Saving money is sometimes about pinching pennies, other times it is pinching pounds! :-)
One of the great money saving techniques which has a strong health benefit is to bring your own (BYO) water!
All of us have to drink water. H2O gives us life and 2/3s of our bodies are actually made up of water. Did you ever stop and count how many soft-drinks or coffee/tea that one consumes that makes up our fluid consumption? If we drink say, 8 glasses a day and drink 1-2 glasses of water, another 1-2 softdrinks and the remainder through milo/coffee/tea etc. How much would that cost is a typical work-day (assuming you have to pay for it yourself?)
2 glasses of water : $ negligible
2 cans of soft-drink: $1.20 per can = $2.40
4 cups of coffee/tea: $0.90 per cup = $3.60
Total daily expenses on fluids = $6.00
x 20 days a week = $120 a month
x 12 months in a year = $1,440.
Wow... That means we could potentially be spending about more than a thousand dollars a year on soft-drinks! The good news is that there is an alternative we can turn to, good old PUB water direct from the tap or from water coolers. Generally, water is "free" to the consumer if you get it from public water coolers or if your organisation provides water coolers for one to fill up one's bottle.
Invest in a good Lexan/Rubbermaid/SIG type of water bottle to the size of your preference and you are good to go in your quest to save money!
Hydrating yourself throughout the day makes you feel less hungry and you tend to eat less. Drinking water also helps moistern the throat and for those who need to speak a lot at work, this will help your voice last longer. Also, drinking water helps the circulatory and lymphatic systems and waste products in our body makes. The amount of money we save from buying softdrinks and coffee/tea would also offset our investment in the water bottle! It's a win-win-win strategy :-)
Of course, that does not mean we have to swear off softdrinks and hot beverages outside. Simply carry a water bottle around and reap the benefits of spending less money on purchasing them. When I was in New York, I realise most New York office workers actually walked around with their Evian/Dasani water bottles and it was part of their culture.
So let's bring out our water bottles and say "cheers" to the money-saving benefit of bringing your own water bottle.
