Am I paying too much?

mysk_girl

HappyMJ wrote: »

How much water do you use?

£26 a month with Thames Water would be an annual bill of £312 less standing charges of £28 and £52 means you spent £232 on water and at £1.8736 per cubic metre means you used 124 cubic metres per year divided by 5 people is 25 cubic metres per person per year divided by 365 is 68 litres per day. That is not much. The average water usage is closer to 150 litres per person per day.

From 25/06/2012 to 19/12/2912 we used 47m3, according to my latest bill. One of the 5 is a tiny breastfed baby who goes in the bath with her siblings, so possibly doesn't count! We have water butts for the garden, wash the cars rarely (every 3/4 months) and with a bucket. Kids bath together (2&5) and I have a shower timer (supplies free by Thames water) that times a 4min shower and I and OH stick to this.

Thames water read the meter every 6 months, and I check it as well. We are careful, but not obsessive. I think the short showers help...

HappyMJ

mysk_girl wrote: »

From 25/06/2012 to 19/12/2912 we used 47m3, according to my latest bill. One of the 5 is a tiny breastfed baby who goes in the bath with her siblings, so possibly doesn't count! We have water butts for the garden, wash the cars rarely (every 3/4 months) and with a bucket. Kids bath together (2&5) and I have a shower timer (supplies free by Thames water) that times a 4min shower and I and OH stick to this.

Thames water read the meter every 6 months, and I check it as well. We are careful, but not obsessive. I think the short showers help...

Baby might not count as much for baths but they do have more clothes washing needs....unless you are using disposable nappies. I still think it's very low...

And...wash your car more often. You might be saving money on the water bill but it will cost you more in the long run in the reduced trade in value of the car. The paintwork may deteriorate faster, you may get unnoticed rust developing...etc lots of reasons...simply washing a car is a very cheap way of maintaining your car. Once a month is considered the minimum.

mysk_girl

HappyMJ wrote: »

Baby might not count as much for baths but they do have more clothes washing needs....unless you are using disposable nappies. I still think it's very low...

And...wash your car more often. You might be saving money on the water bill but it will cost you more in the long run in the reduced trade in value of the car. The paintwork may deteriorate faster, you may get unnoticed rust developing...etc lots of reasons...simply washing a car is a very cheap way of maintaining your car. Once a month is considered the minimum.

Might be true if the cars were actually worth anything! I do get the tesco guys to do them more often than that, simply we don't do them at home very often as I truly hate doing it and £5-£7 is totally worth it, if not very MSE.

I don't really know what else to say, but the meter readings are correct, and that is what Thames gave asked us to pay.