As gas prices continue their upward climb, many of us are re-examining our set expenditures. Is that deluxe cable TV package really a necessity?

How about that thrice-weekly restaurant habit?

Here's an easy expense to cut from your budget — bottled water.

There it is, taking up half an aisle in the supermarket. Entire flats of bottled water, sitting on cardboard trays, encased in plastic — water.

How did water become such a packaged and pricey item?

Remember when you just turned on the tap and filled your glass, confident the water was safe?

It's still safe.

According to the Beverage Marketing Corporation, Americans drank 8.8 billion gallons of packaged water in 2007. This totaled 15 percent of our total liquid intake.

People, people, we're talking about water! It falls free from the sky.

We pay our taxes to purify it and pipe it to our homes.

We agonize over which faucet to choose for our kitchen remodels.

And then we leave our homes to go buy it?

And, at one cent per gallon, it's always been the cheapest drink in town.

This is especially illogical when you consider that the Natural Resources Defense Council concluded that, "about one-fourth of bottled water is actually bottled tap water."

The environmental impact of these billions of plastic water bottles is staggering.

Approximately 1.5 million barrels of oil are used to create water bottles annually in the U.S. alone.

Yet, just 14 percent of water bottles get recycled. Where are the other 86 percent going?

Want to drink filtered water, without supporting the bottled water industry?

Easy. Install a water filter on your kitchen faucet, or buy an inexpensive water pitcher with a built-in filter for your refrigerator.

For the office, an old fashioned water cooler can replace the fridge full of bottled water. (Just think of all the office gossip you'll be able to glean.)

Heading out for the day? Take a few seconds to simply fill a couple of reusable bottles with ice water.

Next time you're about to heft that pallet of bottled water into your grocery cart, ask yourself this — why am I not drinking my own safe, cheap tap water?

Putting the brakes on the bottled water habit will not only save you money, but you can relax knowing your drink of choice is not contributing to a worldwide environmental crisis.

Katy Wolk-Stanley writes a daily blog as "The Non-Consumer Advocate." Read her thoughts on living a responsibly fun and frugal life at www.thenonconsumeradvocate.wordpress.com.