Water bill - what’s yours?

[Noeuf]

Just interested - I can’t see any obvious leaks and there are six of us all of whom shower regularly. Lots of washing of clothes.
One disabled kid who has a daily bath but we don’t qualify for any help from the water people as we earn above their limits.
1000 from June to December for incoming and waste water. So we are 500 in deficit and they are upping the charges each month. Water metre.

Oh goodness! We are SE so everything is more expensive. I’m very worried it’s something I can’t control or find or will be impossible to pay for like a massive leak under the drive

Ex water company bod here.
Turn off your internal stop tap. Go out to the meter. If there's a leak somewhere between the external stop tap and internal stop tap then the dials will move (some meters also have a disc that moves to indicate flow ).
The way to eliminate the possibility of a shared supply is to turn off your internal stop tap and get your neighbours to turn on their kitchen cold tap. Movement on the meter will indicate they are sharing your supply.

Have you checked where the header tank/toilet overflows stick out of the wall to see if any are running ?
Move your washing machine and dishwasher to see if there's a leak behind them.
If you have floorboards rather than a solid slab floor then lift a board to see if there's water under the house.
Check your garden and driveway to see if puddles remain far too long when the weather is dry.
Finally, lift the covers on your drains and see if there's excessive water running through them (water always find the lowest level and drains are usually lower than you would be able to dig).

I pay £29pm for one and £30 for the other, so c. £720 for the year.

I have 2 teens, one of whom can easily spend an hour I the shower and I exercise a lot so often shower twice a day, but there are only 3 of us, so your £1000 doesn't seem that unexpected to me.

WFH and schools closed made a big difference to domestic water consumption with all that extra toilet flushing.

2 adults, 2 kids, two storey house. Showers morning and evening at least 7 baths a week, washing machine on 10 times a week.

We pay a fixed £32 per month. I'd hate to be on a water meter!

@MrsMoastyToasty is this the stop tap? Mums coming down in a bit to help. Im hoping we can work out how to lift the metre and look. Nothing is on at the moment. Thank you for posting im in that spiral of there’s never going to be an end and I’ll just end up with £1000s owing.

@Nevertime my £1000 is for six months

I can also ‘hear’ the radiator in the downstairs loo like water running but not anywhere else. You know that white noise thing.

Yorkshire water £46 a month for two adults. I think ours is too much.

you should be able to get it capped. I did when dd was here full time (don't need to now as only 2 of us) had to get a letter from the gp.

@Noeuf

It’s been going up each reading. Surely that’s weird.

That's jumping up each time.

£42 a month - London.

No metre but I've been meaning to get one as there is only 2 of us here and I think it will work out cheaper.

That looks more like an isolation valve for an appliance like a washing machine or dishwasher, although I might be wrong. It's been a few years since I was last up to date with water company regulations.

Internal stop taps tend to look like an old fashioned tap. Usually found under the kitchen sink, cupboard under the stairs or downstairs loo. Basically imagine a straight line from the external stop tap in the pavement (or wherever yours is) to your kitchen cold tap and it will be somewhere along that route.

£13 a month (septic tank for waste water).

We had an outside leak at our old place, our bills crept up and up so definitely check that out ASAP.

Anglian Water have a useful water usage calculator. Put in the number of baths / showers etc you have a week. The bill will be different unless you're in their region but it gives you usage estimates in m3. Even giving one child a bath every day, everyone else a shower a day, the dishwasher on every day and 2 loads of laundry a day it's only coming out at around the amount you use in 6 months for a year!
So you're either very high water users or you've got a leak somewhere (it could be underground and not obvious). You need to honestly think about how much water you're using. A "normal" shower might be considered to be less than 5 minutes but having seen how long some people are in the ones at the gym I suspect a lot of people take longer!
www.anglianwater.co.uk/help-and-advice/save-water/water-usage-calculator#

We are SE so everything is more expensive.
fake news! Thames Water metered rates £1.48/m3, United Utilities in the north west is £1.85/m3!

£28 per month for everything - 1 adult and 1 child. Before I got the water meter I was £65 for both!

@MrsMoastyToasty thank you - I think you’re right.
Update - they are lovely. When we turned everything off the outside meter was still spinning so they are coming to check (have date). Told not to worry and we will be able to resolve it.

[quote emmathedilemma]We are SE so everything is more expensive.
fake news! Thames Water metered rates £1.48/m3, United Utilities in the north west is £1.85/m3![/quote]

I was going to say that!! Considering the amount of rain we get up north surely it should be cheaper than what it is. I'm always amazed at how low the water bills are from people living down south.

No meter... £48 a month....4 adults and a dog ...3 granchildren 2 nights a week

Anglian water. 3 bed 5 people. Capped due to 3 children £46 a month. We have fish tanks for even more water usage too.

Cornwall/South West Water here. No meter as we're 4 adults in a 3 bed house and advice is to stay non metered.
£97 a month!!

I wish we weren’t metered!
Neighbour has told me to isolate the cold water tank before checking the metre so will do that tomorrow.

Dh is being totally useless. Doesn’t know where the stop cock is, thinks we are using more water (each reading?), doesn’t seem to get ‘Increase’ v ‘a lot’. Am going to try checking the metre again tmrw after isolating the cold water tank just to check if that was filling when I checked this time.

this is my most recent water bill and gas and electric bill. 2 adults and 4 kids, I canr understand why ours is so much more than everyone else's.

We do live in a large house but it's new build, we'll insulated we don't use heating that much.