Water Conservation for Tough Economic Times

Everything seems to just keep going up, up, up these days! To say things are tight around our house is a major understatement! So, I have decided to do a few short articles on the things our little family does to try to save money/keep costs down. Some of these things you may have already heard, but I am sure it is not a bad thing to be reminded occasionally.

Some expenses can be controlled easier than others. In the past few months, we have had a regular expense that has never been what we would consider a major one before become a major one right before our eyes. Our city decided that it would be a good thing to double, and in many cases even triple, water bills for its residents. Residents of our little town have been up in arms about this, but unfortunately, there is nothing we can do. Our water bills went from running $33 a month to, so far, the lowest being $65 and the highest being $75. So we have come up with some ways of saving water that actually helped that $75 bill become a $65. Here are a few things we do regularly to try to save on water.

We take showers and not baths, and we stay in no longer than necessary to get clean. Showers typically use less water than baths. It has also helped that we have a low-flow shower head which was installed a few years ago by our local utility company when they came to our home to do a free energy audit. If your utility company offers something like this, I would encourage you to take them up on it!

We not only received a new, low-flow shower head, but also a programmable thermostat and energy efficient light bulbs. My daughter and her husband just had one done and they got everything we did, plus an aerator for their kitchen sink to help conserve water. We got all these items plus the audit of our home done absolutely free!

We have two dogs for whom we keep water in large bowls. When their water needs to be changed, I take that old water and use it for my houseplants and outside flowers in the summer. We change their water every day or two so I always have plenty to use and seldom have to get water from the tap to water plants with.

We don't run the water while we are brushing our teeth. We run it just enough to rinse and shut it off! It's amazing how many people I know who let the water run while brushing their teeth. They are letting lots of water just run down the drain and running up the cost of their bill.

I only do full loads of laundry. I do not have an energy efficient, low-water usage machine, so I try to make sure that I have the machine full before I fill it up with water.

I try to run my dishwasher no more than once a day and I always make sure it is full. Since our children are grown and have left home, I can usually go at least 2 days before I have to run the dishwasher at all. When I wash the dishes by hand that cannot go in the dishwasher, I don't just let the water run. You can fill one side of your sink with soapy water and put a fairly small amount of rinse water in the other side. You'll use a lot less water this way.

In the summer, we are not watering our lawn. Usually, there is enough rain to keep our lawn looking fine, but even if we have a dry year, if money is tight enough as has been the case the past few years, it just has to look less attractive.

These are just a few things we have done to try to save money on our water bill. I will do a few more articles on some other things we have done to save money as well and I hope this one and the ones to come are a help to many!

By Robin from Washington, IA