Budget Experiment 1: Saving Money on Your Water Bill

I've been experimenting a lot with different ways to save money. Some are bigger experiments that will take months to see changes, others are little things I can do once and just let it ride. One of my experiments this month is the old milk-jug-in-the-toilet-tank trick.

I read that anywhere from 20% to 40% of a household's water consumption is actually from flushing toilets, so I figured I would try out the water displacement method.

We have two bathrooms (and as such, two toilets). Our toilets are newer (maybe 6 years old), so they have smaller tanks. There are only two of us living here, and in the winter months when we're not watering the garden, our average City water bill is $33. In the warmer months, the water bill seems to average around $55 (but we'll tackle that later).

First Problem: Because my toilets are newer, my toilet tanks are smaller. I couldn't actually fit a half-gallon jug (as was recommended) in the tank. I had to opt for a smaller 48 oz. juice bottle filled with water. This worked for one of the tanks but not the other. The other tank didn't really have room for even a 24 oz. soda bottle, so for now, we're just experimenting with the one toilet.

Flushing: I was worried there might be an issue with having to "double flush," but no. It seems to flush fine.

Second Problem: I decided to do this right in the middle of a billing cycle. Which means I have to wait two cycles before I can see if this trick saves me any money.


Like I said, I'm trying this in the winter, when I don't have the variable of watering the garden:

Billing Cycle	Charges
Sept 23-Oct 25 bill (34 day cycle)	$32.91
Oct 26-Nov 23 bill (34 day cycle)	$26.62
Nov 23-Dec 28 bill (34 day cycle)	$32.91
*Jan 10: put 48 oz. water jug in one toilet tank*
Dec 29-Jan 31 bill (34 day cycle)	$32.91
Feb 1-Mar 6 (34 day cycle)	$26.62
Mar 7- ?? (34 day cycle)	$32.91

My water bill is actually divided into several sections, two of which don't change from month to month:

1. Water billing & Availability Charge (this doesn't change): $3.60
2. Water Consumption Charges: this is charged by "unit." The first 3 units are $1.96 each, after that, the unit price climbs to $2.81 each. The lowest amount I've ever seen on our bill is 3 units @ $1.96 + 1 unit @ $2.81 (equalling $8.69)
3. Sewer Billing & Availability Charge (this doesn't change): $3.60
4. Sewer Consumption Charges: this is charged by the "unit," with the unit price of $3.48. The lowest amount I've ever seen on our bill is 4 units (equalling $13.92).

So the goal here is to reduce the consumption units. The question is, does the water displacement method in the toilet tank make a big enough impact to actually do this?

I guess we'll find out. I will come back and update this post over the next couple of months as the bills roll in.

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Update
[March 2017]: Okay, we've been through 3 billing cycles since I put the water jug in the toilet tank and there has been absolutely no change in the metered consumption. My bills are keeping steady at the $32.91 or $26.62 rates. In addition to the water jug in the toilet tank we're also taking shorter showers and washing clothes twice a week rather than 4 times. Even with those changes, our water bill has not dipped below the $26.62 mark.

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In the Mean Time, Let's Talk Leaks & Drips...

Up to 15% of your water bill could be due to leaks. Most of the articles I've read associate "leaks" with either a leaky / dripping faucet or leaky toilet tanks. These are things we can easily identify, because we can hear the drips or the toilet cycling.

Faucet drips can often be repaired with a new rubber gasket or tightening a couple of screws. There are a lot of 'how-to' tutorials out there, but here are a couple that might help:

• This Old House: Fixing a Leaky Faucet
• Delta Faucet: Replacing Seats & Springs in a Faucet [Video] 

I couldn't find any leaky faucets or shower heads in our house, but we did have a leaky toilet tank. I'd hear it cycle every once in a while when no one was using it. But since I work from home most days, I could catch the leak and re-seat the flapper in the tank to stop it from cycling fairly quickly. Not the best way to deal with a toilet tank leak, but it was easy.

In my case, the flapper was slightly worn (it happens), so it didn't always fall over the drain properly. The general advice is to just replace the flapper mechanism with a new one. They're fairly inexpensive and it's a 5-minute DIY project:

• Replacing a Flapper Valve [Video]