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[MSE Martin]

What's it about?

Saving money on water can involve fitting a water meter (see Water Cost Cutting Article). Yet at the moment, sadly much of the UK is being warned about drought, and told to stop using hosepipes. While we can all rant at the water companies' ridiculous leaks, in the meantime to help our environment, and to stop future costs rising, using less water seems to be the responsible action.

What to do?

Personally I've vowed not to bath any more (dont worry I'm not a smelly munter, I'm going to shower). But I thought I would tap MoneySavers' collective knowledge for other painless ways to reduce our water use.

Click reply to add your tip

[auditbabe]

My sister made her family stand in the washing up bowl while in the shower so the water could be used on the garden. They also are limited to just 5 minutes under the shower.

[point3]

An average bath uses 80 litres of water. At an average of 0.14 pence per litre for supply and removal, this costs 11.2 pence for the water used.

A 5-minute shower uses about 30 litres of water based on an average flow rate of 6 litres per minute. This costs 4.2 pence.

Backpackers and travellers might want to try a baby wipe instead at about 2 pence each

[ribenagirl]

Most Water Boards will send out a free water-saving pack on request. They include gel bags (Save-A-Flush) which you place in your toilet cistern, which then expand and mean you use less water when you flush.

Here's the one for Severn Trent: (Our water board, but I think they all do them)
http://www.stwater.co.uk/server.php?show=nav.5795

We have also tried a small plastic bottle filled with water in the cistern.

Also it can be small common-sense things that make the difference - like, not leaving the tap running when you clean your teeth, and, ermm, provided the other people you live with are comfortable about the idea, not flushing the loo EVERY time you go (obviously, no. 2's are exempt from non-flushing )

You can re-use washing up water as well for watering plants etc.

[JamesM]

Here's a link to thames water water saving site, free Hippo's, save-a-flush's and what I think are leaflets about saving water.

http://waterwise.fortune-cookie.com/free-stuff/

If you have a dishwasher then make sure it's full when you use it, same goes for washing machines. It actually uses less water to use a dishwasher than to do it by hand.

[mgw99]

Hi

I've started using one from Donnachadh McCarthy's book:

Have a jug / watering can near the sink so that when you are running the tap waiting for hot water you can fill up the can rather than letting the water run down the plug hole. Then you can use it to water the plants in your garden or on the windowsill.

[carolbee]

We have replumbed our bathroom so that the bath/over the bath shower water goes straight down a hosepipe that is permanently connected to the waste and then around the garden to where it is needed.
Havn't needed QUITE so much this last day or so down here in Kent!

[Lillibet]

Depends how extreme you want to be. Personally I think saving the washing up until there is a lot rather than just a few bits is a great excuse not to do the washing up Then the used water goes on the garden, via any greenfly You can roast or dry-microwave most veggies rather than boiling. using a slow cooker also reduces the amount of water you need in most "wet" meals but we aren't talking huge amounts here obviously.
Mulching garden palnts will reduce the need for watering as they will retain moisute for longer, moving pot plants & house plants out of the sun will help too. Inserting upsde down plastic bottles into the ground with the bottoms cut off so that they can funnel water to the root of the plant will help, especially veggies like tomatoe plants & beans etc.
I really don't like to shower in our house as we don't have a power shower but just a pathetic dribbley thing We bath our young son everynight so we just top up his used bath water a bit after he is done & continue to use that. Sharing baths is, of course, a suggestion which shouldn't earn you a wack with a rolling pin in such times
If you don't have a water butt then even just sticking large plant pots under down pipes will help (I've had them all up the garden path too today) Or if you can, add a diversion onto the down pipe straight to the flower bed

HTH

[nabowla]

- After boiling eggs/vegetables, use water on houseplants instead of throwing down the sink.
- When cleaning, use a bowl of water to rinse out cleaning cloth instead of rinsing under a running tap.

[pollys]

"If it's brown flush it down, if it's yellow let it mellow"

[Penelope Penguin]

Originally Posted by Lillibet

I really don't like to shower in our house as we don't have a power shower but just a pathetic dribbley thing We bath our young son everynight so we just top up his used bath water a bit after he is done & continue to use that. Sharing baths is, of course, a suggestion which shouldn't earn you a wack with a rolling pin in such times


HTH

I've read that power showers use just as much water as a bath, unless you're just in and out. Anyone know if this is true?

Penny x

[Dora the Explorer]

A program on the telly the other night about saving water identified that power showers use 131 litres per shower and baths use 132 per bath.

[pavlovs_dog]

i think baths are not necessarily a bad thing. for one, it depends on how deep you run them, as the deper you run them, the more water you use.

sharing a bath, of course is another method..either 2 people in it at once, or one after another.

another idea is to use a kettle full of boiling water to help heat the bath. because this is so much hotter than the water that comes out the tap, it takes much less water to get the bath to the desired temperature - alowing for shallower baths. provided your bathroom is at an ambient temperature, this shouldnt be too displeasurable an experience.

[save-a-lot]

When you really get to a point when you have to clean the car, use a bucket of hot soapy water and a watering can of clean water to rinse. I can easily clean my whole car this way with no need to use a hose at all. Also, last year I tried out waterless valetting products on my car, they were very good.

When summer hits and the temperature in the house is good I will quickly wash my hair and then soap up a sponge, I then turn the water down to a dribble whilst I soap up with a quick blast at the end to get all the soap off. This saves water and makes sure there is still enough hot water to last the day out.

[QueenB.]

As we don't have a shower in our house we do the bath sharing thing.

But what i am wondering is how about washing machines? Obviously it is best to fill the machine rather than do lots of small half washes, but is there any other way to cut back on this use of water?

[RoCas]

I misread the title of this thread and thought it said "The Great 'Useless Water' Hunt. I was just about to write a post nominating my water supplier (sorry Martin).

[Ken68]

The biggest use of water is the lavatory.
To think all that expensive filtered, and refined valuable product just going down the drain.
Building regs should be changed so that all new builds use a greywater system.And in the meantime...pee on the compost heap and use rainwater from a bucket.We need a slogon, similiar to super dooper pooper scooper.:-D

[Spirited]

Must admit that I think it is absolutely ridiculous that we use drinking quality water to flush our toilets whilst there are people in the world who can't get clean water for drinking.

Water Saving...
Don't wash your car at all. Wait till it rains, or wait for the winter. Does it really need to be clean?
Don't bathe pets, it's bad for their skin anyway and they don't need it unless they require medicated baths or have rolled in something awful. (or get a chincilla, they bathe in dust baths).
The old brick or filled plastic bottle in the toilet is a good idea, it reduces the capacity of the systern and I bet you won't notice the difference.

[tina68]

turn the tap off when you brush your teeth
steam your veg and meat, tates soooooooooo much nicer
use paper plates and recycle

[Penelope Penguin]

Originally Posted by tina68

use paper plates and recycle

Hi, tina. Am I missing something - I can see that using paper plates saves washing up, but what about resources used in their manufacture, and then the plastic backing staying in landfill for years?

Penny. x