How to lower water bill

[BeccaSueCongdon]

Originally Posted by lensesforeyes I think it is unfair to generalize it and say they don't save money. While that may be true for some, it certainly is not true for us. Our water rarely goes over the minimum, and we are a family of soon to be seven with one in diapers full time and two at night. Even when we had three in diapers, our water bill did not go up. I do buy the bum genius soap, but that costs me less than $10 a month. I also do not dry my diapers, even in winter. Even if I did, I do not believe it would cost $30+ a month, and disposables would be at least $40 every month (we've used disposables in the past, we ALWAYS had leaks with cheap ones, and the Costco brand are $40 a box here). So, I pay really less than 1/4 the cost I would with disposables (that would only be for the one in them full time, every other month or so I'm sure I'd be buying a different size for nighttime on the other two kids). Come December we will have two in cloth full time again, and will wash just as often, so we will then be paying less than 1/8 the cost. $10 for special soap verses $80 for diapers. Oh, and because I have spent, all together, less than $500 on my diapers, and have every thing the newbie will need birth-potty training, my cloth paid for itself a LONG time ago (been using the diapers almost four years). :thumpsup:

I think you're right about there being variables that impact the cost effectiveness of it.

I've tried pretty much everything there is to try (except for fitteds and wool... Please don't get me started... My DH will just die) and finally realized that flats and PUL covers are my favorite.

I wish I would have stayed with that instead of selling off all 2 dozen of my GMD flats. :-p

[KelseyH]

I have to jump in just to say how thankful I am that we are charged a flat rate. Is it that uncommon?? We have a 3 bedroom house and pay for three "units" of water per month - $15. Granted, that's on our electric bill (which is expensive for this area) but that still doesn't usually exceed $250.

[qsefthuko]

I have my own complaint. At least 2 posters mention sposie diapers costing less than $50 per month. We sposied our first child 13 years ago. Back then we were spending $50 every 4 weeks. Sometimes this meant not changing as often as really was needed because we were getting low before pay day. Now I know prices on other things have not gone down. I don't get how people are getting diapers so cheaply.

[BeccaSueCongdon]

Originally Posted by qsefthuko I have my own complaint. At least 2 posters mention sposie diapers costing less than $50 per month. We sposied our first child 13 years ago. Back then we were spending $50 every 4 weeks. Sometimes this meant not changing as often as really was needed because we were getting low before pay day. Now I know prices on other things have not gone down. I don't get how people are getting diapers so cheaply.

It could be a difference in where they live, cost of living, etc.

But there's NO way we could have sposied that cheap. Both of my kids were super poopers and only cloth contained them.

[KelseyH]

Originally Posted by qsefthuko I have my own complaint. At least 2 posters mention sposie diapers costing less than $50 per month. We sposied our first child 13 years ago. Back then we were spending $50 every 4 weeks. Sometimes this meant not changing as often as really was needed because we were getting low before pay day. Now I know prices on other things have not gone down. I don't get how people are getting diapers so cheaply.

Yeah... We bought in bulk from Sam's and changed less often than we do with cloth and still paid at least $55/month for diapers, usually more.

[BeccaSueCongdon]

Originally Posted by KelseyH I have to jump in just to say how thankful I am that we are charged a flat rate. Is it that uncommon?? We have a 3 bedroom house and pay for three "units" of water per month - $15. Granted, that's on our electric bill (which is expensive for this area) but that still doesn't usually exceed $250.

That would make a big difference!!

[2+2macht4]

I think it sounds like a lot of water in your wash routines. I use a prewash and normal wash, no extra washes, rinses, ect. If I had to do all that I would not be cloth diapering it would save us no money with german water prices.

Depending on how much you want to save you can limit toilet flusing, use collected shower water to flush the toilet. I use water from our consense dryer to flush the toilet when ever I use the dryer which normally is not too often. short showers, limit showers and baths. Things like that but not everyone like all that.

[NoMoreJunk]

Originally Posted by qsefthuko I have my own complaint. At least 2 posters mention sposie diapers costing less than $50 per month. We sposied our first child 13 years ago. Back then we were spending $50 every 4 weeks. Sometimes this meant not changing as often as really was needed because we were getting low before pay day. Now I know prices on other things have not gone down. I don't get how people are getting diapers so cheaply.

I can answer this. I use/used sposie a on both of my kids. Daycare doesn't take cloth so it isn't an option for us (too bad, really, especially since my kids have sensitive skin)

Until recently, we were using SAMs club diapers. they cost $40/box and each box would last almost a month. Now we're using seventh generation because they seem much gentler on my baby's skin. The cheapest I can find them is diapers.com and will probably run us about $60-70 a month. We go through about 7-8 diapers each day. Pampers cruisers would probably cost about $50/month.

[Marianna1988]

Have you looked to make sure your usage hasn't gone up, but actually your rates? Our water rates went up, and we are now paying $15 more a month than we were 8 months ago (actually, it's up $30, since our landlord pays 1/2 the water bill). But, we are washing LESS laundry than we used to. 8 months ago, we had a newborn and 1 year old in cloth full time, I was washing 2 loads of diapers every 2 days. I'm now down to 1 load every 2-3 days, still with 2 in cloth full time. I also wash less clothes laundry since the baby is usually just in a onesie and baby legs, when as a newbie he wore a onesie, sleeper, and usually a blanket too. So we wash less, but pay more now.

[smores]

Originally Posted by qsefthuko I have my own complaint. At least 2 posters mention sposie diapers costing less than $50 per month. We sposied our first child 13 years ago. Back then we were spending $50 every 4 weeks. Sometimes this meant not changing as often as really was needed because we were getting low before pay day. Now I know prices on other things have not gone down. I don't get how people are getting diapers so cheaply.

I couponed like crazy for sposies. I would do walgreens register rewards plus pampers coupons and get a 30 pack for like $5. I saw newborn diapers on closeout at CVS for $2.50/pack and bought them out. I would use coupons on the super big boxes on clearance at Target and get a months' worth for $30. I could get about a month's worth of diapers for $35 or less most months BUT wipes would be an additional $10 at least, usually closer to $15 or $20.

So do I think it's possible? Yes, if you don't include wipes.