Comments on: Two new projects…

By: Cheap Like Me

Cheap Like Me — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 16:17:02 +0000

I just found your blog thanks to your “Thinking Blogger” nod, and I love it! I’m the only redhead at my house, but there are many — dare I say it — synchronicities, from Dave Ramsey to big garden to a dream I had last night that I ought to move to Tennessee.

Anyway, did you figure out ginger ale? I blogged a while back about making ginger ale:
http://cheaplikeme.wordpress.com/2007/06/11/dealbusters-homemade-ginger-ale/

It turns out well, although in my opinion it needs a little more sweetener.

I can’t wait to keep reading your blog.

By: Tia

Tia — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 12:43:02 +0000

Yep, septic. Can you imagine $100 a month for water with the city sewer?!?! LOL on the math…I suppose it’s better if I go ahead and laugh at my math (mis)ability. I wondered if the price was somewhat “set” since they have a minimum base charge? It’s going to be 18.25 for 2000 gallons, no matter how much less than that one uses. I can’t remember my formula for coming up with that figure but I think I established that we use about 200 gallons a day; a number that most assuredly must come down, no matter what we pay per gallon.

By: Angela123

Angela123 — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 04:01:53 +0000

I’m glad you found the charts to be useful. You do pay a lot for water compared to the rest of the area! I suppose that you have a septic tank since your total bill is around $50, because your bill would be doubled if you were paying Sunbright’s wastewater charges.

I think your math might be wrong on the cost per gallon. If it were $0.25/gallon, then 6000 gallons would cost you $1500 per month. I calculate less than 1 cent per gallon, but my math could be wrong too.

By: Tia

Tia — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 16:04:12 +0000

Thanks for that chart!! We’d been told that our water is higher here than other places because they have to bring the water in; there is no naturally deep source to tap into. We are skeptical of that but our well water here is not safe to drink either so it may have merit. We are outside the corporate limits of our district as well (which is Sunbright) so that adds to the cost.

Most frustrating is the billing system out here. They send out these ridiculous little post cards with your total amount due, account number, and the date due. There are some “usage” numbers but they are in code and not easily deciphered. We average around 6000 gallons of water a month and our bills are regularly over $50/month before taxes and their other fees.

Contrast this with our electricity: We average 500kw a month in usage and our bills are right at 52-55/month. They say, with their much more thorough billing system, that we use around 17kw a day. If my math is right (and it’s often not, so someone check it!) that makes it about .11 cents a kwh. It looks like we are using about 200 gallons a day (and I could save 10 gallons a day JUST by reusing my dishwater). A single gallon of water comes to about .25 cents, twice as much as our electricity per unit.

Wow, actually sitting down and figuring this out has been quite sobering, assuming the calculations are correct.

Kyra, if you see this, somewhere you commented on the phone situation: we are part of a co-op out here and don’t get choices. The only cell provider with coverage is Verizon and we can’t use any specials from other companies for phone or internet. The hidden costs of life in the country indeed.

By: Angela123

Angela123 — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 15:06:07 +0000

Maybe I wrote too much! It cut off my comment . . . leaving out the link to see if that helps . . .

Utility companies in this area normally bill for water and wastewater by each 1000 gallons that you use. It looks like in most places for each additional 1000 gallons, the total for water and wastewater is not going to even exceed $15 (probably will be $10). You can gauge
the actual numbers here:
http://www.discoveret.org/etdd/PDF/utility_rate_06.pdf

So, if you could save as much as 10 gallons every day, it would take
over 3 months to save (not even) 1000 gallons. Would it be possible to
save 10 gallons every day through water reuse, and would the cost
savings be worth the time spent?

I’m just throwing that out there, because I’ve considered making
substantial water reuse efforts before and decided that while I love
the idea in theory, the time spent doing it isn’t worth the money
saved. Not that I don’t try to conserve water in other ways, but I
wouldn’t (for example) reclaim the water from the washing machine to
water the flowers . . . unless I lived in an area where water was
rationed and more expensive.

By: Angela123

Angela123 — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 15:04:10 +0000

By: Sarah

Sarah — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 02:27:29 +0000

We used to keep a bucket in the shower with us to catch what didn’t hit us. Quit when we moved, probably ought to do it again since we just had a drought here. Anywho…the frozen bananas sound delicious. Almost any fruit frozen is a great treat. Try pineapple, blueberries, strawberries and kiwi too. They are all great frozen.