frugal mamas

[bostonsmama]

ok, i need some major help with our water bill.......what do you all do to save some $$ on water each month? ANY ideas would be greatly appreciated!!!! i get so mad when i open our water bill--- :hissyfit

i dont feel like we waste water....maybe i just dont realize it....? HELP ME!!!

[Thia]

-Have a plumber come in and check the piping in your house to see if there is a leak somewhere that you don't know about. Or that the toilet doesn't run.
-Turn off the water when brushing etc...
-Run dishwasher, washing machine etc when full, not half loads.

[JJsMom]

Any ideas as to where you are losing the most water? Like do you do lots of showers or lots of dishes, etc? Do your kids leave the water running? Do you water the lawn or anything? Can you have the kids not flush if they have just gone pee? Maybe put a jug of water or one of those nozzle jugs in the fridge so the kids don't have to turn on the water and wait for it to get cold before they put some in a glass. Just a few thoughts. HTH! :)

[Iarwain]

Where we used to live the water department would give you these tablets to put in your toilet tank to see if it was leaking. I think you can do the same thing with food coloring. Leaky toilets are pretty common even if you don't see it and it can run your water bill up really fast.

You can limit the length of showers and the depth of water in the bath. If you have older toilets you can get a flush kit (tank innards) that reduces the amount of water they use or else put a full two liter bottle of water in the tank and that'll reduce the usage per flush by half a gallon. Don't do that with a newer low-flush toilet, though. It won't do the job adequately if you reduce the volume.

If you REALLY want to conserve you can follow this rhyme: If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down. Don't ask me where I heard that, but it sounds kind of stinky if you ask me.

Actually I don't do any of this stuff. We have a well now, and thus no water bill.

[bostonsmama]

Maybe put a jug of water or one of those nozzle jugs in the fridge so the kids don't have to turn on the water and wait for it to get cold before they put some in a glass. Just a few thoughts. HTH! :)


oh, good idea..i'll do that...my "kid" is only 10 mos old, so we have no problems there! i never do a half load of laundry...i do sometimes run the dishwasher when its not completely full....and we do have a small leak under our bathtub (its an old fashioned tub) maybe thats wasting more water than i realized...we're actually getting it fixed in two weeks. (oh, i just remembered :doh that we have a Culligan system, but i think the cold water in the fridge will still help a bit)


larwain--lol---ive heard that rhyme too! we actually do this most of the time, its really not gross to me~
keep the ideas coming....we need to have a frugality thread. ;)

[Heather]

I don't have any tips other than the great ones you have already gotten... but - I wanted to second the idea that we need a frugality thread!!!

Since many of us are SAHM's frugality is a lifestyle. Maybe we could add a child board to the Joyful Housekeeping board? I dunno - just an idea!

[craftymom75]

Have you contacted your water utility, to see if they have a budget program?
We had to wait a year after we moved in to our house, and our last bill was really high before the budget kicked in.
It saves us so much.
HTH!!

Peace-
Emily

[Mothering by Heart]

We once had a $200.00 water bill from a running toilet :doh

Some other tips:
Don't let the water run while you are brushing your teeth(FTR, I do not follow my own advice on this one :blush)
Turn off water while lathering in the shower


I don't have any tips other than the great ones you have already gotten... but - I wanted to second the idea that we need a frugality thread!!!

Since many of us are SAHM's frugality is a lifestyle. Maybe we could add a child board to the Joyful Housekeeping board? I dunno - just an idea!


This is a great idea. How about adding a sticky in JH where we could post all of our frugal tips? I'll go add one now and we'll see how that works. :tu

[bostonsmama]

that sounds great! i have lots of tips elsewhere, i just dont know what else to do about our water. i guess maybe its not that high....nowhere near $200!!

so, whats this about turning off the water in the shower while lathering?? aahh!! *that* would be a hard one for me to follow, great idea though, ive never heard it before!

