How I save on my water bill.

As with any bills that you have, it is always best to see if you can adjust your lifestyle to lower them. I have mentioned before how annoying I find it to give my money to energy companies, the same goes for the water company. So here are a few things I do to reduce our family water consumption.

We don't take baths. My daughter has one every 3 nights but because she is so little she only needs 2 inches of water in the bottom of the tub. We try and share a shower with her where possible to further save on water. (She only has 1 every 3 nights due to her eczema. More often than this aggravates it)

When you have a shower set a timer so you don't spend too much time in there. 3 minutes is plenty to have a quick wash and clean. If I need to wash my hair I add on an extra 2 minutes.

Don't leave the tap running while you're brushing your teeth. Same goes for when you're washing your hands, turn the tap off while you're rubbing soap on to them.

Our hot water takes a while to come through the taps so when I'm running it for washing up I use the cold water coming through to water my plants.

I only use the washing machine only when I have a full load to put in. If the clothes aren't stained and are just grubby or smelly then I put it on a quick wash which uses less water, less electricity, and takes less time.

Have a water butt in the garden if you have outdoor plants to water. We have a detached garage and have put guttering on it with a downpipe into a water collecting device. It soon fills up after it has rained and because it has a lid on it, it doesn't tend to evaporate and escape in hot weather.

The most important one - look at getting a water meter! When we moved into our current house, the water board sent us a letter stating that we would have to pay £390 per year for our water. I knew that I was reasonably good at using minimal amounts of water so immediately requested that we be fitted with a water meter so that we only paid for what we used. Severn Trent Water were very quick and helpful with this, it was fitted within 2 weeks from my phone call. Fast forward 8 months and we are only paying a £27 direct debit, which I am sure is still too high but they won't change it until later in the year when they have monitored our usage fully. I am anticipating that our usage is around £20 per month, maybe less.

You can usually work out if you're better off having a water meter by looking at how many people live in your house compared to how many bedrooms you have. We have 3 bedrooms and 3 people, so technically we are under occupied. However, I would suggest giving a water meter a trial anyway. You can change your mind and revert back to the old billing method if it isn't saving you any more.

I feel lucky that our water rates are fairly cheap compared to the likes of Cornwall. People down there can pay over £1200 a year! That's £100 per month!

If anyone has any other tips for saving water please do let me know.

Thanks for reading
xx