Your Water Bill and Usage
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I don't know if your bill is that high. I live in San Carlos & here are my past several (monthly) bills:date amt gal We run the sprinklers nightly which explains the main difference between Feb & May-July. Now that I look at it I might cut that down :) We have the dishwasher, wash a ton of clothes (kids ages 4 & 5), and as far as I can tell take normal, daily baths/showers. Now that I think about it the dishwasher, washing machine, & showers have all been replaced in the past few years so they're modern & hopefully efficient, so maybe that makes a little bit of difference. The main difference from what I can tell is I don't pay a separate sewer charge, instead it's bundled into my exorbitant property tax. Assuming I get charged a comparable rate it seems like you're not too far off?
Thanks Seth! I really appreciate your taking the time to write. I actually think there is a difference... although the charge for June/July was comparable when you take out the sewer fee, we used almost half the amount of water (29000 gallons over the two months, versus 51000 gallons). So we pay almost twice as much. Could that be right? Thanks again, Lauren
Oh I see...yeah it does look like we both paid about $200 in water over Jun/Jul but I got about 21k gallons more. Does look like it's the rate that's high.
OK, I think you're going to hate us. For the two month period of 3/21/08 - 5/21/08 we used 10,500 gallons. Total bill $61.16 broken down as follows:$20 service charge - this is fixed and charged every month regardless of whether you use any water or not. $41.16 for 10,500 gallons (.39 cents per gallon) Your usage seems high as we do absolutely nothing intentionally to conserve water. On the other hand, we don't have any kids. But it seems odd that two little people would double your water usage over ours especially if you are conscientious about conserving. But now that I think about it, I don't shower daily and we almost never wash our cars. I'd like to say it's to save water, but the truth is I'm lazy and my husband swears that I never smell bad. Which leads to the conclusion that extreme laziness is good for the planet. So if you want to save water, try showering every other day (shower-to-shower is still around isn't it?) and double the time between car washes. A dirty car is a Green car. So why might you hate us? Well, aside from having a cheaper monthly fixed rate, we also pay less per gallon (by a 1/10th of a cent). This is odd because we are using YOUR water. Yup, living in SoCal means our major source of water is up North (and the Colorado river). We don't have any water of our own to speak of. Looks like our water officials worked out a pretty darn good deal for us down here! As for sewer, we pay that on our property tax bill. The annual amount is $456.00 and I can't tell you what that's based on (number of bathrooms? Same charge per household? No idea). If you really want to save on your water bill and save water in general, dare to get dirty!
Oh, my dear Magpie - how much water could two little ones use, you ask? Hmmm... think about it. Twice the dishes, twice the laundry, twice the flushing (and hopefully) subsequent hand washing, baths (they do bathe together every second or third day). I actually shower at the gym 3-5 times per week. And you haven't seen my car, have you? Any additional usage not due to the two little people probably has to do with lawn care (we water every other day). I'm drawing the conclusion that the City of Burlingame charges up-the-wazoo for water. I'm going to call and ask why!
I see two suggestions. Wait till you get to your mother's to bath Kyra and Lainey and enjoy dirty faces and bodies. they look good in the movies
We have 2 kids also, so should be comparable. We used 6,732 gallons in the month of August for $31.85 total or .5 cents per gallon...about the same price, but ours includes service charges.So to compare our monthly usage to your 2-month bill about 13,464 gallons. Our lawn is small (3 times a week watering), and I rarely wash the cars. (We take them to the car wash where they recycle the water instead of it running down the sewer.) I still think you might want to check for leaks.
In case you need one, I found a new plumber who's working out well. We've had him out three times for various issues, and he's tidy and prompt. Seems a little expensive, but no worse than your monthly water bill! :)Harry
Lauren,So THAT is why Eric is growing a beard - you don't let him shave. Got it. Wow :) We just found a leaky toilet actually, so that might be what is going on over here. Our big hope is to get the kids dry at night to cut down on washing machine usage. Ron
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