As you look over your budget, one category where it’s easy to feel stuck is with your utility bills.  While there will always be a bill, there are some things you can do to help cut costs without making yourself miserable.

This week we are re-sharing a series of posts filled with tips to help you cut your utility bills including electricity, water, phone, internet and more! Even if you can’t use every idea, there are bound to be at least a few things you can do to save on your utilities each month. And over the course of the year, it adds up!

How to Cut Your Utility Bills | Part One: General Tips + Water, Trash, Electricity

Let’s start with some general tips to cut your utility bills as well as some specific tips on water, trash, and electricity. Check back for posts over the next few days as we cover how to save on internet, phone and cable as well as heating and cooling costs.

Water

There isn’t much in this category to do, but think about all the places in your house where you use water. Checking for leaks is one of the first things to do. An easy way to check for leaks in the toilet is to grab an Easter egg dye kit and take a tablet out of it and put it in the tank.  After a few minutes if the bowl water is a nice Easter-y color you have a leak.  Don’t throw away the entire toilet you probably just need a new flush/flapper so start simple first.

You can’t stop using water altogether, but you can use less water. Install low flow water fixtures, take showers instead of baths, and turn older toilets into low-flush toilets. To do this, add a brick to the tank to reduce the amount of water in the tank and thereby reduce water used per flush. If you don’t have a brick, take a plastic jug and fill it with water and place in the tank.

If you have a yard or garden to water, think about getting a rain barrel to collect water for your garden. You can direct the free water from the rain to the parts of your yard that need it. You could also install a drip irrigation system, which targets the water right to your plants and makes sure you don’t over-water your plants (which is good for the plants as well as for your water bill).

Filling up a swimming pool? Contact your local water company and tell them how many gallons you’ll be using. Some companies will give you a discount!

Trash

In some areas, trash pickup is an additional fee and not part of your taxes.  If trash pickup is a service you pay for on your own, please consider dropping this, too. For years, we ran twice a week by the “dump” (which was just a trash location in our county).  It just takes you working it into your routine, but this saved us over $200 a year to just take it ourselves.

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