What things do you do to use less water in your home and garden? What are your water bills like? Do you know how many gallons you use in a month?

I keep a close eye on how many gallons of water i use in a month.

I used 400 gallons in November, 500 in December and 600 in January. Either I am doing something more water intensive these days, or i have a leak. Need to consider this. I'd like to keep it down to 400 gallons and even less, over time, as I figure out how to conserve my water well.

One thing I do is resuse my dishwater/cooking water in my kitchen garden and on my trees.

All piped grey water from my sink and laundry goes back into the ground in my backyard to reenter the water table.

I went and got a water audit on my home from when i moved in. It was just a list of how much water i used/paid for each month. No charge for that.

You can really tell the months i had water leaks. It's amazing the difference in water used. At least that water went right back into the ground table though. So it wasn't a terrible thing.

Still saving the water from boiling food, washing dishes/hands/teeth, etc, and adding to the garden.

Good news. In March I used 400 gallons. That's a big relief, as that is my current goal usage. When dan leaves this month I will see how much I alone use - that will be cool. Maybe my goal will be 200 gallons.

I think the difference from the month before with 600 gallons might be from using the clothes washer.

When I do the dishes or have dan do it, it do it in a low, square tub, so i can toss the dishwater in my garden. They love it!

Since this is high gardening time now in my area, i am using up my winter-stored rainwater on getting the food trees and starts established. Once it rains this summer the barrels will fill right back up. So this is working out perfectly!

This week I worked on a new 'water feature' for my backyard. I already have my grey water hose set up from my studio, but now I did something to make it super easy to reuse this water in my garden. I am starting a new thread on that now.

Here is the grey water thread.

Used water definitions, FYI:

Pure Water - lovely fresh water that is wasted to flush toilets, provide showers, clean laundry and cars, and to water gardens. This is water we really should reserve for drinking, cooking and providing our pets.

Clear Water - water with no solids in it. Water we waste while waiting for showers or sink faucets to heat up, water used to boil pasta, water used to rinse clean veggies, etc. This form of water should be recaptured right in the sink or tub. Let this water flow into containers and use to: flush toilets, water houseplants, use in the garden, fill the first load of laundry (the soapy cycle) and for any kind of cleaning purposes.

Grey Water - Water used in all applications that are not involved with feces. Used sink water, used laundry water, used bath/shower water. This water can contain soap, skin flakes, dirt, food particles and other items that can be in small solid form or carried in suspension. This water should be returned to the soil into the form of a mulch basin, constructed wetland area, or to even use directly on shade trees, landscaping, fruit and nut trees, into the compost bin, or for garden uses that are applied only to non-edible root systems.

Black Water - this is used water from toilets, or used cleaning water from dirty diapers. Feces can absolutely be composted, but this task needs to be completely researched before embarking on to prevent biological contamination. This is really the only water that should ever go to the city or your septic tank for proper filtration and cleaning.

I am very excited! I got my water bill yesterday and it was only 200 gallons! And for half of that Dan was here. So i imagine next month it will be even less.

I was curious what part of my bill was actually for water I used, and what was the amount that was the basic service fee. This bill (April) was for $26.77.

So i called the water company. It turns out that the monthly base fee is $26.45. So I used only .32 on water myself!

I was told the fee for water usage is $3.35 per one thousand gallons, and that the price gets higher after a certain number of thousands. Not that that is an issue in my home!

I find it fascinating that i only used .32 worth of water this month. This coming month will be my first here alone without dan living here, so i am amused and wondering if may will cost me something like 12 cents. heh

I lived with the water off completely before dan moved in, and am thinking about doing that once more. Using a combination of rain water, grey/clear water, well water from a friend in large blue jugs, and paying .15 a gallon for reverse osmosis drinking water, my bill was negligible. I think during the monsoon season coming up (summer) it should not be a problem. That will refill the rain barrels that I am using on my garden right now.

My plan is not to shut off the water again until I can see just how low my bill will be using my normal conservation measures.

That is really low especially with a garden in AZ.