Nice people thread part 5 - nicely does it

PasturesNew

silvercar wrote: »

What water rates do people pay?

Just got an annual bill for £540. The guidelines say that if you have more bedrooms than people you would be better off with a meter, but the rateable value for this place was made when it only had 3 bedrooms so the water bill is based on that. On average there are 3.5 people living here, some of whom shower for at least 20 minutes twice a day, so I can't see a water meter being worthwhile, on the other hand £540 seems a lot.

My parents' 3 bed semi was £600 in about 2005/2006, when (finally) dad was convinced to try out a meter.... which was significantly cheaper.

Why are people showering for [a] at least 20 minutes twice a day? You do know there's a drought in place and coming....!

PasturesNew

Alone, showering once every 2 days for 5 minutes tops, using a washing machine once a fortnight and washing up one bowl of washing up every day by hand ... my last metered bills were under £20/month from memory (2009).

Most of the bill was standing charges though. Probably £10 charges and £10 water.

My unmetered charge had been £400/year, in a studio.

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

Alone, showering once every 2 days for 5 minutes tops, using a washing machine once a fortnight and washing up one bowl of washing up every day by hand ... my last metered bills were under £20/month from memory (2009).

Most of the bill was standing charges though. Probably £10 charges and £10 water.

My unmetered charge had been £400/year, in a studio.

We use too much water. I know it, i feel guilt and we are already preping to ration. Outside in the hgarden, its not a problem, with the cake having a pump so we can use as much of that as possible. Inside is a different tale.

E.g. Last night i felt really blergh. Too worn out to sleep well...you know that feeling? A bath with a book and a nice smell did the trick in the way little else can.

I really try to make my showers brief, and turn off between shampooing etc, but they go on a while. I blame my hair, but i know really they are a wicked, greedy indulgence.


We hjave three water metres, i dred the bill for all of them tbh.

silvercar

Wheezy wrote: »

That's a lot.

We pay around 200-250 per year, metered.
But it's only 2 bedroom house and just me, spouse and doggy.

PasturesNew wrote: »

My parents' 3 bed semi was £600 in about 2005/2006, when (finally) dad was convinced to try out a meter.... which was significantly cheaper.

Why are people showering for [a] at least 20 minutes twice a day? You do know there's a drought in place and coming....!

You are confirming what I thought that £560 for our size house is good value and with the amount of water we use we probably wouldn't save much with a meter.

purch

What water rates do people pay?

With 2 teenage sons who flush the toilet at least 15 times each a day, as well as showering constantly......my 6 monthly bill for water from Wessex Water which arrived last week is for £ 136.94. That only covers water IN, as I have to pay South West Water for sewerage, which is always slightly higher than the cost of clean water for some bizarre reason (i don't pay for surface drainage as I have installed soakaways)

A quick check of what we paid last year comes to £ 593.45 all together.

P.S. No drought in the SW, both Wimbleball and Clatworthy are full to the brim currently.

PasturesNew

lostinrates wrote: »

... A bath with a book and a nice smell did the trick in the way little else can.

...

I dream of the day when I live somewhere with a nice bath. All the pokey holes I rent have showers

And they're small, dingy, showers too.

PasturesNew

I think I worked out my SWW water bill as being equivalent to £3/cubic metre received about 5 years ago, based on the fact you pay once for the water to arrive and again for the water to be removed (based on the water coming in they assume 90% of it is removed I think).

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

I dream of the day when I live somewhere with a nice bath. All the pokey holes I rent have showers

And they're small, dingy, showers too.

Poor you!

We used a rubber dinghy as a bath in the yucky dingy wet room in our troubled milan flat. I suggested a paddling pool at first, and dh went and bought we he thought was a paddling pool but turned out to be one of those blow up swimming pools. Our kitchen was a good size, but it didn't fit in there, so kind of squished through the door to the hall/sitting room to be a kidney shaped pool and dh swam about the kitchen. Luxurious, but took a day to fill, so not cheap, nor convienant......you had to swim to the cooker and the fridge. The dingly was just right, though the hard plactis bits and the blow up bit were a bit uncomfy, but it had those nice squashy sides to rest arms on, and we had planty of room to sit both at one end, or head to toe.

vivatifosi

StevieJ wrote: »

Do you all keep getting those PPI etc harassment calls?

No but I get bloomin' annoying PPI texts. They offer me the opportunity to opt out, but given that I never asked to opt in it seems a bit of a cheek. Also, texting back FOAD is apparently not an acceptable way of opting out (sorry, not as very nice person response but there you go).

vivatifosi

silvercar wrote: »

What water rates do people pay?

Just got an annual bill for £540. The guidelines say that if you have more bedrooms than people you would be better off with a meter, but the rateable value for this place was made when it only had 3 bedrooms so the water bill is based on that. On average there are 3.5 people living here, some of whom shower for at least 20 minutes twice a day, so I can't see a water meter being worthwhile, on the other hand £540 seems a lot.

Water rates £17 per month, metered. Probably the same suppliers as you silver, so hopefully a reasonable comparison. I shower for about 10 minutes, normally once a day though unless it is very hot or I'm going out. DH showers are shorter, but he doesn't have as much to do in his (no conditioner, no shaving legs and so on) and wonders what keeps me. We do about 4 loads of laundry a week and I would imagine go to toilet the same number of times as everyone else. When we moved in and replaced our horrendous peach Armitage Shanks cloakroom set with something white and dual flush it really reduced the bills. Ours is 3 bed semi with two adults, but we've always had a meter here as house is relatively new so all were fitted with one.