How do you save on your water bill

vlagrl35 · May 2016

I just read an article online today that says our city is going to get a HUGE increase in our water bill that started May 1. I personally feel the water bill is way higher than it was 8 years ago. We use to get billed every other month and now its every month. I remember paying around $70 per month and now it seems to always be around $88-95 every month. A few years ago i decide to combine loads of laundry for less water usage and make sure the dishwasher was really full before I started it. I'm trying to think of more ways to cut the cost - any ideas?

AprilZ81 · May 2016

Do you have low flow shower heads and faucets? I think you can make some adjustments to your toilets as well to help.

I know a lot of cities are starting to raise rates crazy high because the infrastructe all needs replaced and no one thought to put money back for repairs/replacement since the systems were put in.

MommyLiberty5013 · May 2016

It's not just infrastructure. The rates at water is used versus the rates at which it is naturally replenished are out of sync.

For example, lake levels in the Twin Cities areas are down and the Prairie du Chein aquifer in our area is no longer permitted to be drilled from.

Water costs are rising because it's getting harder to come by.

vlagrl35 · May 2016

AprilZ81 said:

Do you have low flow shower heads and faucets? I think you can make some adjustments to your toilets as well to help.

I know a lot of cities are starting to raise rates crazy high because the infrastructe all needs replaced and no one thought to put money back for repairs/replacement since the systems were put in.

We do have low flow faucets and our toilet is more water efficient. I will ask DH if we can adjust the toilet water. I have no idea. From all the articles I've read in our city is its all to do with infrastructure of the sewers. I've already started using less water when getting the dishes ready for the dish washer. I informed DH about it today. He waters grass and we have just planted grass seed but after it starts taking off I asked him to stop.

smerka · May 2016

Yep. Water is becoming more and more scarce. If sea levels rise, Florida's groundwater is going to turn brackish. I did notice our water bill pretty much doubled once we had kids. More dishes, laundry, baths, etc. Rain barrels can help with watering outside stuff. Turn the faucet off while you brush your teeth.

jtmh2012 · May 2016

vlagrl35 said:

I just read an article online today that says our city is going to get a HUGE increase in our water bill that started May 1. I personally feel the water bill is way higher than it was 8 years ago. We use to get billed every other month and now its every month. I remember paying around $70 per month and now it seems to always be around $88-95 every month. A few years ago i decide to combine loads of laundry for less water usage and make sure the dishwasher was really full before I started it. I'm trying to think of more ways to cut the cost - any ideas?

I think the first thing I'd do is call up and ask if your city/county has a minimum billing. I'm not sure how common it is, but around here you're billed for a certain minimum amount regardless of whether you use the water or not. Find out what that amount is and then figure out how much above that you are. We're only paying about $37/month though (we pay every other month).

Just another though in addition to the others above.....do you take lots of long showers or are you in and out?

csuave · May 2016

We have a rain barrel system at our community garden and we hardly ever have to use tap water.

My friend told me that dehumidifier water is clean and the way she reuses it is by dumping it in the washer before she does a load of laundry. I guess it cuts down on how much the washer will need to use since it is starting off with some? Dehumidifier water can also be used to water plants, etc.

Xstatic3333 · May 2016

Water bills are very high for us too, and I'm in the industry, so I think about this stuff a lot! I definitely want to install a rain barrel system, that's a great idea for outside. If you water your lawn, make sure to water efficiently. I see so many people running automatic sprinklers in the rain and it drives me batty! A lawn only needs 1" of precip a week to stay green, and it's better if it comes all at once (rain, one big weekly watering) as opposed to daily small waterings. Water in the morning or evening, but not when it's dark out. The plant can't use the water well when it's dark. Of course, the most water-friendly option is to either let your lawn go dormant in the summer or not have a lawn at all, but I've yet to convince my H of that!

