Don't spend money on garbage
That's the topic of today's post.
Yesterday's topic was: Don't spend money for others to prepare your food. If you didn't read that you can find it here
Now if you are looking at the topic you might think that I'm writing about how to afford water while on a very tight budget. That is also the topic of today's post.
Which leads to the question how are those two things linked? Water is not garbage! Spending money is also not garbage but a vital part of the budget!
Don't worry, I'll explain as I go along.
When I was young my father and I went for a drive through the countryside. While we were driving through a particularly dry part of our province he pointed out that on one side of the road there was desert and tumbleweed. On the other side he pointed out to beautiful grassy fields and vegetable gardens.
His question to me was
Now at the time I had no idea but he pointed out that one side of the road had irrigation and the other did not. His word to me after that I'll never forget:
When setting a budget it is always important to make sure there is an adequate water supply.
No Water = No Life
However, that doesn't mean someone should spend a lot of money on water!
I recently was reading from a fellow Hive member that the price of a satchet of water had quadrupled in price in Nigeria! @princess-dara wrote the article which you can find here
and in her words
I remembered when we use to buy sachet water for #5 and now the same sachet water is now #20
I will admit that I had never heard of a satchet of water before. I assumed that it was to avoid having to drink water like this :
and you can read more about that image and find its source here
and later I found out that it is indeed purified water in a small pouch. Another friend, @jmis101 took a picture and I now know they look like this
Which sure seems like it will be a whole lot more sanitary to drink. She also said I should budget
Drinking water : Pure water a bag is 300 naira having 20 sachet which one can drink 5-6 sachet a day.
and again for non-drinking water.
Water : Buying from a borehole 30 naira daily.
From what chatgpt told me those water sachet are about 500mL. Doing a little math.. At 6 sachet / day (3 liter) I'm almost paying 100 Naira per day for drinking water. That's 10% of my 1000 Naira budget
Now I truly understand why sachet of water are so popular in Nigeria! I've read stories about the borehole water and the city water. The stories have not been kind in their words on how good that water is. I certainly wouldn't want to drink it straight from the tap (or the ground).
I've also heard about how hot Nigeria is. Who wouldn't want to get a nice cold drink of water when out in the hot Nigerian sun. So quenching while overheated and potential savior from heat stroke!
Clean, Pure, Cold, Refreshing!
I could say :
Or
But
I'll just say that its too large a portion of the monthly budget and I bet there are less expensive options. Since this is all about saving money and budgeting sachet water has to go.
What are my other options?
)>Lets start by saying that in Canada we don't have sachet water.
We have bottles of water which are also 500ml and are also very popular.
For me a 12 pack of water costs $2.99.
6L for $3 of about 50 cents per liter.
)5 Gallon jugs of purified water or 18.9 Liter for $3.49.
Price per liter is only : 19 cents per liter.
What's the difference?
When buying bottled water you are paying for the price of the bottle and bottling!
The bottle and bottling make up about 30% to 50% of the price of the bottled water. Which means up to half of the price you pay is PAYING FOR GARBAGE
Which is why one of my rules for saving money is:
Don't pay for garbage!
Now some people may say that there aren't any water refilling stations where I live. If not, maybe there is an opportunity!
Other people may say "I don't have a cooler for it" Well, it doesn't need a cooler although I would probably add 7.5ml (one and a half measuring teaspoonful) of 5% Sodium Hypochlorite bleach to keep it pure.
Or "Without a cooler it's too heavy to pour out the water".
Well, there are USB powered faucets for those bottles. I have two at home and they are cheap(ish)
Check out the image source here
Of course if there are truly no refilling stations available then I would certainly start looking at a home water distillation unit. The borehole water was only 30 Naira per day.
Purifying it yourself at home is actually quite reasonably priced. Here is the math and a picture of what they look like.
)"
3Kwh of power makes 4L of water.
3Kwh = 70 Naira
3 liter of purified water = 53 Naira. The same amount of sachet water was 100 Naira. Almost half price.
