20 tips to save money on your water bill.

Saving money on your water bill - twenty tips

Water charges can build up quickly and go unnoticed, until suddenly you're presented with a  water bill that makes you gasp.

We had a $500 water bill one quarter, it was about 3 times as high as usual. I pinpointed the increase to the drip hoses I'd been using on the garden. Oops.

1. Check for water leaks, inside the house and out. Hoses, leaking shower pipes....

2. Install timers on watering systems.

3. Replace dripping tap washers inside the house and out.

4. Turn the tap off when brushing your teeth.

5. Install a dual flush toilet.

6. If it's brown, flush it down.....you've heard that one right? Flushing the toilet uses a lot of water.

7. Install a displacement device in the cistern (tank) of single flush toilets, as it can save you water every flush. You can do this by removing the lid of your cistern and placing a large sealed plastic bottle filled with pebbles and water inside in a way that won’t interfere with the flushing mechanism.

8. Put a timer in the shower and take five minute showers.

 9. Only run the dishwasher when it's full.

10. Install a water efficient washing machine.

11. Adjust the level of water in your washing machine to suit the size of load you are washing.

12. Collect rain water, this can be used for gardening or included in a grey water system. Install a rain barrel or a water tank.

13. Place a bucket on the floor of the shower while you shower and use the water collected on the garden.

14. Instead of spraying the kids with the running hose in summer, give them small spray bottles full of water and let them spray each other. Much less water is used this way.

15. Install a water efficient shower head, and make sure it doesn't drip.

16. Use water bottles for the family, instead of everyone grabbing a glass of water when they're thirsty. This means less water wasted (as people tend to over-fill a glass and tip out the remainder) and less dishes to wash.

17. Don't bathe your kids every day if they don't need it.

18. Place pet's drinking bowls out of the sun, to reduce evaporation.

19. Use mulch on your garden to reduce water loss.

20. When washing veggies in the kitchen, put the plug in or put some water into a bowl for washing the, don't let the tap run.

There ya go, twenty water saving tips that will save you money. 

How many of these are you doing already?