How do you save on your water bill

Xstatic3333 · May 2016

julieanne912 said:

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.

Ugh, that is super annoying. Hopefully they'll legalize rain barrels for you soon. Water rights issues in the West sound completely crazy. I had to learn a little about them in grad school but it's all a blur at this point.

jtmh2012 · May 2016

vlagrl35 said:

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.

2 months.

vlagrl35 · May 2016

jtmh2012 said:

vlagrl35 said:

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.

2 months.

I really don't know how you do it.

als1982 · May 2016

We're paying about $90 for sewer and $70 for water every two months. It does seem crazy. We don't water our lawn (but will water our trees in the late summer months) and do a reasonable amount of laundry. I shower quick, H not so much. We have a new water efficient toilet. My one big water waste is running the faucet occasionally for a little bathroom privacy, if you know what I mean...

vlagrl35 · May 2016

als1982 said:

We're paying about $90 for sewer and $70 for water every two months. It does seem crazy. We don't water our lawn (but will water our trees in the late summer months) and do a reasonable amount of laundry. I shower quick, H not so much. We have a new water efficient toilet. My one big water waste is running the faucet occasionally for a little bathroom privacy, if you know what I mean…

I think we are from the same city - its crazy right? I will still let DD run thru the sprinkler this summer but I won't let kids just turn on the hose and spray at the fence or grass for no reason. We have all those low flow and low water level toilets and faucets - there really isn't much more we can do. I was looking at budgets from 2011 and 2012 when we had DD and our water bill was $55-$60 a month! Eventually I see us getting a rain barrel for outside watering.

als1982 · May 2016

vlagrl35 said:

als1982 said:

We're paying about $90 for sewer and $70 for water every two months. It does seem crazy. We don't water our lawn (but will water our trees in the late summer months) and do a reasonable amount of laundry. I shower quick, H not so much. We have a new water efficient toilet. My one big water waste is running the faucet occasionally for a little bathroom privacy, if you know what I mean…

I think we are from the same city - its crazy right? I will still let DD run thru the sprinkler this summer but I won't let kids just turn on the hose and spray at the fence or grass for no reason. We have all those low flow and low water level toilets and faucets - there really isn't much more we can do. I was looking at budgets from 2011 and 2012 when we had DD and our water bill was $55-$60 a month! Eventually I see us getting a rain barrel for outside watering.

We are, but I'm on the Kansas side and if I remember correctly, you're in Missouri?

vlagrl35 · May 2016

als1982 said:

vlagrl35 said:

als1982 said:

We're paying about $90 for sewer and $70 for water every two months. It does seem crazy. We don't water our lawn (but will water our trees in the late summer months) and do a reasonable amount of laundry. I shower quick, H not so much. We have a new water efficient toilet. My one big water waste is running the faucet occasionally for a little bathroom privacy, if you know what I mean…

I think we are from the same city - its crazy right? I will still let DD run thru the sprinkler this summer but I won't let kids just turn on the hose and spray at the fence or grass for no reason. We have all those low flow and low water level toilets and faucets - there really isn't much more we can do. I was looking at budgets from 2011 and 2012 when we had DD and our water bill was $55-$60 a month! Eventually I see us getting a rain barrel for outside watering.

We are, but I'm on the Kansas side and if I remember correctly, you're in Missouri?

yeah that's right - I'm on the MO side. So are you guys not getting the increase?

short+sassy · May 2016

Xstatic3333 said:

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.

I've heard the "brick in the toilet tank" and using showerheads that are designed to reduce water usage are two of the best ways to reduce water usage.

I also pretty much only run my dishwasher and washing machine when they can be full loads.

MommyLiberty5013 · May 2016

If you do rain barrels, make sure they aren't white. They need to be a dark color like the black, brown, green or blue ones. The white ones let the sunlight in and then algae grows.

There's a bunch of YouTube videos on making your own rain barrel set-up. Or, you can just buy a pre made one from a garden supply place.

How do you save on your water bill

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