How many ways to save money on your water bill do you know?
We use water on a daily basis and, whether we like it or not, the many gallons of H2O we keep using will eventually end up on yet another bill that needs to be paid.
Whether you’re a one person household or a numerous family, the good news is there are plenty of ways to reduce water consumption and save money on your utility bill.
Some tips will help save a lot on your next water bill, others show little results, but the savings add up anyway.
30 ways to save money on your water bill
Pay less for water in the kitchen
1. Fill up your dishwasher – Avoid running partial loads of dishes when using the dishwasher. Run a cycle when your dishwasher is full, to avoid running it again later, consuming more water!
2. Avoid pre-rinsing when possible – Not every single plate or fork needs pre-rinsing. If they’re not ‘that’ dirty, avoid using that water to pre-rinse and just place them in the dishwasher as they are.
3. Rinse dishes using the same water – Fill up your sink partially or fill up a large bowl with water and scrape the food off your plates without wasting tap water! You’ll run a dishwasher cycle anyway to make them squeaky clean.
4. Use the dishwasher – You might think washing dishes by hand uses less water, but that’s not the case. The dishwasher uses much less water to wash a full load of dishes than you would by hand washing them yourself.
5. Turn off the water when hand washing dishes – If you hand wash your dishes, avoid water waste by simply turning off the water while you scrub your plates & utensils! Pre-rinse them, turn the water off and wash them, and only turn the water on to rinse them when you’re done!
6. Get a tap aerator – reduce water flow significantly by installing a faucet aerator. You’ll have the same water pressure, but consume less.
7. Avoid using the garbage disposal – Garbage disposals use water. To save on your water bill, throw food waste in your garbage bin.
8. Heat up water for cooking on your stove – When cooking or preparing hot beverages, avoid waiting for tap water to get hot by heating it up on your stove (with a lid on, to speed things up).
9. Use ice to cool down your drinking water – Instead of waiting for tap water to get ice cold, cool down your beverage by using ice cubes from your freezer.
10. Keep drinking water in your fridge – Assuming your tap water is safe to drink, another way to avoid cold water waste is to fill up a bottle with tap water and keep it in the fridge. Just like you do with fizzy drinks!
Related article: 6 kitchen appliances that save time and money
Use less water in the bathroom
11. Shower instead of bathing – You use much less water for a quick shower than while taking a bath. To fill up a bathtub, you’ll need about 30 gallons of water. Then you’ll use some more when rinsing yourself before getting out. Showers use much less water. About 2-2.5 gallons per minute. The shorter the shower, the more you save on your water bill!
12. Switch to a low-flow shower head – Just like a tap aerator, installing a low flow shower head will help save water.
13. Spend less time in the shower – By taking shorter showers, you inevitably consume less water!
14. Take less showers – You *need* to wash yourself, no doubt about that. But you could maybe take only 1 shower a day instead of one in the morning and 1 before bed, or even 1 every 2 days if you’re not really doing anything during the day to *stink you up*.
15. Install a low flush toilet or a high efficiency toilet- Low flush toilets are very efficient when it comes to water consumption! Average toilets use about 3-5 gallons of water for each flush (in some cases even more). Modern, more efficient toilets use less than 2! Flushing multiple times a day adds up!
16. Install a dual flush toilet or an adjustable flapper – Dual flush toilets have the option of allowing you to choose between full flushing and half flushing. By using the half-flush option as often as possible, you’ll definitely save a ton of water in the long run! Replacing your old flapper with an adjustable one helps you do the same!
17. Repair leaky toilets & faucets – Anything that leeks translates into wasted water. Repair those leaky faucets or leaky toilets to avoid wasting your money on water you don’t even use!
18. Turn off the water when brushing your teeth – Same applies to shaving. You spend at least a few minutes shaving and brushing teeth, so avoid wasting water by simply turning it off.
19. Wash only full loads of clothes – Avoid water waste by filling up your washing machine before running a cycle.
20. Invest in a high efficiency washer – Although buying a high efficiency washer costs money, the investment is worthwhile. Not only does it help save water, but it helps save money on your electric bill as well!
Related article: How to save money on electricity: 50 tips that work!
More ways to slash your water bill
21. Change the way you pay for water – Small families may save even more money by installing a water meter, instead of paying a fixed regular amount.
22. Re-use water when cleaning your home – Clean your home by using the same water throughout your routine. Start with the least dirty surfaces and work your way to the dirtier ones, so you could use the same water throughout your cleaning process.
23. Use a bucket to wash your car – If you’re usually washing the car yourself, instead of using your water hose when washing your car, switch to using a bucket to save water.
24. Install the water heater in the most convenient area – Where do you use the majority of your hot water? Install your water heater as close as possible to that spot, to shorten the distance hot water has to ‘travel’.
25. Insulate hot water pipes – Proper insulation helps prevent heat loss. This means you’ll reduce water consumption by needing less cold water to run until it warms up enough for you to use.
26. Adjust your sprinklers – In order to save water outdoors, adjust the sprinklers so that they could correctly reach your lawn and small garden instead of watering the whole neighborhood.
27. Water your plants only when needed – Avoid wasting water by watering your plants only when necessary. Some plants need little water to survive, so you may even be doing your garden a favor.
28. Water your plants early in the morning – It’s best to water your plants either early in the morning, when the sun isn’t that bright. You’ll use less water because this way, water will be able to reach the roots, without it evaporating because of too much heat!
29. Remove weeds – Weeds use water to grow too. Remove them as often as possible, don’t let them steal that precious water and multiply!
30. Take advantage of free rain water – Obviously, you don’t need to water your garden when it rains. But furthermore, you could collect rain water in rain barrels and when you have enough, use the water to water your garden, for free!
Related article: 5 extremely cheapskate things I wouldn’t do to save money
What other ways to save money on your water bill do you know of? Are they worth the effort?
I usually only take 1 shower a day since I will do some sort of working out each day, though if necessary, I will end up taking 2 (one before work, and one after a hard run/workout).
Thanks for sharing these tips!
Me too, especially now that summer’s here 😀 Although, I actually prefer short showers. I rarely took any baths back when I had a bathtub. I really don’t miss it, to be honest.
This year we built an 8 foot by 4 foot raised garden so we can grow some veggies at home. The raised garden absorbs water pretty quickly so I’m planning on getting a rain barrel to collect rain water. it should save us quite a bit in those hot summer months!
That’s great! It really should help save money, provided it rains enough. We’recurrently experiencing some dryness over here, but everyone says it’s normal this time of year.
These are some great tips!!! I know some people, not me, that if it’s yellow they let it mellow in the toilet and if it’s brown they flush it down. That way they aren’t always flushing the toilet. I don’t know how much water it saves but they swear by it.
Oh dear! I’ve heard of it but intentionally didn’t include it on the list!
There are so many other ways to save money on water, I’d rather just flush my toilet every single time 😀
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