I told you half the cost of the sachet was for the packaging.
Yes I know there is a high outlay cost for the distillation unit. Yes, I know that power is unreliable in Nigeria. More on those topics in a future post
What if I can't afford sachet or electricity
That's when things get very inconvenient. Hopefully borehole water is available (even if you don't want to drink it directly). If not perhaps it is possible to setup a rainwater collection system (again probably not that you would want to drink it directly). As long as you have some water source its then a matter of being creative....very creative.
If you have water and direct sunlight you can make a solar still. The items required to make it are actually very cheap and could probably even be found in the garbage.
Don't believe me?
Head over to the ultimate guide to water distillers here
and see how you can purify lousy water with something as simple as this:
However, you'll probably have to swallow your pride along with that water. I'm certain your neighbors are going to look at you like your crazy!. However, this blog isn't about looking good to your neighbors, its about saving every ounce of money you can 😁
Two empty bottles, a drill, and some glue..... all that you need. Well, and some humility.
Personally, I have a water distillation unit like the one I pictured earlier. I'll be using it on a homestead I'm setting up shortly. However, there is one other item I'll be looking into and would love some ideas from the readers here.
First: A picture of some nice clear water.
Except the water on the right is actually pure drinking water. The water in the pitcher is actually from a dehumidifier. At first glance they are both exceptionally clear and appear clean. In an emergency I'd pick even dehumidifier water over the swampwater I saw being drunk in the first image. Sure it might make me sick but at least its not guaranteed to make me sick like swampwater!
However, because its so clear it is possible to use SODIS methods to purify it further.
What is SODIS? Well, you can check out wikipedia here which is where I got this cool image.
n water.
Ahh....but how about VOC's (Volatile organic chemicals)
The quick version is this: The UV rays that cause sunburn in people are also toxic to bacteria and viruses. Put water in a clear bottle in direct sunlight for 6 hours and it can reduce the possibility of bacterial contamination n water.
Ahh....but how about VOC's (Volatile organic chemicals) or heavy metals? Well, how about making an activated carbon filter. Believe it or not you can make your own charcoal and with time, effort and practice it could be turned into a pretty fair filter. At very little cost.
However, more on that when I talk about woodgas stoves for less expensive cooking!
Now a carbon filter and SODIS disinfection certainly isn't perfect but I bet it would go a long way towards making condensate safer to drink. If not, well, I could always just put it through a homemade solar still!
FINAL THOUGHTS
Water is absolutely essential to life and there will absolutely be a water bill in the 30,000 Naira budget. However, 100 Naira for water sachet? No thanks. There are other options available and cutting this expense is certainly possible. How low will it go? With rainwater and solar still it could theoretically go down to zero.
In reality I'd be happy distilling borehole water at home and cut the cost from 100 Naira to 50 Naira.
If you made it down this far thanks for reading! As always a shoutout for those people who said they were interested in reading this post:
@monica-ene, @emreal, @etorobong, @jmis101, @beautiefair @deborah-yelemu, @jjmusa2004, @nkemakonam89, @drceeyou
and a shoutout to @solarisfuture . I love solar power for sure but not just for elecricity. Solar for distillation and purification are also awesome. Thanks for the upvote on my last post.
This is a good analysis.
And with this we will be getting close to meeting our budget.
Water is life and one can't do away with it.
I recently reduced the amount of pure water I purchase, I only buy and drink it when I am not at home.
I most times boil my water with hot plate but we had electricity blackout for sometime, which caused a lot to change.
Thank you very much for the tips and other alternatives.
Btw we have table bottle water here too, I didn't mention it earlier because is more expensive.
Woah, this is a detailed analysis and will really save one some money.
Having considered the different options available for one to get some portable drinking water.
Lately family's have been buying jugs and water dispenser or cooler ad it is called. But I doubt if everyone fills their gallon jugs from the purification/refilling station.
Mostly they fill those from a borehole and with any little power supply it gets cooled and ready for drinking, that is quite cheaper too.
