We keep a small cooler outside for soft drinks,tea, water and beer. This saves some room in the frig. and cuts down on trips in /out and opening the frig. all the time. We were buying a bag a day of ice to keep it going.
We bought an ice maker two years ago and love it. I think it is a magic chef, maybe 125.00. Now on a month trip to the keys we buy a bag of ice to start out and the IM keeps up with our ice needs. We bag a qt bag and put in the freezer for mixed drinks inside. It sits nicely on a folding table under the awning and makes very little noise. It claims to make 25lbs a day but no way it makes that much, but it does produce really well once it gets going.