Low flow toilets definitely help, but if you don't want to replace yours you can cause it use less water by putting a brick in the tank to displace some. I'm prone to long showers, and I cut that down by playing music while I shower and limiting myself to 1 or 2 songs. Without the music I totally lose track of time. Replacing shower heads works too, but personally I'd rather have a short shower with awesome water pressure. Personal preference.

I'd watch your daughter's water use during hand washing, tooth brushing, etc. So many kids just do. not. care. but it can be a good teachable moment about conserving our natural resources.

If you really want to go crazy, the most water-efficient way to wash dishes is by filling a sink of soapy water. Dishwasher is next, followed by hand washing where you leave the faucet running. With most modern dishwashers you shouldn't need to pre-rinse.

Erikan73 · May 2016

Rain barrels are a great resource. My mom gets a lot of her water for her garden from hers. Just make sure you get a covered one so that you don't create a haven for mosquitos. Just because you are trying to save water doesn't mean you can't still have a beautiful yard, just look for plants that thrive in dry conditions.

brij2006 · May 2016

Good luck!

Our town does a minimum usage charge every month and it is $76. We only go over that when we're watering the lawn or filling the pool.

Another thing, if you're using the water to fill something or water the lawn, you may be able to call and discuss only paying the water usage portion of that use, rather than the water and sewer. Since it is not going through the sewer lines. We're able to do this when we fill the pool, and it's relatively cheap for us to just fill it with the garden hose because we can call and let them know how many gallons we used for the pool and they don't charge sewer use.

A few other things, run the dishwasher rather than hand wash dishes (all studies have shown it uses less water), use towels a few times before washing them.

Kind of gross and definitely old school, but "if it's brown flush it down, if it's yellow let it mellow."

vlagrl35 · May 2016

brij2006 said:

Good luck!

Our town does a minimum usage charge every month and it is $76. We only go over that when we're watering the lawn or filling the pool.

Another thing, if you're using the water to fill something or water the lawn, you may be able to call and discuss only paying the water usage portion of that use, rather than the water and sewer. Since it is not going through the sewer lines. We're able to do this when we fill the pool, and it's relatively cheap for us to just fill it with the garden hose because we can call and let them know how many gallons we used for the pool and they don't charge sewer use.

A few other things, run the dishwasher rather than hand wash dishes (all studies have shown it uses less water), use towels a few times before washing them.
Kind of gross and definitely old school, but "if it's brown flush it down, if it's yellow let it mellow."

lol - yes the thought has definitely crossed my mind. We already have toilets that don't use much water. My parents have toilets that fill up much more than ours. I feel I already watch our water usage. I only do laundry every 2 weeks, we don't water the lawn unless we put down grass seed or it starts to get really dry in the summer. I do water my plants but its minimal water usage. I think I just need to watch how DD uses the water this summer. We have a neighbor boy that loves to just turn on the hose and spray water at anything. I'm not gonna let that fly for our hose anyways.

vlagrl35 · May 2016

jtmh2012 said:

vlagrl35 said:

I just read an article online today that says our city is going to get a HUGE increase in our water bill that started May 1. I personally feel the water bill is way higher than it was 8 years ago. We use to get billed every other month and now its every month. I remember paying around $70 per month and now it seems to always be around $88-95 every month. A few years ago i decide to combine loads of laundry for less water usage and make sure the dishwasher was really full before I started it. I'm trying to think of more ways to cut the cost - any ideas?

I think the first thing I'd do is call up and ask if your city/county has a minimum billing. I'm not sure how common it is, but around here you're billed for a certain minimum amount regardless of whether you use the water or not. Find out what that amount is and then figure out how much above that you are. We're only paying about $37/month though (we pay every other month).
Just another though in addition to the others above.....do you take lots of long showers or are you in and out?

