Our Finances Suck Part 4 - Save Water Save Money

In the past few weeks with this series we have made our budget here, implemented it here and come up with some ideas for quick cash here.

Now it's time to look at ways to save money.....and today we are privileged to have the lovely Bec from The Plumbette joining us with some great advice on how to save money by saving water around your home......

"The cost of living seems to be a common concern to all of us when we hear about price increases to rates, electricity and water.

We received our water bill this week from Urban Utilities and I was surprised to read that our water usage had decreased last quarter. I had to think about why our usage had decreased despite having an extra person in the house. Our girls have started to share 1 bath at night as opposed to two and we haven’t had the need to water the garden when the heavens have been taking care of that for us.

Wisely managing water is a smart way to save money on your water expenses. A small drip on a basin tap and a few extra full flushes on a toilet can add extra dollars to the water bill.

As a plumber, I’m always asked for ways to save money around the home and it’s quite simple. If you save water, you can save money.

I’ve put together some tips which you may already know, and hopefully some others that you can add to what you currently do.

     

1.  Install a rain water tank and get the water to be connected to your toilet, laundry and  outdoor hose taps.
2.   Install dual flush toilet suites.
3.   Install taps that have a water flow of 7 litres of water per second or less. All new taps in Australia are set to this standard. If you want to reduce the flow on your existing taps, install water saving aerators to the spouts. Check out my post on the OneTouchTap here which can potentially save you water and money.  
4. Take shorter showers with a standard shower head. Yes, you heard me, don’t get a water saving shower head.(if you do have one of these horrific shower heads, you can take the water restrictor out)  Water saving shower heads  give pathetic pressure which means you stand under the shower for longer getting the soap suds out of your hair. If you’re bald, they may be of use to you. But if you have thick, long hair like me, water saving shower heads are a pain in the neck. Reduce your shower time with a normal shower head to 3 minutes instead of 4 or if you are really keen, turn off the water when you wash and then turn on to rinse.
5.  Catch cold water from the shower in a bucket and use this to water plants.
6.  Use a cup of water when brushing your teeth. I know I tend to turn the tap off and on to moisten the toothbrush and get rid of the toothpaste, but half filling a cup will save the few liters of water that go down the drain.
7.  Use a dishwasher and only put it on when the dishwasher is full.
8. Stop using the garbage grinder and put food scraps in the compost (the ones that can) or in the bin. You need to run water down the grinder when it’s in use, so you can save water by not switching it on.
9. Same with your washing machine, only wash full loads of washing.   
10. Drink full cups of water. I am prone to having a glass of water, leaving it in the house and then coming back to a stale drink. I then pour the water down the drain!!  A great way to keep water from going stale is to drink it from a water bottle that gets kept in the fridge OR using the stale water for plants or filling a bath or boiled for veggies that night for dinner.
11.  Bath the kids (and a parent) together. Filling a bath and washing 2 or 3 bodies saves much more water than showering 3 individual bodies.
12.  Restrict water play for kids in summer to a couple of days a week.
13.  Check all your hose taps outside and ensure they don’t drip when turned off or when in use attached to a hose. Hose taps can be easily replaced if they drip or their washers can be changed.
14. Wash car with tank water or the bucket of water saved from the shower.
15.  If your water bowl for your dog needs changing, chuck the water on the garden rather than down the drain
16. Water plants late in the afternoon or early in the morning to avoid evaporation

Depending on where you live, the costs of water and sewerage to your property will vary. The cost component of water usage is often very little on the water bill, but every litre saved is another dollar saved and when multiplied over a year or a couple of years, it could potentially be a lot of money."

A huge thank you to Bec for joining us in the 'Our Finances Suck' series and sharing with us some invaluable advice on saving water.  Be sure to check out Bec's blog over at The Plumbette it is truly a wonderful blog to have on your reading list!

Linking up with Essentially Jess for #IBOT

               Can you suggest any other ways of saving water around the home?