OMG...the cost of water is what?????????????????

[foltzy]

Well we just moved in the end of June to this house. We pay every 3 months. Sewer is always the same $80. Our water for the 3 months we've been here was $84 and that's with my kids flooding the bathroom. There's 4 of us. Dishwasher is ran every other day, twice a week for the washer averaging about 3 loads per day.

I don't think it's that bad but I could be wrong.

 

[Sarahlovy]

We pay around $30 for a family of three with a washing machine and dishwasher, and I know we have had a small leak. People around here complain about the cost of water.

 

[reginaastralis]

I live in Atlanta and ours are VERY high.

just because it's "on par with last year" does not mean there is not a leak. My condo complex was 'on par" but we finally replaced all the pipes and guess what "on par" included LEAKS that had probably been there for years.

What's interesting is that there is a firm looking into the higher usage problems in Atlanta as well. They hired the same firm to look into the problems here.

 

[shoney]

Wow! Didn't read through all of these, but I have to say I think the one thing on Long Island that is cheap is WATER!

I pulled out my last bill

3/18 - 6/30

$74.55 for 75,000 gallons!!!!!

It seems like a lot of water, but we fill a large pool each season and that takes 40,000 gallons.

 

[C.Ann]

But I live in Florida and my rates are very reasonable!

Maybe it varies by location.. My brother pays a fortune (or at least he did in the first house he bought - not sure about the one he recently bought) - yet my sister (in another area of Florida) has reasonable rates.. Not as low as mine were (NY) in my former home, but reasonable..

 

[bettymae1121]

According to my city's website it's:

Water charge - $3.42 per 100 cubic feet
Sewer maintenance charge - $1.43 per 100 cubic feet
Sewer treatment charge - $1.17 per 100 cu. ft

A cubic foot is 748 gallons.

My last bill was $175 for two months, that's for two adults and a water hungry veggie garden.

 

[patsal]

I live in Western New York State very near Lake Erie. My water bill is about $125 per quarter.

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

That is high! But, you can make changes... like showering every other day,

OP is from Florida and should shower only every other day?!! Ew.

 

[Disney845]

I live in FL.

Our water is billed per thousand gallons:

0-3,000 gal = $2.20/thousand
3,001-7,000 gal = $2.42/thousand
7,000+ gal = $3.85/thousand
13,000+ gal = $7.70/thousand

The "minimum" they charge you for is consuming 3,000 gallons (so 3 x $2.20) = $6.60

We also pay:

City Tax of $1.57
City Equalization Charge (?) of $0.94
Service Availability Charge (rate for single fam home) $7.76
Billing Charge $1.29

Most months our bill is $18.16.

We are 2 adults. One showers only, one (me) likes long bath soaks (refilling when it cools too much), so I shower and take baths. We run the dishwasher when full (2x a week?) but also hand wash certain pieces (with water running, not filling sink), use a lot of water that is filter through the fridge for drinking/cooking, do perhaps 4-6 loads of laundry a week, oh and while I "know" this is bad, I do leave the water running while tooth brushing.

Our "largest" water bill was $33. We had a house guest for the whole month and our pump had gone out on our well for our sprinkler system so we were doing a lot of hand watering with our city water.

 

[vampirechick]

I work for the water company as a customer service rep. Unless you are watering ALOT, you need to check for a leak or running toilet. Do you have a basement or on a slab? If a slab you may have a leak in the slab. Call your water company and see about getting a sewer adjustment. Also they may send a service person if you request it to verify meter is working properly. That is an outrageous amount unless you are filling a pool or two, and watering the neighborhood.

 

[QVCshopper]

OP is from Florida and should shower only every other day?!! Ew.

I have showered ever other day my whole life, including when I'm in Florida and during the summer--it is often 90F+. Your body, hair, etc. adjust to the schedule, ie, my hair is much less greasy than when I shower every day. I also abide by not flushing after every bathroom visit, only those needed. You can make changes to save water, that's all I was saying. I do it more for environmental purposes than money, but that doesn't hurt either.

 

[si-am]

We pay about $20 a month for water. Two adults: I take a shower and bath each day, my husband takes 1-2 showers a day.

Dishwasher runs every night, I do about 4 loads of laundry a week.

Our highest bill was $60 when we had a burst pipe!

 

[scrdofbugs]

I just pulled my Oct bill. We (family of 3) paid $21.06 for our water portion.
We live in West TN area.