How do you pay that little a month? Thats what I was paying single living in this house - way before kids.

julieanne912 · May 2016

If you do decide to do a rain barrel, make sure it's legal in your area. Here in CO, it's currently illegal, although they're just waiting on a bill to be signed by the governor to make them legal up to a certain amount (2 55 gallon barrels).

jtmh2012 · May 2016

brij2006 said:

Another thing, if you're using the water to fill something or water the lawn, you may be able to call and discuss only paying the water usage portion of that use, rather than the water and sewer.

I know around here they will install a second water meter for those with sprinkler systems that doesn't bill the sewer part. No idea what they charge for that, but it's probably cheaper to pay the normal bill than have that put in.

jtmh2012 · May 2016

vlagrl35 said:

We have a neighbor boy that loves to just turn on the hose and spray water at anything. I'm not gonna let that fly for our hose anyways.

At my last house, I could shut off the outdoor taps from inside.

jtmh2012 · May 2016

vlagrl35 said:

jtmh2012 said:

I think the first thing I'd do is call up and ask if your city/county has a minimum billing. I'm not sure how common it is, but around here you're billed for a certain minimum amount regardless of whether you use the water or not. Find out what that amount is and then figure out how much above that you are. We're only paying about $37/month though (we pay every other month).
Just another though in addition to the others above.....do you take lots of long showers or are you in and out?

How do you pay that little a month? Thats what I was paying single living in this house - way before kids.

*shrugs* I'm at work now, but I'll look at the bill when I get home. I was just able to check the CC bill from here and see that I paid $73.66 for a 2-month bill cycle.

Not sure if any of this helps.... it is just the wife, myself, and a toddler at home and in reality only 2 of us are home at any one time during waking hours usually due to opposite work schedules. We do have a front load HE washer. Not sure how much that helps and right now all of our clothes fit in together, so one load of darks, colors, whites, and towels a week. Probably run the dishwasher about once a week. We do hand-wash some things with the water running so not really efficient use there. Wife and I tend to take short showers and the toddler gets a bath every couple of days. I also don't need to water the lawn as it rains often enough to keep it greenish.

I'll look at the bill when I get home and see what the actual usage is. Might be a more fair comparison

Xstatic3333 · May 2016

brij2006 said:

Good luck!

Our town does a minimum usage charge every month and it is $76. We only go over that when we're watering the lawn or filling the pool.

Another thing, if you're using the water to fill something or water the lawn, you may be able to call and discuss only paying the water usage portion of that use, rather than the water and sewer. Since it is not going through the sewer lines. We're able to do this when we fill the pool, and it's relatively cheap for us to just fill it with the garden hose because we can call and let them know how many gallons we used for the pool and they don't charge sewer use.

A few other things, run the dishwasher rather than hand wash dishes (all studies have shown it uses less water), use towels a few times before washing them.
Kind of gross and definitely old school, but "if it's brown flush it down, if it's yellow let it mellow."

I'm so jealous of this! We looked into this option but it's an absolutely no-no in our city. The sewer bills tend to be much higher than the water bills, too.

brij2006 · May 2016

Xstatic3333 said:

brij2006 said:

Good luck!

Our town does a minimum usage charge every month and it is $76. We only go over that when we're watering the lawn or filling the pool.

Another thing, if you're using the water to fill something or water the lawn, you may be able to call and discuss only paying the water usage portion of that use, rather than the water and sewer. Since it is not going through the sewer lines. We're able to do this when we fill the pool, and it's relatively cheap for us to just fill it with the garden hose because we can call and let them know how many gallons we used for the pool and they don't charge sewer use.

A few other things, run the dishwasher rather than hand wash dishes (all studies have shown it uses less water), use towels a few times before washing them.
Kind of gross and definitely old school, but "if it's brown flush it down, if it's yellow let it mellow."

I'm so jealous of this! We looked into this option but it's an absolutely no-no in our city. The sewer bills tend to be much higher than the water bills, too.

It may be a bit biased, but my husband was the commissioner for the water and sewer department of our town for 3 years (now he's the finances commissioner). They used to do this a long time ago, then got greedy and stopped. He re-activated that option when he got elected. It would cost us well over $300 to fill the pool from the hose, because of the sewer charges. Now it's significantly cheaper.

