slight annoyance with spouse doing the bills...

[motherofmolly]

yup studies show that dishwashing takes less water then washing by hand.

we dont pay sewage like you do, but your water bill is the same as ours a month. i dont have as much laundry as you do. the only suggestion would be a shower timer (which if you do this to your dh, he probably will let up on you about the water)....water can be the hardest to save on especially if you are already trying to be water conscious.

i would see about saving some where else. can you hang up your laundry to dry? i hang up about 3/4 of the family laundry here. had dh hang clothesline in the basement...i hang up before i go to bed and then it is usually dry before noon. it saves a little on my energy bill.

or maybe see if you can do a quick insulating job due to the cold....or even turn down your heat 1 degree.

i find it fun to see what i can save on and still be comfortable.

[lovelace]

Ours runs about about 50.00 a month that everthing

[CW&M Mom]

i would see about saving some where else. can you hang up your laundry to dry? i hang up about 3/4 of the family laundry here. had dh hang clothesline in the basement...i hang up before i go to bed and then it is usually dry before noon. it saves a little on my energy bill.

or maybe see if you can do a quick insulating job due to the cold....or even turn down your heat 1 degree.

i find it fun to see what i can save on and still be comfortable.

The insulating is what I have been suggesting to him. He got into it one night...got into the crawl space and insulated the kitchen pipes by the foundation. But alas that is all he has ended up doing. Our floors where the crawl space is below...are FREEZING. Like ridiculously cold. And of course in the summer...I'm sure our nice cool air just gets sucked down through the wooden floor.

Our basement literally is full of bugs. We live in a 114 year old victorian house and there is a coal closet attached to the basement (and I'm sure a great source of cold) that the bugs all walk in. It's also horribly dusty down there because of the closet and the open crawl space that is full of dirt. For the closet It something that we really need to pour in an insane amount of cement in and close it off...but will be extremely pricey and we just are not there yet...where we could remotely pay to do it.

[taylordvd]

We get bill seperately for water and sewer. One is $82 for the quarter and the other is ~$45ish for the quarter(?). Your usage does not seem extreme, but there are things you could do to cut back. Front loading washers are more water efficient. If you have to pre-rinse your dishes before using your dishwasher, then just stop up the sink and rinse them that way.

Your DH lives in another state most of the time, right? I think he may be a little to seperated from the situation to really know if your water usage is extreme or not. Is there any way that you could find out the number of gallons you are using and compare that to what a "typical" family of your size uses? Compare gallons to gallons, not dollars to dollars.

[motherofmolly]

The insulating is what I have been suggesting to him. He got into it one night...got into the crawl space and insulated the kitchen pipes by the foundation. But alas that is all he has ended up doing. Our floors where the crawl space is below...are FREEZING. Like ridiculously cold. And of course in the summer...I'm sure our nice cool air just gets sucked down through the wooden floor.

Our basement literally is full of bugs. We live in a 114 year old victorian house and there is a coal closet attached to the basement (and I'm sure a great source of cold) that the bugs all walk in. It's also horribly dusty down there because of the closet and the open crawl space that is full of dirt. For the closet It something that we really need to pour in an insane amount of cement in and close it off...but will be extremely pricey and we just are not there yet...where we could remotely pay to do it.

love the old victorians, but man they stink for insulation and warmth. this year i did little things, strip insulation around the doors, new door strip for the bottom of the front door...maybe even hanging some thick drapes (or material) on the windows or tossing up some sort of draft stop for your basement..if you can find a way.

if he would insulated your crawl space, you would see a great improvement price wise.

and yes, those basements arent great for hanging clothes....i am sorry i couldnt help you more.

[CW&M Mom]

okay for water usage. This is last months bill

water usage 7914 $52.91
Sewer usage 8592 $45.06

motherofmolly....thank you for the suggestions. I absolutely love our house. It is absolutely beautiful and wonderfully maintained...just breezy inside LOL. I too think that the bigger savings would be in the electric and gas bill. Our Electric is over $300 a month (we are paying the same each month)...because summer here in the house is a killer. And the gas will be about the same in about a month. I completely agree...that insulating the crawlspace is the number 1 thing to do. He has tried to insulate the attic more...but we really need to put the specialty insulation up in the rafters that deflect heat.....thus it gets more expensive...and until he puts some kind of flooring in the attic...it's really not safe to have people up there doing work.

It's kind of like we need to do C. But we have to do A and B first to do C..and I can't get A and B done....bah.

That and we need to install true central air up in the upstairs. It has vents...but the unit they have is just not big enough to really be efficient for the upstairs...so we end up using 4 AC units. If I don't it's 90 degree's up there...which my sister and I and my son literally cannot tolerate. Add to that...to really do a good job with the central air...we need to put the venting up in the attic...and have vents facing down...because the one in each room will not be enough (so basically we would have one central air for downstairs...one for upstairs). This gets all screwy because again we need to get some flooring down there first.

Bless the former owners heart. The put in a new roof, had the entire place rewired..and replaced the furnace, AC and hot water heater...all within the last 5 years...but they didn't actually "address" the issues that would make it more efficient.

[pharrothead]

I don't think it's that bad at all. There are 3 of us and my water bill runs around 35-40 a month (Last month it was 20 and I asked who wasn't bathing.. apparently they did an estimate because I got a higher bill in the mail today for this month).

I used to pay the sewer bill quarterly to the township but starting in January they are changing it. I live in a mobile home park and apparently a good chunk of tenants have taken to not paying their sewer bills. So now instead of paying 82 a quarter to the township, I have to pay an additional 30 dollars at the 1st of the month to the park (Which really stinks because it's one more bill at the front end so instead of rent+water to them, I have to do rent+water+sewer). What really irks me is I'm paying e_tra because some schmucks couldn't pay their sewer bill so this is the parks way of making sure they have it covered.


So if my sewer and water bill runs me 65ish a month I don't think 114 is far off if you have double the people living in your home.

[leqet]

I don't think your bill is outrageous at all. However, if you are desperate to make it lower (and It sounds like your DH is, not you ) here are some suggestions:

When you take a shower or start the bath water for the kids, if you have to wait at all for the water to heat up, even a few second, put a bucket under the faucet to catch what would normally go down the drain. Then pour that water into the washer for laundry (only works if you don't have a front loader), or use to water plants or use for flushing toilets.

When taking a shower--turn on water enough to get wet, turn it off to suds up/put shampoo in your hair and turn it back on again to rinse.

See if you can go every other day washing your hair or shaving your legs---heck stop shaving your legs all together and tell your DH it's part of your water saving effort.

The last one is sort of gross, but I have known some very frugal families to use the rule: "If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down" to cut back on the number of times they flush the toilet.