WATER FILTRATION

So hubby and I are talking about water filtration systems this morning.  We've talked about it before last year, but we have not pursued actually obtaining one.  We live in the city limits of our small town, but I am so paranoid about our city drinking water because I feel like every time we resort to drinking it, my family gets sick!  Now I'm rarely sick, and after watching my youngest daughter get really sick in November, and then 3 weeks later, while she still had it, I got it, I decided that it must have something to do with our water.  The situation at the time was that we decided we couldn't afford the bottled water we'd been buying for months, and that we'd just drink tap water.  Family members started getting sick.  We bought a Brita filter to put on our faucet to help filter the water then. My family remained sick, so I don't know if the Brita filter helped. And to be honest, I'm not sure we drank much tap water, even after the Brita filter was installed, because the idea of drinking tap water turned us off.

We went back to buying Dasani bottled water, and I encouraged each member of my family not to drink after each other.  I even supplied a Sharpie permanent marker in the pen holder on our refrigerator so that everyone would remember to write their name on their bottles.  You wouldn't believe the amount of half-drunk water bottles I see around our home.  (Now I know who is leaving their water bottles half full!)  I think not drinking after one another will go a long way in not sharing our illnesses.

Meanwhile, drinking bottled water is a habit I'm quickly tiring of, the expense, the extra garbage, the bottles in random places in my home!  There has to be something better out there. So I was looking into this.  A little pricey up front for my family, but considering that we calculated we spend over $1,800 in bottled water per year, spending around $400 a year for our family of 6 looks much more attractive.  And I was concerned about how often the filters have to be changed in a year, because one wants to add the costs of those to the yearly cost of the system, it appears the filters are recommended to be changed after 1 year or 3,000 gallons, whichever comes first.  So around $400 the first year, and then $50 the next year, that's a big savings from buying bottled water.  There is only a 2 year warranty on the system.  So it may be that if the system doesn't last beyond 2 years, one will be buying an entirely new set up the 3rd year.  But it's still cheaper than bottled water.

So one of my New Year's Goals is to save and purchase a water filtration system for my family.  What other water filtration systems are available?  Do you have any recommendations?  I look forward to hearing!