Friday, November 16, 2012

Frugal Friday: Reducing my water bill

The fight is still on! What fight you may ask? The one between me and my water bill! There is very little wiggle room in my budget and I've only allotted a certain amount for utitilies. Food has gone up so much that I've had to take any extra money and 'beef' up my grocery budget. (pun intended! *Smile)

So, here are the new tasks (and a few old ones already mentioned)  I'm doing each day to cut down our water consumption. I will get my bill in a week or so and I can't wait to see how much it has dropped. Any extra money saved will go into my 'summer water bill fund' since we'll have a lot more watering to do in the yard.

1. I saved the water from washing my floors and poured it into my 'shower buckets'. (I mentioned a few weeks ago that I've been keeping a few small buckets in my tub/shower (and also one in my kitchen). Any extra water I save gets dumped into those buckets and is used for flushing.

2. I've been turning off the water while soaping up in the shower then turn it back on when rinsing.

3. I put two dishpans in my kitchen sink for washing dishes. 1 pan is for washing and the other pan for rinsing. I started using a 3 dishpan to soak the dishes and get off any extra food. All of this water is either used to throw on plants outside or if it's clean enough it goes in the 'shower buckets'.

4. I pre-soak some of my wash loads (turning off the washing machine) so that I don't have to use a longer wash cycle.



5. I have a large 2 quart Pryex measuring cup. I started running cold water into the measuring cup and heating it in the microwave for 3 minutes to wash and rinse my dishes. I also do this in a large coffee cup to wash my face in the mornings and evenings.  Our water heater is in the garage and it takes a LONG time to get to the kitchen sink. By that time it's hot I've wasted a lot of water.

6. There is one other drastic measure you can take but I won't mention it here. Email me if you're interested.

7. Since it's winter we are only watering the lawn and flowers when it's absolutely necessary. Flowers are getting watered LIGHTLY maybe 1-2 times a week and the lawn maybe once a week.

Do you have any other suggestions you'd add to this list?

Other Frugal Friday posts can be found at Life as Mom

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Daily Bread





"Give us this day our daily bread." 

Matthew 6:11



God will provide for my needs daily 
so I can bring Him glory 
by not worrying about tomorrow.