It says the usage was 9 $19.28 plus sales tax 1.78 so $21.06. I would flip if my bill was that much. We aren't careful with the water either. My daughter is known to fill up the bath, soak and read, then let water out when it is cold and refill it. She loves her baths!! We also water the grass, plants, wash the cars, alot of laundry, etc.

 

[Miz Diz]

I live in the suburbs of Atlanta and my bill is about $35 per month. This is for a family of 4. I run the dishwasher about 3 times a week and do 4-6 loads of laundry/week.

We quit watering our lawn because when we did, our bill was a lot higher.

We had neighbors in SC who had a separate meter put in for their sprinkler system so that they were not charged sewer charges on watering their lawn. They said that it lowered their bill a lot, but they had to pay for the meter to be put in.

 

[miralys]

I live outside Orlando. I don't have my bill with me, but in our house of four (three of which insist on taking baths, not short showers) we pay a little under $100 a month. We don't have an irrigation system.

I would have the house checked for leaks. We had a $400 bill earlier this year and it was due to a leak in one of the pipes leading to the tub. I feel your pain, looking at a bill like that, and hope you get it fixed soon.

 

[PrincessAbby'sMom]

OK, now I haven't read through all the posts - BUT..... I work for the Village/town that I live in & actually calculate the water bills, so thought I would put my 2 cents worth in.

First of all: Per the plumbing manuals (atleast for Illinois) a normal household averages 100 gallons per day per person that lives there. Meaning if you are a family of 4 you should not use more then 400 gallons per day on average. Take in consideration if you fill a pool or do 10 loads of laundry that day it will be higher!

Now I don't know the conversion from units to cubic feet to gallons or any of that (I only deal with gallons). But google it & find out and make sure you aren't using over 100 gallons per person that lives in your house.

Toliets are a HUGE leak problem... make sure they aren't running! If they are that is simply water going in & out & you are paying for it. To check for toliets leaking use food coloring or food dye, take the lid off the tank of the toliet, put in enough dye (color of your choice) to see the color (it will not stain the toliet). If you do NOT flush the toliet & the color goes into the bowl... its leaking (and usually only a few dollars to fix, but very costly on your water bill). Once you flush it WILL go into the bowl... but try not to flush for atleast 2 hours to give it time to run to see if you have an issue.

Next big issue to check is if you have a water softener - they rejuvinate usually 2-3 times a week... and if they jump off schedule the week dial could turn to day & have it running 2-3 times a day. Which means it fills the tank, drains it & refills it 2-3 times a day!

Just a few tricks I have learned working here ... any questions just message me

 

[HM]

We got a bill over $500 last year at this time (two months). Found out that our meter was broken. They replaced it and prorated our bill to another bill's usage. It's the combination of water and sewer that is so awful. Sewer use is higher cost than water cost.

Our bill this year was over $400 and I was in shock. We do water our lawn and we have a couple gardens we water as well. So we expect it to be high, but I thought we'd been more conservative with our use this summer. We did have one toilet that's flapper didn't get seated and ran for about four hours one night before we caught it.

Our regular bill when we don't water (winter months) is closer to $80 (two months). If our next bill is high again, we'll have to check and see if our meter is messed up again. We have checked for leaks in the house and we don't see any visible outside. We also have one less person at home this fall.

 

[willowsnn3]

Just south of Atlanta here:

Base charge 8.50
Teir 1 $2 per thousand 6.00
Teir 2 $4.81 thousand 19.24
Teir 3 $5.95 thousand 5.95
Stormwater Rate 3.75

Total for 8 thousand units 43.44 including base & stormwater charge.

Family of 4 adults & 3 children. Baths/showers daily, washer runs almost constantly, lol.

 

[POOHsie]

Just changing out your toilets to new, water efficient models will make a lot of difference. Old toilets aren't meant to last forever. And they might be leaking in such a way that you would never suspect. I got the new, higher ADA toilets. They are much easier to reach and get off from. I didn't realize my old toilets were so low to the ground!

 

[dunbarfamily]

Wow! I am shocked at how much water bills are. We live in a VERY rural area and are on well water, so its free. I never gave it a thought as to how much city people have to pay.

You have to pay for sewage too? I thought that was included with water bill. Do all municipalities charge for sewage? Do they meter what you goes out your drains?