It only works if your usage is consistent before this though. If you're all over the place with usage, then they know people could be calling in and taking advantage of it.

hoffse · May 2016

Our water budget is $35/month. It's usually less than that by a few dollars. Ours is this low because we are on septic. If we were on city sewer it would be MUCH higher. Our city uses the sewer bill to offset its costs for the bankruptcy that happened a few years ago. Rates are going to vary a lot by area.

H and I try to be conscious about water usage, but I admit we are not as good as we could be. Maybe TMI, but we do shower together in the mornings to save water. I know for families with really little kids that might not be feasible unless the kids are asleep.

I do pre-rinse our dishes and wash a good bit by hand, but we only have to run our dishwasher about twice a week, and that includes cooking a lot on the weekends. Maybe I should be doing the opposite? I don't know. We use a lot of things that are not dishwasher safe.

I think the place we save is with laundry. We probably average 2-3 loads of laundry per week for everything we wash, including linens.

I also try very hard not to overwater our plants. I think a lot of people give plants way more water than they need. I usually don't water unless we aren't getting rain for at least 48 hours, and the soil is dry past my first knuckle. We don't water established plants or our lawn at all and just let rain take care of those things. Granted, the south is humid and we usually get at least one shower per week, often more.

cbee817 · May 2016

jtmh2012 said:

vlagrl35 said:

jtmh2012 said:

I think the first thing I'd do is call up and ask if your city/county has a minimum billing. I'm not sure how common it is, but around here you're billed for a certain minimum amount regardless of whether you use the water or not. Find out what that amount is and then figure out how much above that you are. We're only paying about $37/month though (we pay every other month).
Just another though in addition to the others above.....do you take lots of long showers or are you in and out?

How do you pay that little a month? Thats what I was paying single living in this house - way before kids.

*shrugs* I'm at work now, but I'll look at the bill when I get home. I was just able to check the CC bill from here and see that I paid $73.66 for a 2-month bill cycle.
Not sure if any of this helps.... it is just the wife, myself, and a toddler at home and in reality only 2 of us are home at any one time during waking hours usually due to opposite work schedules. We do have a front load HE washer. Not sure how much that helps and right now all of our clothes fit in together, so one load of darks, colors, whites, and towels a week. Probably run the dishwasher about once a week. We do hand-wash some things with the water running so not really efficient use there. Wife and I tend to take short showers and the toddler gets a bath every couple of days. I also don't need to water the lawn as it rains often enough to keep it greenish.
I'll look at the bill when I get home and see what the actual usage is. Might be a more fair comparison

This is basically us too- we just have 1 more kid. We're billed quarterly and it averages $40/month (includes sewer).

short+sassy · May 2016

Y'all are talking about one of my sore spots! I cannot even tell you how much I despise the Water Board in my city. I've had so many arguments with them about so many bills. They wore me down and I just gave up. I just pay whatever they tell me, because it does no good otherwise. I literally had a "customer service" (using this term loosely) agent tell me that they had made a mistake on my bill, but they weren't going to make a correction. This is after a different person had told me they would and to call them back in 10 days if it hadn't taken effect.

With the rehab I just did, I had to have a new water meter put in...for an existing home, it just didn't have anyone living there for the last 10 years. New regulations required a meter that is twice as expensive...just for the monthly basic rate. Old grandfathered meters are $16.98/month. New meters are $36.98/month.

So...$36.98 plus $24 for trash pick-up. It's $61/month...before even ONE drop of water has been used. Total crooks.

Water rates went up for us a few months ago. It added about $20-$30/month for my personal home. That is with 4 people using water because I share the water line with my tenants. We had been paying $110-$120/month...now it's jumped to $130-$140/month. And that's with my "grandfathered" $17/month meter, lol. Of that bill, $48/month is trash pick-up because it is picking up trash for two addresses...even though it is one building (which I'm fine with). I do always require in my lease that my tenants split the water bill with me.

