When I turn on the faucet these days and watch it flow; I think about parts of the world where there isn't clean drinking water. How long will it be before there isn't clean drinking water here? While everyone doesn't share my concern about the environment, it seems that everyone does care about money and saving. This is how I cut my water bill from $80 dollars per month to $10 dollars or under.
Line them up; the more the better. I have five rain barrels on the side of my house where there's some serious run-off after a storm. They are facing the road and don't exactly scream curb appeal, so I surrounded them with clinging ivy, faux rock, and wallah, problem solved. The barrels fill with each good rain and we use the water to flush the toilet, fill the washing machine, and wash dishes. When all five barrels are full, the only thing we have to turn the faucet on for is a hot shower. A simple system with either hose or pipes will save any bucket carrying and you have free water. All in all, setting this up took a couple of hours.
I love bubble baths. I even bought a huge garden tub to soak in after work. If you're a bath addict like me, you're better off investing in a hot tub. You don't have to continuously refill it like a bathtub and you'll get the same relaxing effect. I still enjoy a bubble bath but only once per week. Taking a quick shower saves tons of water. I limit myself to 5 minutes and use only one sixth of the amount of water it takes to fill the tub.
If you're a mom, you may be thinking I'm crazy for saying to let the laundry pile up. Really though, you should only do a load of laundry when the machine is full. You'll really be putting all of that rain water to good use this way. If you need to wash a load with warm water, still use the rainwater and just turn the machine on hot when it's almost full. You'll get the same result as using tap water and a much smaller bill.
This is really easy. You'll need a rain barrel pump and the price can vary from around $50 dollars to $150 dollars. We bought a solar powered pump for around $130 dollars that came with the pump and hose. It's silly to bring one bill down and make another bigger; we wanted to avoid any extra electricity usage. It works great and pumps water right into the washing machine.
I love getting a water bill for $10 dollars or less. A very small investment and a little bit of effort can bring your bill down too.
