Well, the first week of school has come to an end, and my idea about using reusable water bottles in lunches has been a bust. In the past we’ve had problems with bottles that leak and that’s why we’ve stuck with store-bought bottles of water in lunches. But with our new frugal and green lifestyle, I thought it was time to give reusable bottles a try.

Over the summer I bought one kind of bottle that I thought for sure would be a winner. The kids used it in their camp lunches, and all seemed fine. However, this kind of bottle has a pop-up top–and my kids tend to pull up that pop-up top with their teeth. These days, the bottle’s top is pock-marked with teethmarks and becaue of these indentations, they’ve destroyed the “seal” of the pop-up top. Now, the top never quite closes and should the bottle end up on its side or, worse, upside down, the water just comes gushing out. Guess those bottles going in the trash, er, the recycling bin.

Our next water bottle purchase was one with a screw-off top, that works fine with adult hands. My kids, however, have had a tough time getting the bottle to close all the way, and the past two days, they’re arrived home with their lunchboxes and book bags full of water. (Never mind their textbooks, which I’ll be drying out over the weekend, because they ended up soaked, too.)

We’ve also tried the bottles with the embedded straw but those tend to leak, too. If the kids don’t push the straw part all the way flush with the top of the bottle, it begins to act like a leaky faucet.

I guess I’m going to go back to cases of bottled water for the time being. In the meantime maybe I can get one of my magazine clients to assign me a story on the best water bottles out there, and then I can road test a bunch and get paid for it.

Speaking of magazines I noticed today that Woman’s Day magazine’s website has a feature on how going green saves you green–the very concept I’m going for in this blog. I must be on to something popular if magazines are writing about it now.