Preparedness is all about ingenuity and gumption. You have to look at everything like it's a potential prep and evaluate if it would be worth saving; this includes your plastic juice jugs. Sometimes best preps are ones that you don't have to pay a lot for and your spare juice jugs are an example. Water barrels, the Reliance jugs from Wal-Mart, or the water machine jugs from Sam's Club are great ways to store water, but you can supplement your main water storage with your old bottles.
I drink a lot of juice, mainly Simply Orange orange juice, and grape juice. The bottles that the juice come in are made from good plastic and are pretty thick. Once I'm done drinking all the juice I rinse the bottles out with hot water and dish soap. Once the bottles are cleaned and the soap is gone, just fill with cool tap water and store. I have some I stored from the first of January and the water still tastes great. I have accumulated over 14 gallons of water over the past few months which would be a whole two weeks worth of water for one person. If you're already throwing away your bottles, the only cost is the water from the tap, which would be minimal. I might put back one a week but it really adds up.
Note: Don't use milk jugs, they're near impossible to get clean enough to use, and if any milk residue is left over in the jug it will ruin the water when you try to store it.