Like @MommyLiberty5013 said, the infrastructure has been part of the problem. The city has finally been forced to dig up and replace all these water and sewer lines that are 50+ years old. They are enormous projects that are huge (but necessary) PITAs. They finally finished my area, but it was dug up for over a year. Now they have moved on to an area near my work. That is expected to take 2 years.

We had 4 "boil water" incidents last year that lasted 2 or more days. So...yeah...it's long past overdue!!!

Mustard76 · May 2016

Our water, sewer, and trash all come on one bill. It's varies between $55 and $60 a month. I hand wash a lot, probably most of our dishes, just because I prefer to do it that way. I feel like they're cleaner. I know it's probably not true, but I like to scrub them myself. I do my laundry once a week, H does his about every three days or so and we do linens every other week, so it's actually quite a bit of laundry for the two of us. We don't water our lawn and right now we don't have a garden or plants. Our dog has his own water fountain with a filter, so that uses quite a bit of water, since we fill it every couple of days. Our showers are generally pretty quick, but I honestly don't pay much attention to our usage month to month since our bill is relatively stable.

vlagrl35 · May 2016

jtmh2012 said:

vlagrl35 said:

jtmh2012 said:

I think the first thing I'd do is call up and ask if your city/county has a minimum billing. I'm not sure how common it is, but around here you're billed for a certain minimum amount regardless of whether you use the water or not. Find out what that amount is and then figure out how much above that you are. We're only paying about $37/month though (we pay every other month).
Just another though in addition to the others above.....do you take lots of long showers or are you in and out?

How do you pay that little a month? Thats what I was paying single living in this house - way before kids.

*shrugs* I'm at work now, but I'll look at the bill when I get home. I was just able to check the CC bill from here and see that I paid $73.66 for a 2-month bill cycle.
Not sure if any of this helps.... it is just the wife, myself, and a toddler at home and in reality only 2 of us are home at any one time during waking hours usually due to opposite work schedules. We do have a front load HE washer. Not sure how much that helps and right now all of our clothes fit in together, so one load of darks, colors, whites, and towels a week. Probably run the dishwasher about once a week. We do hand-wash some things with the water running so not really efficient use there. Wife and I tend to take short showers and the toddler gets a bath every couple of days. I also don't need to water the lawn as it rains often enough to keep it greenish.
I'll look at the bill when I get home and see what the actual usage is. Might be a more fair comparison

yeah I can show you our bill as well. Does your wife work? I SAH with DD so that might be part of it. We do dishes every 2-3 days - wish I could make it last a week but I can't.

julieanne912 · May 2016

jtmh2012 said:

brij2006 said:

Another thing, if you're using the water to fill something or water the lawn, you may be able to call and discuss only paying the water usage portion of that use, rather than the water and sewer.

I know around here they will install a second water meter for those with sprinkler systems that doesn't bill the sewer part. No idea what they charge for that, but it's probably cheaper to pay the normal bill than have that put in.

Our house came with this. We pay two separate rates, one for potable water, one for "irrigation" water, which is non-potable but perfectly fine for watering the grass. It's nice since we're on large lots (1 acre), and our front yard is about 4500 sq ft of lawn by itself. Our highest bill in the summer last year was $150, and that was right after we put in the lawn and had to water it like 3 times a day. Our bill in the winter is consistently $65-70, and something like $48 of that is the "facility fee".

We're on septic so we don't have to worry about a sewer bill, but we do have to pay $80/year for a "stormwater" bill. I guess it was something that used to be included in the property taxes but now it's a separate bill... something to do with controlling the rainwater runoff. Stupid really.

