Due to a medical issue, it is strongly suggested I do not drink water from any cities with less than 100k people. I am not saying smaller towns can not have safe water, but I don't want to do the research on it every day; I just do what my docs have told me to do. That basically means bottled purified water, ideally via reverse osmosis, the entire time for me as I don't tour much in metro areas. As a result, I always try to buy a gallon a water in a grocery store as it is around $1 versus $1+ for a pint. I typically buy it at the end of the day, take it to camp/hotel with me, use whatever amount overnight, fill my bike water bottles in the morning and then water plants with the rest. Of course, sometimes I have to buy the overpriced pint size bottles but that is not too often. The bigger pain is that I have to stop at a grocery store (or Dollar store) and buy water every day versus just use a tap.
I figure at $30-$40 a month, this is not a huge issue if it means I can not tour.
Tailwinds, John