I got my water bill yesterday and I am thinking to myself, we are using too much water! I knew it would be a little high because we had to re-fill our pool mid-summer. But, oh it jumped $18 a month. Our meter is only read every three months, and we must pay the same amount for 3 months after this.

We used to have a well but due to mining, we lost our water. The mine put county water in for us and paid our bill for 5 years, then gave us a settlement. So not many complaints there. But I hate paying that high bill! We are going on a huge water conservation program. I am humbly accepting advice and tips!

-- Melissa (cmnorris@1st.net), October 17, 2001

Answers

My water bill fluctuates. The best way I can think of is to take a short shower instead of filling the bath tub which can use up to 30 gallons of water per bath. The more people the more water waste. If your like me I love to soak for hours at a time. But I try to limit to one soaking a week. Unless, absolutely necessary. Try washing clothes every other day instead of all in the same day.

-- mindy (speciallady@countrylife.net), October 17, 2001.

Hi Melissa,

We have a well where we are now, but used to have public water. We were charged for the usage plus sewer. The amount of waste going into the sewer system was never measured, just the amount of water going into the house. So, if you used the water to say, wash your car, you paid for the water AND the disposal of it, even though it just soaked into the ground. Same situation if you watered the garden.

We used a plastic barrel to collect water at the drain spouts and used this for the garden and bird bath, & other outside stuff. If you have a wringer washer, see if you can use the same tub of water more than once. Obviously wash the not so icky clothes first. I also used to fill jugs of water at my parent's house and use that. Don't let the water run when you're brushing your teeth either. Try doing it with just a cup or 2. All of these tips have come back to me this summer, since we've had a drought.

-- Charleen in WNY (harperhill@eznet.net), October 17, 2001.

There are flow limiters in newer shower heads and lower capasity toilets. Any kind of leak can end up in gallons per day. How many gallons per day are we talking about for your useage?

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), October 17, 2001.

Good suggestions. I just add if you have several children to bathe, you might get some through on the same bath water(my youngest three take turns in the same water). Jammies can usually be washed every other night, and sometimes children can, too;)

-- mary (marylgarcia@aol.com), October 17, 2001.

Even though water is inexpensive here in AL, it irks me to pay the county for anything, so we are putting in a water catchment system: We have a metal roof with guttering, going to hook up one of the drainpipes to a large plastic stock waterer container which will be up about five feet off the ground on a wooden platform: will use that water for garden, livestock,cleaning outside things like buckets, tools, etc. ...inside, make sure your children are not running the water while brushing their teeth...just wet the toothbrush, turn off water, brush, etc...same with washing hands...get hands wet, turn off water..apply soap, scrub, turn water back on to rinse.

-- lesley (martchas@bellsouth.net), October 18, 2001.

I'm thinking of putting in a water catchment system and want to collect water from the washer. You would think I had an arm growing out of my head when I mention this to contractors.

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), October 22, 2001.