I think our last 2-mo. bill was somewhere near yours Hoov.
Our dishwater is now going into the garden, and if things keep on as they are, the laundry water's going there, too.

Shower water would require bigtime plumbing -- but I can dream.

Jeri

I haven't checked mine but I watered a lot today and then it rained!! Hallelujah!

Carla

We have a well.
And when we rebuilt this house we replumbed it for gray water diversion onto where the rose beds were going to be.
The cost of pumping water for drip irrgation for the roses doesn't register and over time, there isn't that much increase in the electric bill between dry summers and wet summers.
But ...then...our well isn't so powerful that we can water huge amounts, just circuits of about 100 1/4gph emitters. On all night.

I put my water bill on automatic payment so that I wouldn't have to look at it and cringe. It's called "avoidance."

My roses, in other words, get what they need--but then I'm not in a drought area.

Kate

37.00$

Seriously.

$35 and we grumble.

we have a well so just our electric, which right now is minimal

I pay a flat fee - about $260 every six months.
We don't have water meters. (Believe it or not, until recently there was a law on the books saying it was illegal to have meters in Sacramento). The law was recently changed and meters are now being installed.
They are scheduled to be installed in 2011 in my neighborhood.
By then I hope to move to a house that doesn't have a pool.

Yikes! 94.71
I'm thinking about putting in a well. That would cost about 1000.00, and given that it looks like we can only expect the cost of water to go up, it would probably be a good investment. The water here is likely to be rusty- good for your insides but not for your sink.
I'm wondering about the gray water- does that have to be processed before it is safe to use in the yard? I wonder how much it would cost to have installed? I have a couple rainwater barrels but I had to empty them today because the mosquitoes were breeding in them. I was able to work them over to the flower garden, then dump. Brandy

$ 270.00 for 3 months.

After living in drought-conscious California my whole life. I now live way out in the boonies of Washington with a well. NO MORE water bills. I can water as much as I want! It's great! Now my husband can't complain anymore! YEAH!

July is $61 and June's was $57 metered. We got a letter that they're fixing to raise it $2 per month starting in Sept for the next 5 years, because our city is the lowest in the Central Valley and they want more money for costs.

I had a well installed at my old home after paying a $200 bill one month after planting 95 new rose bushes. I told my wife we were going to pay for a well one way or the other. Best investment I ever made.
After moving here, I had a one inch shallow well driven in sand that had been here for 25 years/ After planting 350 roses, I felt sorry for the wife having to drag hoses around all day so I had a new 4 inch well drilled plus a sprinkler system installed. Now I water for one hour daily in each of 7 zones. My electric bill for the pump has gone up a little but not near what I had to pay for water before.

My water bill averages $350 a month. We do have 1 acre, about 1/2 of that lawn. I would love to have my own well, but have never heard of ANY wells in So.Cal.(not enough water, I presume) also, I'm very interested in gray water plumbing, but I hear that's very expensive and requires permits. Thanks for letting me rant!

My water bill was $38. for a 2 month bill.We get billed for 2 months ata time,so not that bad.

Jean

About $25 per month in electricity for a well, our neighbor shares the water and pays $15 a month for her share of the water. Of course, that doesn't include:

$5000 transformer at the pole
~$1000 for a pump every 5-10 years
$unknown how much it will cost to replace the 40 year old water lines (guess would be around $5-10k), needs done
$500 well enclosure building

... and I am sure there are lots of other costs of owning a well that I have forgotten. But the idea is, a well is not necessarily cheap water even if the electiric bill isn't bad. Our well is situated in the bottom of the canyon, which of course means it's more expen$$$$ive for everything.

Cheers,
Michelle

July is $139.
June was $85.
May was $111.
April was $85.
March was $74.
February was $74.
January was $94.
December was $89.
November was $130.
October was $131.
September was $125.

My water use depends on the time of year and the weather, including fog. We normally get rain from Oct-April. We pretty much got no rain this year, so my cost for those months was much higher than normal.

Wells are not an option where I live, but several friends who live in the hills above us use wells. They have their own issues dealing with the fact that more than ten residemces use a common well.

I think ours was $78. I am in So Cal, Riverside County where it's been bone dry.

