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.