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cheel
Posts: 195 Forumite
Hello,
So today south west water have raised my monthly direct debit to £34. And I've just used the last of my water butt contents to water the garden.
Water saving measure I already implement:
Hippo in the cistern
Re filling the cistern with bathwater as often as I can
Using water butt for watering garden, and will now be siphoning off bathwater for that
shallow baths
I do one load in the washing machine a day and one day a week 2 loads, so 8 a week. Machine is A rated
I handwash dishes.
My friend watched the meter for me with all taps ect off and it didn't move so don't think its a leak
I know south west water are the most expensive in the country.
Any suggestions on how I can cut this bill down?
Thanks
Cheel xx
So today south west water have raised my monthly direct debit to £34. And I've just used the last of my water butt contents to water the garden.
Water saving measure I already implement:
Hippo in the cistern
Re filling the cistern with bathwater as often as I can
Using water butt for watering garden, and will now be siphoning off bathwater for that
shallow baths
I do one load in the washing machine a day and one day a week 2 loads, so 8 a week. Machine is A rated
I handwash dishes.
My friend watched the meter for me with all taps ect off and it didn't move so don't think its a leak
I know south west water are the most expensive in the country.
Any suggestions on how I can cut this bill down?
Thanks
Cheel xx
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent - Eleanor Roosevelt
May grocery challenge £7.58 / £200
May no spend days: 1st , 2nd, 3rd
May grocery challenge £7.58 / £200
May no spend days: 1st , 2nd, 3rd
0
Comments
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Hello,
So today south west water have raised my monthly direct debit to £34. And I've just used the last of my water butt contents to water the garden.
Water saving measure I already implement:
Hippo in the cistern
Re filling the cistern with bathwater as often as I can
Using water butt for watering garden, and will now be siphoning off bathwater for that
shallow baths
I do one load in the washing machine a day and one day a week 2 loads, so 8 a week. Machine is A rated
I handwash dishes.
My friend watched the meter for me with all taps ect off and it didn't move so don't think its a leak
I know south west water are the most expensive in the country.
Any suggestions on how I can cut this bill down?
Thanks
Cheel xx
Does that include sewerage and waste water or just water?
We're with Anglian Water and our charges are about £500 a year, so considerably higher than yours, we have showers and no baths. Half of our bill seems to be sewerage and waste water and the other half the actual water from the taps. We use a dishwasher and the washing machine is on a similar number of times a week.0 -
That's the total bill. So must include the sewerage too.
I try to be careful with it, but it seems a lot for just me and my son. I must be wasting it somewhere but I think I'm too close to see it I you know what I mean. Yes 500 is a lot, is that metered? We dont have a shower, just a rubber type attachment for the taps, but it takes so ling to get the temperature right that it's just water down the drain.
XxNo one can make you feel inferior without your consent - Eleanor Roosevelt
May grocery challenge £7.58 / £200
May no spend days: 1st , 2nd, 3rd0 -
Is the upside to a meter that if you went away for a month, they would charge nothing.
Water bills are always bad, they charge for all sorts including dealing with the rain run off from your property. Even if you are collecting it all I bet they charge for that0 -
That's the total bill. So must include the sewerage too.
I try to be careful with it, but it seems a lot for just me and my son. I must be wasting it somewhere but I think I'm too close to see it I you know what I mean. Yes 500 is a lot, is that metered? We dont have a shower, just a rubber type attachment for the taps, but it takes so ling to get the temperature right that it's just water down the drain.
Xx
Yes, it's metered. You need to have a look at the breakdown of your bill.
For instance we have a standing charge of about 9p per day for water and 24p a day for sewerage these charges have nothing to with how much water you use. Together these charges add around £120 a year to our bill.
Our water costs us around £175 a year and sewerage costs us about £175 a year
The sewerage charge on our bill is determined by how much water you use - I guess they use the premise that what goes in must come out, so the usage they use is 90% of the water you have used.
