and practical to use?

The answer came to me while browsing one of my favorite on line stores, Lehman's. I came across the Berkey water filter system and was amazed by what it could do. Here was a system which could remove almost all contaminants and didn't require electricity or any other set up. It looks great on my counter and we can take it with us where ever we go. It wasn't cheap however so I did a little math to see how much we would actually be saving if we purchased it. If we were to buy bottled water in the 5 gallon jugs, which is the cheapest way to purchase drinking water where we live, we would spend about $300 to $350 a year. The Big Berkey cost us $350, so it paid for itself in one year. To date we have used it for four years and have potentially saved ourselves over $1000. But our filters still have a quite a few years to go before we need new ones, so in all likelihood we will save well over $2000 over buying bottled water by the time we need to replace the filters.


Photo courtesy of bigberkeywaterfilters.com


Of course the savings is a great thing but the peace of mind, not to mention the great tasting water, is something else altogether. We live in an area where there are a lot of grain farmers so there are a LOT of contaminants going into the water supply from chemicals sprayed on the crops and even though our land has had no chemical contamination in a very long time once these chemicals get into the water system they can travel quite a ways. Is the Berkey the best water filtration system out there? I'm not sure... I also doubt that it is filtering out every contaminant but what I do know is that it is giving us great tasting water for a very small price and so far we have had no problems.

All in all, for us, our Berkey filters will last about 8 to 10 years and will only cost us between $21.40 to $26.75 a year for all the fresh water we need for drinking and cooking. Not bad for a little peace of mind and great taste....  Oh dear...  Now I've gone and done it! I practically wrote a commercial! LOL! Oh well....  when I find something that works I guess I like to tell people about it. I've always been curious about what others use to filter their drinking water. Maybe there is a better system out there I haven't found yet. I'd love to hear from you.