Our tap water tastes like mud. We can and do get used to it, but now twice this year our otherwise “Superior” water system has been put under a boil-water mandate, for fecal bacteria in the drinking water, and once the water came out of all the taps bright pink. We were told it was safe to drink but most of us drank from alternate supplies.
Then, we also live in a hurricane-prone area and need to stockpile drinking water each June, “just in case.” Storing tap water in any sort of container leads to green slime, so we need a source of water that will stay drinkable on the shelf for 3 to 6 months. The simplest way to do this is to buy some form of bottled water. Typically the water with the longest shelf-life is distilled water sold in gallon jugs.
In addition, the major source of fund-raising for our various school activities is selling bottled drinks supplies by the Coca Cola distributor. Since I am trying to limit our consumption of sodas and sports drinks, that leaves bottled water.
So yes, I do buy bottled water these days. However, I do recycle all of the containers.