[Mothering by Heart]

that sounds great! i have lots of tips elsewhere, i just dont know what else to do about our water. i guess maybe its not that high....nowhere near $200!!

so, whats this about turning off the water in the shower while lathering?? aahh!! *that* would be a hard one for me to follow, great idea though, ive never heard it before!


Yeah, I've only heard about it. Never done it, and I probably never will :shrug A hot shower is my own private refuge :lol

[canadiyank]

Is a front-loader washer an option? We needed a new one and that helped us out, especially since it has a HUGE capacity and we wash CDs and lots of burp rags. I turn off the water while soaping and shampooing. Do you have any leaky faucets? We have an unfixable one so I put a bucket under it and use the water to water my flowers. Light load on the dishwasher. Do you own your home? Perhaps look into a graywater system to water your lawn/plants (I LOVE this idea, especially here in the desert...we rent, though...). I put litre plastic bottles in the toilets (fill them up and then put them in the tank).

Frugality thread - yes! We are trying to be frugal as we get rid of our debt and save for a plot of land. :tu

[milkmommy]

Turning off and on the shower was not an option gor the longest time it was too difficult to reset again wasting time and blinding us with shampoo running in our eyes :wow However the current shower we have hasa valve on the side to clamp off the water keeping the tempeture etc I really like it because in this darn appartment you get hot water for exactly six mintues then it goes icy :rolleyes.. Though I can't say if its saving water our waters included in our rent.

Deanna

[Maggie]

Interesting about the running water in the shower! I leave the water running while I wash my hair, but I turn it off before I wash my body. I actually do this because I feel like I get rinsed off too early if I leave it on! :shrug When we lived in a place where it was really hard to reset the water temp, I would leave it running from the faucet rather than the shower head. OK, that's probably more than anyone ever wanted to know about my showering preferences! :lol

[milkmommy]

Interesting about the running water in the shower! I leave the water running while I wash my hair, but I turn it off before I wash my body. I actually do this because I feel like I get rinsed off too early if I leave it on! :shrug When we lived in a place where it was really hard to reset the water temp, I would leave it running from the faucet rather than the shower head. OK, that's probably more than anyone ever wanted to know about my showering preferences! :lol


See if we do that it still messes up so when we swich back to shower we eaither get blasted with ice cold water for like 20 seconds before it "regulates again" or more often goes scalding hot (well not quite) but enough to have you jumping naked out of the shower. :eek Now THAT"S probably more info than YOU wanted. :laughtears

Deanna

[Maggie]

:laughtears Nah, not TMI. It's painful to get shower scald, especially if you're half asleep and your reaction time is not at its quickest! :wow

[ChristmasGirl]

If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down

the one time this is not a good idea is when there is a heating vent *right* beside the toilet..it starts to smell pretty bad when things start to "heat up" :sick...i've learned this from experience

[wuzzie]

Ways to save water. Hand wash your dishes. Yeah, I know it sucks, but one full sink of water and then enough to quick rinse them all is bunches less than what your dishwasher uses. Take bathes not showers. Just plug your drain while you are showering to see how much water you use. I filled the yub 3 times during the course of one shower. And that's with a slow flow shower head. Oh yeah, get a slow flow shower head. You use less water with more pressure, it works I swear. Fill a soda bottle with water and put it in your toilet tank, you will use that much less water each flush. Here are some more ideas. http://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/conservation/tips/tips.htm

[Miss Priss]

Here's my tips- I didn't read the other posts so forgive me if it's repeats for you...
Turn off the faucet when brusing teeth
Wash everything on cold (I only use hot on diapers- of course, that might be electricity bill and not water, but it still saves)
Only run full loads in the washer/dishwasher
Don't leave water running while washing/rinsing dishes
Set a timer for kids' showers

And, this is strange, but we've found in the past month that it saves us money to use styrofoam plates. We get the valupak at Walmart, and have found after getting our bills in that it is cheaper for us because with 4 kids home all day every day I was running the dishwasher 2-3 times a day!

