Well, everyone is in full savings mode with the price of gas going through the roof and we’re not much exception. We have cut back our spending in many areas and are using meal planning as one way to help us cut costs, but we’re doing other things as well. Not only do the following help the environment because you’re saving water, but it can also help cut your water bill too.

• Reuse water from your shower on your plants, garden, yard, etc.
  We now have a 10 liter bucket in our shower which we manage to fill up after about 2 showers. Then I dump it on the begonias growing upstairs outside our bedroom window once a day. No more filling a water bottle from the tap and it also helps me remember to water them when I see the bucket. They thrive with plenty of water so we’re really happy to have come across this tip. The rest of our plants outside get watered from rain water collection barrels, our hand-powered ground pump or with water out of Ayla’s bowls since she will only drink from each one once (can’t blame her after seeing all the drool left behind!) If you use a water bath canner, you can pour off that water into your plants too – but not when it’s hot. Boiling water will kill a lot of plants so unless that is your intention, let it cool down first.
• “If it’s yellow, let it mellow.”
  Now that I’m pregnant, I go to the bathroom all the time. Actually, to be honest, I usually drink a lot of water during the day anyway so I was constantly going before I got pregnant too. I never really thought much about it until recently when I started considering that if I flush once an hour, I use 36 liters of water a day with a 3 liter flush (no worries, we have double flushers that also have a 6 liter flush too.) That’s 252 liters a week and 13, 104 liters a year. At least half of that could likely be saved by flushing 2-3 times a day instead of every time I’m in there. Ayla is a bit put off that she doesn’t have a fresh running water supply in the toilet anymore, but she still gets her fill of water in her bowls.
• Wash dishes in the water saving dishwasher instead of by hand.
  I am notoriously bad about leaving the water running while I wash dishes. I generally try to put as much as possible into the dishwasher and rarely wash off the dishes before loading them in, but occasionally there are things which aren’t so well suited for the machine. So now I’m trying to make a better effort to soap up my sponge, scrub things down in the sink and then rinse everything at once. And anything and everything I can put in the machine to make a full load goes in there.

What are you doing to save water??