Xstatic3333 · May 2016

julieanne912 said: jtmh2012 said: brij2006 said: Another thing, if you're using the water to fill something or water the lawn, you may be able to call and discuss only paying the water usage portion of that use, rather than the water and sewer. I know around here they will install a second water meter for those with sprinkler systems that doesn't bill the sewer part. No idea what they charge for that, but it's probably cheaper to pay the normal bill than have that put in.
Our house came with this. We pay two separate rates, one for potable water, one for "irrigation" water, which is non-potable but perfectly fine for watering the grass. It's nice since we're on large lots (1 acre), and our front yard is about 4500 sq ft of lawn by itself. Our highest bill in the summer last year was $150, and that was right after we put in the lawn and had to water it like 3 times a day. Our bill in the winter is consistently $65-70, and something like $48 of that is the "facility fee".
We're on septic so we don't have to worry about a sewer bill, but we do have to pay $80/year for a "stormwater" bill. I guess it was something that used to be included in the property taxes but now it's a separate bill... something to do with controlling the rainwater runoff. Stupid really.

This is probably going to be implemented around here soon, too. Granted, a huge portion of my job is dealing with stormwater pollution, so it doesn't really bother me that much, but I wish that other districts around the country would provide good information about why this is necessary so it doesn't just bug the heck out of people. Nutshell version is that runoff from rainstorms carries anything that happens to be on the ground with it as it flows downhill-fertilizer, road salt, oil and gas, pet waste, etc.-and is ultimately going to dump it in a lake, pond, river, or the ocean. In my area and many others, this is pretty much trashing a lot of lakes (when fertilizer or pet waste hits a lake it will fertilize algae instead of grass) so states and towns are starting to implement regulations to do something about it. There are many engineering solutions that can help, such as directing water from roofs to basins where it can soak back into the ground, and that's probably what your bill is going towards.

One well-known example of the kinds of problems stormwater can lead to is what happened with the Toledo, OH water supply a few summers ago. More nutrients carried into Lake Erie by stormwater caused a type of algae to grow that can actually be toxic in certain situations, so they had to stop using the water supply until the algae "bloom" had cleared. Another example in RI, where I live, has been mass dye-offs of fish in our bay immediately following large algae blooms. When the algae dies and decomposes it consumes oxygen, and the fish can't survive. We had several of these last summer.

Certainly don't blame anyone for complaining about a new bill, just couldn't stop myself from explaining it a bit

vlagrl35 · May 2016

We owe $94 for the month of May - The bill says waste water will go up $7.78 a month

On the flip side I've gotten our electric bill usage down from last year. On average we are using 11% less electricity than last year. Now I need to figure out the water bill.

jtmh2012 · May 2016

vlagrl35 said:

jtmh2012 said:

vlagrl35 said:

jtmh2012 said:

I think the first thing I'd do is call up and ask if your city/county has a minimum billing. I'm not sure how common it is, but around here you're billed for a certain minimum amount regardless of whether you use the water or not. Find out what that amount is and then figure out how much above that you are. We're only paying about $37/month though (we pay every other month).
Just another though in addition to the others above.....do you take lots of long showers or are you in and out?

How do you pay that little a month? Thats what I was paying single living in this house - way before kids.

*shrugs* I'm at work now, but I'll look at the bill when I get home. I was just able to check the CC bill from here and see that I paid $73.66 for a 2-month bill cycle.
Not sure if any of this helps.... it is just the wife, myself, and a toddler at home and in reality only 2 of us are home at any one time during waking hours usually due to opposite work schedules. We do have a front load HE washer. Not sure how much that helps and right now all of our clothes fit in together, so one load of darks, colors, whites, and towels a week. Probably run the dishwasher about once a week. We do hand-wash some things with the water running so not really efficient use there. Wife and I tend to take short showers and the toddler gets a bath every couple of days. I also don't need to water the lawn as it rains often enough to keep it greenish.
I'll look at the bill when I get home and see what the actual usage is. Might be a more fair comparison

yeah I can show you our bill as well. Does your wife work? I SAH with DD so that might be part of it. We do dishes every 2-3 days - wish I could make it last a week but I can't.