[Meredith]

Well, this is pobably waaaaaaaay TMI, but for saving water in the toilet department, I have used the "If it's yellow, let it mellow, if it's brown, flush it down" technique before.

You might rather check for leaks, though. :laughtears

[JJsMom]

Ways to save water. Hand wash your dishes. Yeah, I know it sucks, but one full sink of water and then enough to quick rinse them all is bunches less than what your dishwasher uses.
Actually I have heard that the new dishwashers use less water than handwashing b/c they are so effeicient. That's why I never worry about using my newish dishwasher over handwashing. ( we have a well too, so that isn't a huge concern anyway). That's what the person selling me the dishwasher said anyway. :shrug

[Gretchen]

Bostonsmama, does your water bill tell you how many gallons you use each month? I know that the $ is ultimately the bottom line, but knowing the number of gallons will help determine if there are savings you can make or not. If you just have high rates and are only using 4000 gallons a month, there might not be a whole lot you can do about it.

Tips on saving water:
:arrow The big place to get water savings is with outdoor irrigation. In our city (which does not even have a long growing season), yard/garden watering accounts for 75% of the annual water usage. Make sure you are doing deep watering infrequently, as opposed to watering a few minutes each day. Do your watering early in the morning or in the evening/night to avoid evaporation.

:arrow Look for leaks. Last spring, my DH went to turn on the shut-off valve for our sprinkler system. He happened to look at the water meter and it was going crazy, however, there was no water running outside or in the house. We clocked it and discovered that the sprinkler shut-off valve was leaking 175 gallons a DAY. :eek We shut it off last season, and this spring he dug a huge 6 foot deep hole in the front yard and fixed the problem. :clap What a guy! I'm excited to have our sprinkler system back!

We also had a slow leak from our furnace humidifier. Those drips can add up!

:arrow Consider converting older toilets to low-flush. We have replaced all 4 toilets in this house. The older toilets use 6 gallons per flush, while the new ones use only 1.6.

:arrow I've also heard that running the dishwasher (when full) is much more water efficient than hand washing dishes.

:arrow One of my neighbors puts a big bucket in the shower to catch the water while it's getting hot and then uses the collected water to water her outdoor planters.

:arrow We have a front-loader washer, which significantly cuts water usage. I wouldn't recommend it as a cost-saving measure though (unless you already need new machines) because the initial investment is high.

Gretchen

[Iarwain]

Ways to save water. Hand wash your dishes. Yeah, I know it sucks, but one full sink of water and then enough to quick rinse them all is bunches less than what your dishwasher uses.
Actually I have heard that the new dishwashers use less water than handwashing b/c they are so effeicient. That's why I never worry about using my newish dishwasher over handwashing. ( we have a well too, so that isn't a huge concern anyway). That's what the person selling me the dishwasher said anyway. :shrug


Yeah, our new dishwasher uses 5.7 gal for a normal cycle and the longest cycle is still only 8.9 or thereabouts.

[wuzzie]

Ways to save water. Hand wash your dishes. Yeah, I know it sucks, but one full sink of water and then enough to quick rinse them all is bunches less than what your dishwasher uses.
Actually I have heard that the new dishwashers use less water than handwashing b/c they are so effeicient. That's why I never worry about using my newish dishwasher over handwashing. ( we have a well too, so that isn't a huge concern anyway). That's what the person selling me the dishwasher said anyway. :shrug


Yeah, our new dishwasher uses 5.7 gal for a normal cycle and the longest cycle is still only 8.9 or thereabouts.

I didn't know that. Maybe I will start using my dishwasher again.

[bostonsmama]

ok, it says we used 9000 gallons of water this month, but the chart shows 12000, and the usage charge is $2.33 x 12.0! so I'm guessing its 12,000!! :eek :eek

this is up from our 3,500 last march/april/may/june/july, then went up a little bit until these last three months. i have NO clue why its this high. we MUST have a leak like everyone is saying--must check that out!

btw--good to see you here wuzzie! :)