With time we see more people building boreholes and giving free water to people in their neighborhood who cannot afford a clean water source.
Thank you for this post, it is just a matter of finding which suits one best and can reduce the so much spending on garbage.
And indeed no time to be bothered about what neighbors will say.
Your post led me to the community i have subscribed and I will invite a few other to join and have more quality blogs flow into the community.
I really appreciate your feedback as always. If people join the community that is awesome. I'm just thrilled I finally get to talk about a passion of mine for years (living the best life on the least budget).
One thing I will mention though. It is great to hear that people in your area are making boreholes and sharing the water resources with neighbors. AWESOME
But I will mention to be careful. In the Philippines there are too many boreholes and too many people thinking borehole water is forever. Then they use too much water and the water table goes down then the boreholes don't have any more water in them.
You will see me post more later about how water conservation is super important. I'm just as frugal with water as I am with money 😎 I'm also frugal with electricity...but those are both topics for future posts.
I'm just so happy to have you on board! Looking forward to sending you some pictures from my upcoming homestead when I go there in a few days.
Woahz I didn't know that we could have challenges with water bed building more boreholes.
Seems there is no perfect way out of any menance. A solution to one problems ends up creating another problem.
I mentioned it only because in the Philippines where my parents live they are having their borehole (they call it deepwell) run dry because everyone around them also have borehole's and people think the water is endless and use too much.
I also have a friend in Canada who has a borehole (we call it pumpwell) and it is reliable most of the year but during the hottest summer seasons it also can go dry.
That's why I mentioned the dehumidifier. It can produce an unlimited amount of water BUT it only produces about 15L of water a day and uses 7.5kwh of power to make it (175 Naira @ 0.049USD/kwh).
The dehumidifier costs about 70K Naira to buy but again, unlimited water. However, it needs to be further purified to be truly drinkable.
Now there is also a machine called an "Atmospheric Water Generator" which makes unlimited, absolutely pure drinking water. Best water you can get. Again, its unlimited and makes up to 30L per day. It also uses the same amount of energy per liter (350 Naira for 30L). However, it costs almost 750,000 Naira to purchase.
I'm thinking of buying one because it is such an interesting device but probably wont because its so expensive.
If you are curious you can read about it here
Wow, its good to know about all these devices.
Tech has worked out some good tools here.
"7.5kwh of power to make"
You mean electric power supply here right?
Yes. On my homestead I have solar panels to make electricity and dehumidifier uses that electricity to make water. As long as I have sun I have water. It's not totally actually necessary because the area I'm in gets so much rainwater....but the point is sustainable water....so cool (probably only to me, but I can have my silly toys)
😎
This is really cool.
You have it all planned and perfect.
I admire that
Your analyses are always amazing.
Often times, we have paid for garbage and especially water that would rather cause us harm. Interesting community and I've looked into it. I'm all in
Glad you keep on reading. Also glad for the compliment--helps me feel like I'm not crazy 😁
Maybe I can ask you up for help with health insurance and medication prices when I get that far in my posts. Or not....Doctor's tend to be really busy guys.
I was just looking at your bio.... what's an agripreneur? Someone who invests in farms?
Have a great day and thanks !
Thank you for your kind comments and the points also, would sure be available for discussions as regards health insurance I'm sure you'll see more of such soon also. Agriprenurs are Entrepreneurs of Agriculture
I'd love to hear about your agripreneurial endeavors sometime if ever you care to post about it. As for me I think I'll be busy for a while trying to find way to carve a tiny budget into a decent living. Also I'm hoping to start my homestead soon (actually two of them, one in Canada and one in Philippines).. I think that will make for a bunch of posts as well 😥
Thanks again!
That's impressive
I guess we'll be partners in progress and hive
We also have table water and we call it bottle water here on different sizes
And the water dispenser is available here as well it depends on how much you can afford.