When we built our house 10 years ago we had to have a well because that is all there is in our area. I'm glad we have it. I don't waste water, but I water when I feel I need to. The well cost about $2,000 to put in. We haven't had to replace the pump (yet), and we didn't have to pay for any transformer on a pole. We also do not have to have a "house" for the well. It is a drilled well so it consists of some pipes coming out of the ground, and then a pressure tank that is in a garage. I covered the pipes with one of those fake rocks that are meant to hide pipes. A well that is "dug" as opposed to drilled would have to have a cap or cover of some sort over it. (Our wells in Upstate NY were "dug" wells). Fortunately we didn't have to deal with old plumbing because it was a new construction. We put the irrigation system in ourselves. The materials for that were about $400.

I'm sure today the prices are a bit more, but it still may not be a prohibitive undertaking for some people. I'm sure it has a lot to do with where you happen to live. In Michelle's case she's looking at a big chunk of change.

I like having my own well, and am thankful I don't have to deal with an outside source. We are fortunate that we hit good water, and that there is plenty of it to feed the well. One of our northern wells could go dry easily in the summer, so showers were brief and turned off between soaping up and rinsing off. To this day I am still careful with my water usage.

Sandy

I'm not sure, probably close to $200 for the month we were watering everything. Usually it's $30.

My neighbor who has a sprinkler system says her bill is $200 per month. But they also have a pool.

Our water cost is tied into the sewer costs, so you pay for sewage treatment even for outside watering unless you get a separate meter.

About $50-55 every 2 months here. I deeply water by hand once or twice a week about 75 roses, plus other flower gardens...rarely the lawn. We're in a subdivision built in the '60s-'70s. :0) Phyl

Wow, mine (for 3 months) is only $32.39. But the sewer bill (for 3 months) will soon arrive and is based on water usage, runs twice as much as water bill. So sewer plus water combined will be approx. $90 for 3 mos. I am surprised, this must be the only utility in Maine that is cheaper than elsewhere. This bill was from Apr. to 1st July, I did a lot of watering then.

One of the best things about my house is the well. Unusual, because we also have city sewer service. We pulled it for maintenance last summer and it was 300 feet deep. No wonder our drinking water is so good. Our typical electric bill is $85 which is cheap for an all-electric house. The pump does not use that much power.

My water bill comes every 4 months
July bill was $97.00
Niecey

We have a well too. So just electricity for our sprinkler system plus my watering.

Our water is about $85 every 2 months but I have a large family.

The major change I made was not run a dishwasher (even on the water saving cycle) every day. I run it about 2x weekly.

I hand water and don't waste any, because I keep the hose nozzle turned to off when I walk across spaces and no longer water sidewalks or driveways.

I am paying less this year than last, averaging under $60/2 month cycle.

We have city water to the house and it runs about $25 a month. Before we put in the well, one water bill in the summer was over $200 to water the garden. We also got checked by the "water police" after we put in the well to make sure we were not using city water during a outside water ban.
My MIL in FL has a well but it is metered and restricted use. Here, it bumps up the electric bill but not much.

I pay about $90 for a 3-month bill in the summer, and less in the winter when I don't do any watering (though I don't water my lawn at all and roses/veggies infrequently)

My water bill for last month was $10.00. This is city water with all its attendant additives like chlorine and flouride.

Ours is about $120/m, garbage/sewer are included in the bill.

The worst thing is- you pay more for your steet sweeping and trash pickup here when your water bill is higher because they are tied together. I have as much mulch on as I can manage to keep the cost down. Most of the grass is gone. Just couldn't afford it any more. The grass that's left is looking a little stessed. I decided to let the roses slow down and make hips for the remainder of summer. I miss the flowers, but this way I don't have to water them as much. Looking forward to a rosy october. Seriously, the water is so expensive here. If my family would allow it, I'd move to where it falls from the sky for free. As it is, I can hardly remember what rain is like anymore.

My water bill for July was $24.12, but this year is an anomaly...we've had our entire year's worth of rain so far this summer! Last year, during the drought, July's bill was $59.86 and August's was $100.82 (what was I doing?!!), my high bill usually runs about $80.00. My winter bill is about $10-12.00.

Lisa

That 94.71 was for 1 mon., water only. Seems strange to me, we have city water but no sewage system- all septic tanks here. For an area where the water is not in that short a supply, the bill seems high. Brandy

That 94.71 was for 1 mon., water only. Seems strange to me, we have city water but no sewage system- all septic tanks here. For an area where the water is not in that short a supply, the bill seems high. Brandy

I'll never tell. I'm no blabber mouth.

About $27 per month, give or take a few dollars. No sewers out this way, thank heavens, because those people really get socked. If the 2 daughters would leave -- one is in college, one looking for a house -- it would probably by quite a bit less. They're always taking showers and doing laundry.

