CAn we talk about lowering the water/sewer bill?

[dubfam]

We have to pay for water and sewage for the first time in years. We are looking for tips on how to keep it as low as possible. I know you all have great advice, right??

We currently take really short showers and follow the 'if it's yellow, it's mellow...' rule for flushing toilets when we don't have guests.

[yukookoo]

i wanted to ask about this here too.

We are renting so there is onyl so much we can do...

but fromw hat i've read the first thing you should do is make sure have no leaks.

We have not figured much out yet but so far what we are doing is:

- not flushing often - you can use "used" water when you do flush if you collect extra water

- we do dishes in a bucket, one for soapy water and sponge, one clean for rinsing. Then the extra water can be used to flush the toilets... I havent done this yet.

- collect rain water, or bucket water from dish washing to water plants

- Showers i read are better than baths, if they are short. if kids take baths dont fill the tub all the way and plug it right away, i guess its cheaper to heat up the cold water that gets plugged in, than waste the cold water down the drain.

[honeybunmom]

Are you able to purchase high efficiency toilets? I don't recall the cost (have to check with hubby as he did all the scouting), but, we have a very low water and sewage bill. We only moved in this past October. Our bill for November and December was only $32.80. And this includes sewage. We used 43 gallons of water washing cd's every day or every other day in addition to showering and other laundry. We do also have a HE washer. We also had guests for Christmas (4 extra adults and 2 extra kiddos). We don't use our dishwasher much, though. Maybe once every other week and otherwise wash by hand with the water running to rinse. So, I'm thinking that the toilets are making the biggest difference. Dh is home all day with the kiddos, so, there is definitely all day use of the toilets.

[yukookoo]

i also wanted to say that i heard it is very different by county etc.

Our water bill previously was about 30$ in a condo

Now we just moved to a 3 bedroom house, same number of toilets, washer for clothes we paid over 80$ for sewer last month and we were gone a week!

ad to that i think 50 for water.

I was not expecting that! Then they want 120$ deposit, im not sure for what or why. It will be applied to our last bill, so its not a waste but the bill was over 200$ i almost got a heart attack!

I had no idea water was that expensive. Maybe they should stop treating it with so much crap. I mean i dont want to bath in sewage or anything but i also dont want to pay for fluoride and chlorine that I then have to pay for a filter to get out of the water just to be able to bath in it errrrr

[honeybunmom]

Originally Posted by yukookoo

i also wanted to say that i heard it is very different by county etc.

Our water bill previously was about 30$ in a condo

Now we just moved to a 3 bedroom house, same number of toilets, washer for clothes we paid over 80$ for sewer last month and we were gone a week!

ad to that i think 50 for water.

I was not expecting that! Then they want 120$ deposit, im not sure for what or why. It will be applied to our last bill, so its not a waste but the bill was over 200$ i almost got a heart attack!

I had no idea water was that expensive. Maybe they should stop treating it with so much crap. I mean i dont want to bath in sewage or anything but i also dont want to pay for fluoride and chlorine that I then have to pay for a filter to get out of the water just to be able to bath in it errrrr

One thing to check if you haven't already is whether you were billed on estimated or actual usage. I live in Chicago and used to be billed an outrageous flat fee for water/sewage. Over $200 per billing period. Now we are metered. Additionally, it is my understanding that the meters can be read remotely by our water company, so, they don't actually have to send out a meter reader.

[jentilla]

We used to have a low water bill, but now we have a flat fee plus usage every 3 months. AND we have 2 separate meters: one on our cottage and one on the house. So we pay a FLAT FEE of $42.39 for EACH METER whether we use water or not since it's a water treatment fee as well. UGH. We are slowing moving t no water at the cottage.

[Chicky2]

I fyou can't purchase new toilets, put a water bottle full of rocks or marbles in each tank to displace some of the water used.

Some time ago, there was a thread about a toilet tank sink....I'll see if I can dig it up after lunch...

[AmandasMom]

What's frustrating to me is that my sewer cost is double my water cost, so they assume that every gallon I use goes right back out. Which isn't true because I have 6 large fish tanks that get large water changes 3 times a week. And the water I drain from the tanks goes out the hose into the garden in the backyard, so it's not going down the sewer. So if we use $40 of water a month, we get charged $80 for sewer!

[Porcelain Interior]

Our sewer is what costs us, and for our area it's a flat rate. So no matter how frugal you get with the water you won't really see a price decrease.

By taking 2.5 minute showers and doing all the low flow stuff and being extra careful I shaved a whole $5 off my bill once.

Now while we are careful we don't get all painful about it because it doesn't pay off. Not to say we're wasting water- no way, but I'm not going to stress and freak out everytime someone flushes.

I wish they'd reward conservation, but sadly they don't.

[luv-my-boys]

Well since no one else has mentioned it make sure you run wash loads full to capacity as well as a dishwasher if you use one. Also make sure to take care of any leaks that over time can really add up.

[Carson]

Originally Posted by honeybunmom

Now we are metered.

Ugh, I am trying to convince DH to let us get a meter!!! You get the lower of your existing bill or your actual usage for the next 7 years or something, but he's worried about 'after that' . I think 'after that' the city is going to force EVERYONE to be on meters and it's not going to matter. Glad to hear the program worked for you though.

[Chicky2]

Here's a link about hacking your toilet tank for free water.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Hack...r-free-water./