I work mornings,she works evenings. We're home about an hour in the middle of the day together. I just checked the bill, it's 7 CCFs. According to my bill, 1 CCF is about 748 gallons of water.

jtmh2012 · May 2016

Xstatic3333 said:

Certainly don't blame anyone for complaining about a new bill, just couldn't stop myself from explaining it a bit

I used to have one of those bills in my last house. I didn't so much mind what it was for. Just that in my opinion, it should have just been billed with the property taxes. Instead they call it a "fee" and then say "we didn't raise taxes".

Same net effect....

Xstatic3333 · May 2016

jtmh2012 said:

Xstatic3333 said:

Certainly don't blame anyone for complaining about a new bill, just couldn't stop myself from explaining it a bit

I used to have one of those bills in my last house. I didn't so much mind what it was for. Just that in my opinion, it should have just been billed with the property taxes. Instead they call it a "fee" and then say "we didn't raise taxes".

Same net effect....

Agreed. I hate that kind of thing! I forgot to mention before, but some towns will give a break on stormwater fees if you install rain barrels, rain gardens, etc. Never hurts to ask.

julieanne912 · May 2016

Xstatic3333 said:

jtmh2012 said:

Xstatic3333 said:

Certainly don't blame anyone for complaining about a new bill, just couldn't stop myself from explaining it a bit

I used to have one of those bills in my last house. I didn't so much mind what it was for. Just that in my opinion, it should have just been billed with the property taxes. Instead they call it a "fee" and then say "we didn't raise taxes".

Same net effect....

Agreed. I hate that kind of thing! I forgot to mention before, but some towns will give a break on stormwater fees if you install rain barrels, rain gardens, etc. Never hurts to ask.

Yeah except here, collecting rainwater is still illegal LOL

I do get why there's a need for the water treatment, but the stormwater fee was originally part of the property taxes so I'm not sure why they had to make a whole separate bill and have a whole new division at the county to handle it. It also wasn't disclosed to us as a separate bill when we purchased, so we got a surprise bill after moving in... never fun.

vlagrl35 · May 2016

jtmh2012 said:

vlagrl35 said:

jtmh2012 said:

vlagrl35 said:

jtmh2012 said:

I think the first thing I'd do is call up and ask if your city/county has a minimum billing. I'm not sure how common it is, but around here you're billed for a certain minimum amount regardless of whether you use the water or not. Find out what that amount is and then figure out how much above that you are. We're only paying about $37/month though (we pay every other month).
Just another though in addition to the others above.....do you take lots of long showers or are you in and out?

How do you pay that little a month? Thats what I was paying single living in this house - way before kids.

*shrugs* I'm at work now, but I'll look at the bill when I get home. I was just able to check the CC bill from here and see that I paid $73.66 for a 2-month bill cycle.
Not sure if any of this helps.... it is just the wife, myself, and a toddler at home and in reality only 2 of us are home at any one time during waking hours usually due to opposite work schedules. We do have a front load HE washer. Not sure how much that helps and right now all of our clothes fit in together, so one load of darks, colors, whites, and towels a week. Probably run the dishwasher about once a week. We do hand-wash some things with the water running so not really efficient use there. Wife and I tend to take short showers and the toddler gets a bath every couple of days. I also don't need to water the lawn as it rains often enough to keep it greenish.
I'll look at the bill when I get home and see what the actual usage is. Might be a more fair comparison

yeah I can show you our bill as well. Does your wife work? I SAH with DD so that might be part of it. We do dishes every 2-3 days - wish I could make it last a week but I can't.

I work mornings,she works evenings. We're home about an hour in the middle of the day together. I just checked the bill, it's 7 CCFs. According to my bill, 1 CCF is about 748 gallons of water.

Our current bill is 6CCFs - is that 2 months for you or 1 month? For us its 1 month.

How do you save on your water bill

Re: How do you save on your water bill

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