$68 but we water horses daily and ad water to the Koi pond often. I thought that was bad. Mine includes natural gas for winter heating as well, but goes up to about $195 during the winter.

We are billed quarterly and ours runs somewhere around $200+ during the peak watering summer months. We also pay a sewer usage charge which is included in the bill. The actual water cost for that $200 bill is around $20-$25 the rest is sewer. We also do have a separate meter for outside usage, so the sewer charge is only based on inside use! It's ridiculous!

We are not allowed to have a well within the city limits. The one on our property was filled in by the previous owner as required by the city.

We do have an old cistern that we plan to revamp and start using within the next year or two.

It's interesting hearing about how everyone's water supply works. I guess not everyone deals with drought all the time.

There are indeed some wells in Southern California--municipal owned--there's an aquafir in northern Orange County that provides water to Anaheim, Orange, Garden Grove, etc. There are settling basins along the Santa Ana river to let rain water leach back down into that auquafir to replenish it. One reason why 100-130 years ago, Orange County was an attractive place to farm.

I forgot to say that it is $70 a month, year round, just to be connected to the water supply in my neighborhood. Even if you don't use a single drop of water, it's $70. Sheesh!

My June water bill was $94.82

We average about $85/month and that's this year (a non-drought year, rare) but I'm not sure if the sewer fees are tied into that. They probably are. We sit on the aquafer and usually by this time of year the drought is so bad that we are charged a ton more per gallon over the average gallon use in our neighborhood. I haven't had to turn on our sprinklers yet this year which probably makes a huge difference.

Our last reasonable bill was for a two month period and includes 1/3 for water, 1/3 for electricity, and 1/3 for 'fees.' Basically it would run about 200 for each third. Later when the temps really soar it will run about 300 to 350 dollars per third for the services. The reason we don't drill a well (the water table here is quite high) is because it is against the law in L.A. I might add that the DWP has a wonderful gimmick to convince the spineless pols who run our collection of fiefdoms: If there is a drought, the rates must be raised to punish people for using too much water/power/services; if there is enough or too much rain, the rates have to be raised to compensate for lower usage of the services, electricity and wate. Can you tell we live in Movieland?
JimD

And just wait until thoes santa ana winds start blowing in So. Cal. I live about a mile from the santa ana river and wonder how many people living in the houses next to it have built a sneaky little well in the backyard. My best friend used to go into the river channel when he was a kid and knock down all the berms they built with the bulldozers so the river could run free. I like to go down to the bike path sometimes and watch herons wading in the slow moving water. Somewhere around the Anaheim Stadium, it dries out. The way they manage it, it doesn't seem like a river to me until the a big rain washes all the berms away.
Anyway, that river soil grows good roses. We planted some rugosas and other antiques over there by the bike path so the wildlife could have them. Also, neither of us had space in our yard for the really big roses so we put them there where the plants put in by the county died out.

June- $156; just got this month's bill- $102- but that was estimated. Includes sewer + fees which are about half or more of the bill. Have about 55 roses + lawns front and back, hanging pots, and assorted shrubs. Since we took out the front tree, the grass perked up and DH was so excited about seeing green lush grass again, he began overwatering- with water flowing down the street. I've cut back and am trying to improve the existing sprinkler system.

National Geographic says future wars will be over water.

Wow! Guess I am the luckiest of all! We live on a lake and are able to pump water from the lake to use through our sprinkler system. Cost is only a few dollars per month for the electricity to pump. House had a deep 200ft well and works great! So, I will count these blessings and hope our lake level stays put!

Our water bill was only $65. Our sewer bill was $120!

Ok, no way did my hubby and I use 22,000 gallon of sewage!! Until now I didn't know that they simply used the water amount to calculate the sewage.

Now I have to write letters and plead with the sewer authority to adjust this, then put a deduct meter in on the outside lines.

The fella who was house sitting for me was trying to be helpful and add a bit of water to the pond.

The first problem with that is that I am on city water which means my water contains additive chlorine. The second problem was that he didn't know that one should never walk away from a hose filling a pond.

He went home for the night and I would say my hose ran for 12-24 hours. I lost all my precious Koi. I got a call from my neighbor, who turned the hose off for me.

I suspect that since I pay twice as much for sewer per gallon as I do water (attached in one bill) that when I do get my bill...it will be in the hundreds....about the same as it cost me to replace my Koi.

sigh....

Ronda