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Water costs how much?

March 10th, 2010 at 01:21 am

A person's discussion here on their water and trash rates got me to check my last 12 months of trying to live with minimal utilities. OK, maybe it was a little extreme keeping the house just below 60 this winter, but it was me testing how I could live with minimal usage.

Anyway, here are the results for the last 12 months of bills:
Trash: $0 (I compost & recycle, and usually end up with at most two grocery bags full of trash a month which I can take to a friend's house about once a month)
Water & sewage: $61.79 I shower at work in the gym as well as work out there which really helps (the gym cost $100 last year). If I read the bills right, my usage was around 500 gallons last year. And over half the bill was just fixed service charges, little of the bill was for the actual water.
Electricity: $451.54 (Considering my dividends from stock in that same company was just over $200 last year, that's pretty good!)
Natural Gas: $563.68 I use this for heat, heating water, and the stove.

Grand total of $1,076.92 (or about $90 per month)

Although I've mentioned them before, how do I keep the costs low?

Insulate everywhere you can. I did that the first year I bought the house.
I hand wash dishes twice a week. As I live by myself, this isn't as bad as it sounds. It ususally takes two or three gallons to do all my dishes.
I try to use the stove in the winter, microwave in the summer. That way I add heat to the house when it benefits me.
No clothes dryer. I use a large drying rack, as well as a special sock hanger.
The aforementioned showering at the gym at work. By doing this I not only use less water at home, but I can keep the water heater at very low temps during the week. And showering instead of a bath uses less water as well.
Installed new windows in the home. Doing it myself cost maybe 1/3 of the cost of having someone come in and do it. These were not cheap windows, but good low-E, double pane windows.
No central AC, I use only window AC units where I need to be cool. Last summer my largest electric bill was just under $50. The AC in the bedroom works like white noise, helping me go to sleep. I use fans in the rest of the house to make it liveable.

I'm not sure how long I can keep low rate of utility usage, but as long as I can, the money will go to buying more DRIPs, which means more financial independence for me.

2 Responses to “Water costs how much?”

  1. Ima saver Says:
    1268232835

    Very impressive!

  2. davera Says:
    1268249660

    I find that tracking the amount of water used per person per month is the most useful metric, as water costs vary greatly from locale to locale.

    We try to be as conservative as possible, using about 1,000 gallons per person per month. 500 gallons for the entire year seems pretty incredible, even considering you shower elsewhere. You may want to check that number!

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