You also need to check to see if your bills are using estimates or readings from your metre and check yourself if you can.
I have had a look to see if you have fixed charges and you do - they work out to be just under £80 a year, however your water charges are quite expensive at £1.94 per cubic metre and your sewerage charges are really expensive, can vary and be either £3.39 or £2.99 per cubic metre. We use around 110 cubic metres of water a year and get charged for 100 cubic metres of sewerage a year, I've just looked at how much we would pay to South West Water and it would be about £650 a year rather than the just under £500 (£470) to Anglian Water. Our water and sewarge charges without the daily charge is about £350 to Anglian Water but to South West Water it would be £570 a year. There are four of us in the house.
It seems as if you are doing all the right things but are just unfortunate in living in an area with such high water charges. But do check to see exactly what you are using.0 -
Ok that sounds good. So putting all my waste water to use in the garden probably isn't saving me anything then?
Hey ho, I'll get there. I was on rates before we moved here, so all this bill chopping and changing is a bit unnerving! XxNo one can make you feel inferior without your consent - Eleanor Roosevelt
May grocery challenge £7.58 / £200
May no spend days: 1st , 2nd, 3rd0 -
Ok that sounds good. So putting all my waste water to use in the garden probably isn't saving me anything then?
Hey ho, I'll get there. I was on rates before we moved here, so all this bill chopping and changing is a bit unnerving! Xx
Of course it's saving you money, you aren't running a tap to water the garden
8 loads for just the two of you? That seems to be a lot of washing. Ok so I don't have kids but I've the grandkids here this week(2) and I'm just putiing a full load on today which is a mix of theirs and ours, and the next load will be on Sunday
We don't have water charges here and of course it rains a lot, but I still conserve water
When we were kids in 76 and we were on drought conditions - water tankers in the roads, public pools closed etc etc , we were washed daily at the sink in a bowl of water that was then tipped over the veg garden. We weren't allowed to water lawns or flower gardens, just veg. Mum made direct waters for the plants she really wanted saving, empty bottles with the bottoms cut off dug in down to the roots
Baths were 6 inches and shared. The water was collected for the garden as well, as was washing machine water and I'm pretty sure we were asked to to flush unless it was brown
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That's an awful lot of washing! We're a family of 4 and I only did that much when the kids were both in cloth nappies and (obviously!) they were babies then so generally messy. What are you washing? For 2, I'd expect 2 loads of clothing per week max plus one each for towels, bedding and cleaning stuff/tea towels if you go through a lot (we do as we don't use kitchen roll). You might be able to combine some too, depending on the size of your machine.0
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That's the total bill. So must include the sewerage too.
I try to be careful with it, but it seems a lot for just me and my son. I must be wasting it somewhere but I think I'm too close to see it I you know what I mean. Yes 500 is a lot, is that metered? We dont have a shower, just a rubber type attachment for the taps, but it takes so ling to get the temperature right that it's just water down the drain.
Xx
With just the 2 of you, do you really need to do 8 loads of washing a week?0 -
Ok that sounds good. So putting all my waste water to use in the garden probably isn't saving me anything then?
Hey ho, I'll get there. I was on rates before we moved here, so all this bill chopping and changing is a bit unnerving! Xx
Using your waste water in the garden will save you money, using your waste water will mean you are using water that has already been metred and accounted for in your sewerage charge.
We were on rates too before we moved to this house.0 -
Here's the washing I do, I'm not sure how I could get it below 8 loads? They all need different settings.
2 loads of coloureds a week,
1 load of whites
Sons bedding
My bedding
Towels and bathmat
Jeans
Throws and cushion covers
One load of work washing (the covers I use for work table, wedding dresses ect)
All but the whites load will be a full load .
I'm not sure how I could reduce this but am open to suggestions
Cheel xxNo one can make you feel inferior without your consent - Eleanor Roosevelt
May grocery challenge £7.58 / £200
May no spend days: 1st , 2nd, 3rd0
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