We have boreholes too in my compound there is borehole but the water isn't good enough for drinks so some people do buy sachet water which is pure water, I called it sachet water because it's inside nylon.
But I make use of water guide to purify my water then boil it to kill all the germs after that I keep it where it will be cold for drinking to save money from buying water everyday
Thanks for reading the post and replying. Always appreciated. Boiling water is good idea for sure as it kills bacteria and makes water safer. Doesn't get rid of any heavy metals that might be in the water though which is why I didn't mention that. Bleach does the same job as boiling to kill bacteria however, while it is much cheaper it makes the water taste a little off.
Water is one of those topics where there is sooo much to tell about it. In the end it is all about what works best where you are. Sachet water isn't available in Canada so I never heard about it....until you mentioned it then I had to look it up :)
Thanks or teaching me something and engaging with this post.
Oh you are in Canada nice to meet you 🤝
Nice to meet you also. Worlds away brought together by Hive. So cool. 😎🤝
Yeah right 👍
Good analysis.
Well, the price of sachet water also known as pure water ranges with location. I stay in the southern part of Nigeria, Rivers state to be precise, and a bag of sachet water is sold for 200naira and it contains 20 sachets. 3 sachets are sold for 50naira, 2sachets are sold for 30naira.
There are boreholes, bottle waters as well as the C-way water where one can refill also.
During my final year at university, I worked on two different rural communities in rivers state that lacked portable drinking water and as such resulted in drinking of water from rivers as well as what we call ‘well’(it’s like a pit,dug to the water level region. They attach a rope to a plastic in other to get water). I noticed high level of heavy metals as well as hydrocarbons in such water bodies and this did not just only affect the people of that location, it also affected the organisms found in the water bodies that I carried out such analysis.
Well, my work was on comparative analysis of the water bodies of two different communities affected with portable drinking water.
You can see how the water from one of the locations looked like from the picture above.
It’s sad that the Government still decides to turn a blind eye towards this communities.
Picture of what a well looks like..
That is so cool.
..... Well... not drinking contaminated water that's awful.
However, thanks so much for telling me about that. I'm sure you know why I wanted to mention ways of cleaning the water...even if just simple solar systems to make water a little safer to drink. Of course a filtration system with slime layer, followed by activated charcoal filtration, then UV sterilization would be so much better.
As for governments getting things done. Good luck. In my experience they are all talk and no action. I personally think things go better when communities take action to make things better but of course that takes money.
So many problems.
As for you doing water analysis. I wish I could borrow you to check the well water on my property in the Philippines. I have water but no way to test it which is really annoying to me. At least my property in rural Canada has access to fresh water...but it's something you don't see every day. I'll take pictures and post it for you to laugh at when I go there this weekend.
I'll also ask your opinion. Air conditioners and Dehumidifiers are a reliable way to produce water. However, there is always the possibility of contamination with metals from their workings and bacteria/mold/viruses from the air. Any ideas on the best way to purify it? Have you any way to test it and see just how good or bad it actually is?
Thanks again for your input, I really appreciate it.
I wish it was also possible to work with you. Water samples are usually sent in from various locations for analysis, although depending on the parameters to be worked on as some require Insitu analysis. Accurate results might not be gotten if water samples are not worked on immediately.
In response to your question….
Scientifically, the only way to confirm if the water is good, Is to conduct Water Portability on it.Once you have the result
You could tell if it needs Enriching with ions or further Treatment.
There are different ways you could treat this water...
You have normal softening
Using Charcoal and the rest, like you mentioned above..
Or the more sophisticated,using Zeolites process.
It’s really nice sharing thoughts on your post.
I am working on a post that will really help, and I will tag you to it.
Of course I know all this. I just can't find a water sample lab in the Philippines other than government ones that won't accept samples from private individuals (sigh).
As for zeolites I've only ever thought of them for their drying effect. Was going to look into them more properly when I start turning sugar-->alcohol-->distill-->zeolite-->vehicle fuel.
I've never considered them for water purification before. Look forward to reading your post.