How we cut our Water Bill in MORE than HALF!

by Tara Woodruff
(Holiday Fl, USA)

As we enter into this new age, My daughter and I have been making transitions along the way. We are constantly learning new ways to cut our consumption and free up money for our passions.

We are studying as much as possible, and one amazing resource of our study has been the book "Food Not Lawns" by H.C. Flores.

Our major concern was water, and how much it cost. In the past our water bill would sky rocket during gardening season. Now we have converted over 40% of our property to edibles and were concerned with the cost of our water bill. You see, we put the horse before the cart and do not exchange our time for money anymore and $ needs to be used as smartly as possible.



Ms Flores started her transition with a very simple method. Hey, ya gotta start somewhere. She undid the elbow to her bathroom sink and used her hand wash water and tooth brushing water to flush the toilet. So we started, we took off the elbow to the bathroom sink.

Then low and behold, the universe steps in and gives me a small plumbing problem and forces me to snake the kitchen sink. During this learning experience, we still had dishes to do. That is when we discovered that it took over 13 gallons of water to wash dinner dishes! So we never put the elbow back to the kitchen sink. We now do our dishes just a little slower ( because we must stop to empty the grey water in the garden :).

So all of that aside, I was eagerly waiting for the bill to come, I thought I would see a small drop. But Low and Behold! I saw something I was not expecting. Consider this, we are still watering our garden with the hose....
Last months bill was $38.14

This month it is $14.32!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
$23.82 difference!!!!!!!!!!

I encourage you to make some small transitions as you go, eventually you will be very happy that you did!

Now I need to convert my washing machine to store grey water for the garden, and utilize a rain catchment system for showering ( I already have the shower stall made :)

I also cut my electric bill down dramatically by selling my clothes dryer and using my clothes hanger, no AC till we can't take it any more, and unplugging appliances and lights instead of just flipping the switch from a normal May electric bill of $150.00 to $200.00 to $75.00!

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May 23, 2011
Thanks
by: Nancy

Thanks for the great ideas!I'm thinking about taking out the elbow too. My husband will think I'm crazy.

May 23, 2011
Grey water
by: Anonymous

I put a diverter valve on my washer drain and send all the wash water right out to the garden with PVC pipe that has hole drilled in it. You have to use a natural soap (I make my own) and when you use bleach, divert the water to the drain, not outside.

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