Good morning, savvy savers! For this weeks Greener Living Tip, I wanted to share an experience I recently had, and how it helped to save my family 1/3 off of our monthly water bill!
Starting last Spring, my water bill went up by 20% in a months time! Not that it was a lot of money, but in a year’s time it would have amounted to $400.00! I set out to figure out how to reduce this amount!
Here’s what I did:
1) I started by calling my city water department, who did not return my call.
2) I then called my city managers office, and was informed by a kind gentleman there, that water, like electricity has a variable cost, and there are peak and nonpeak times of the month, season, and year when water charges are higher, so countries and cities can offset the cost of public works projects in many areas. He also said, that you can request in writing, that your city water department tell of you of current charges, pending spikes for everyone, etc.
3) When I found this out last summer, I noticed that charges were higher the last week of the month, so I implemented new water usage strategies in my home; I purchased rain barrel systems to attach to my gutters, which I now use for watering my garden the final week of the month, I also do not wash during that week, making sure all of my wash is prepped before that time, for example.
4) I also checked all of my toilets, plumbing, and water lines for any leaks or pipes that needed to be replaced; luckily they did not!
5) Just these two changes saved me $38.10 monthly!
So, I recommend looking into seeing if you can cut your monthly water bill, too!
Here’s to Greener Living,
