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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask how much your water bills are?

148 replies

ExitPursuedByABear · 31/07/2015 14:42

Sorry to be nosy, but we have recently had our water meter 'upgraded' to a smart version, which means, apparently, that the water company can drive past the house, point a device and read our meter without coming in to the house.

But our water bill has shot up.

I am of the opinion that our old meter was not working properly and that we have been undercharged for years.

DH thinks DD has started having too many baths.

idiot

OP posts:
avocadotoast · 31/07/2015 21:50

£35 a month.

But then I know someone who lives the other side of my city, two adults and one child like us, smaller house, and they pay £60 Shock

SingingSamosa · 31/07/2015 21:56

We pay £160 a year for ours (twice yearly bills of £80). We have a fairly large 5 bedroom house, dishwasher on daily, washing machine on daily, 5 people bathing/showering almost daily. We are not sparing with the water really. We also have a field of sheep with an automatic water trough (not that sheep drink very much though). We are on a water meter but as we have a septic tank we don't pay sewerage charges, just the price of the actual water we use. I think we pay about £100 to get the tank emptied once a year, split between us and our next door neighbour.

Etak15 · 31/07/2015 21:56

I think it's always cheaper to have a water meter. when we moved house ( bigger house and nicer area than before) I had budgeted for the council tax being more but stupidly never thought about the water bill (we were on a meter at other house roughly paid £20) month. We got our first water bill here and it was £83 a month (rates not meter) so we changed to a water meter took them a couple of months to fit, they still tried then to set me up a direct debit scheme of £60 a month, I rang them to say no thankyou I'll just pay on invoice - our first quarterly bill was £74 so £25 a month roughly - that's for six of us, dishwasher, washing machine on everyday etc so unless your water rates are really cheap or you use vast amounts of water - get a meter and don't pay by direct debit.

SouthWestmom · 31/07/2015 22:00

16 pounds water in (meter) went up from 11 pounds recently
38 waste water

Six of us

Hopefully · 31/07/2015 22:04

We are in the SW (so expensive water) and have a DD set up of £79 a month, and are on a meter. Some quarters we're fractionally in credit, some we're fractionally on debit, but it more or less works out. Family of 5, dishwasher and laundry on at least once a day (and dishwasher is small, old and probably v inefficient). We replaced the ancient washing machine a couple of months ago and I'll be interested to see if it makes a noticeable difference. I reckon DH's daily 20 minute showers are the biggest culprit though.

WoodliceCollection · 31/07/2015 22:28

£362 per year. No meter.

eightoutoften · 31/07/2015 22:33

£392 per year, not on metre

Missm00 · 31/07/2015 22:37

£11 a month, metered, direct debit
And that's for a 2 bed council house, one adult two children :)

dontcallmelen · 31/07/2015 22:54

£365 per year no meter three of us daily showers laundry once a day, no dishwasher.

Getthewonderwebout · 31/07/2015 23:00

We're not on a meter and pay £320 per year.

honeyroar · 31/07/2015 23:13

I've been brought up on well water and am living in a house with no mains water again now. I love it. No water bills at all, but you obviously do your own maintenance. It teaches you to be very aware of what water you're using and not to waste it (it has run out twice when I was little and there was a drought).

Can you not have a bore hole put in and opt out of mains watered you've a free hold property with a decent sized garden? They cost about £10k to install then you need them servicing and filters changed every now and again.

Sallystyle · 31/07/2015 23:16

£130 every three months.

7 of us.

Powaqa · 31/07/2015 23:25

£33.50 a month for 10 months DD. No meter

5 adults , pets 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms

Dishwasher 2x daily Washing Machine 1 x daily

My parents ( 2 bedroom, one bathroom in Wales) are on a water meter and to help keep costs down to similar levels to ours hardly use water at all, In fact their loo only gets flushed once a day and washing up a couple of times a week, They collect rain water etc to help. I couldnt and don't want to live like that

JuneIsBustingOutAllOver · 31/07/2015 23:33

£750 a year with Yorkshire water. No meter. Must say I'm jealous of some of the prices others are paying!

MrsBungle · 31/07/2015 23:38

My Dd has just been reduced from £33 a month to £27. 2 adults and 2 Kids. We do actively try to save water as on a meter but that's still 2 power showers per day. I never leave a tap running and don't always flush wees

Fosterslover · 01/08/2015 10:15

Averages out between £30 - £36 a month dd no meter

VodkaJelly · 01/08/2015 10:26

I said somewhere else in the thread that my rates are £80 a month for 10 months, so £800 a year, as others have said it is United Utilities, I have no idea why we pay so much, I live in the North West, it does nothing but rain here, I really dont know how they can justify their charges. i am so envious that some of you are only paying £390 a year.

Kraggle · 01/08/2015 10:32

Water meter with Yorkshire water, me DH and a 2 year old. 2 daily showers and a half bath for dd every day, dishwasher and washing machine on at least once a day £31 a month they have just upped our direct debit from £27 as we were in arrears.

IcaMorgan · 01/08/2015 10:42

On a meter with Thames Water, £15 per month. Before I moved last year when I wasn't on a meter it was £34 per month with Thames Water

ScrambledEggAndToast · 01/08/2015 11:40

£21.50 PCM for 1 adult and 1 child in a 2 bed flat. I am told we live in one of the cheapest parts of the country though. Having moved from one of the most expensive, where it was £80 A MONTH!! for the 2 of us in a 2 bed flat then I'm ok with my bill.

reallyhopenot · 01/08/2015 11:47

£9.29 per month. Me and 2DC, I pay £15 a month because I'm sure that's wrong. I got a cheque for £74 credit last year. We use either a bath or shower daily and I wash up 3 times a day.

Flambola · 01/08/2015 11:48

£45pcm DD.

Etak15 · 01/08/2015 12:17

So for those of you paying £750-800 in water rates, have you considered changing to a meter? Doing this has cut my bill down to about 25% of the water rates,

CheeseBaguette · 01/08/2015 13:01

Nothing will ever convince me to go back to water metering due to the issues mentioned up thread.

Its cheaper now and cheaper when nothing goes wrong but when it does go wrong it costs hell of a lot more than 25% to put right.

I am also now a keen gardener and wash our cars at home on our driveway. In my last house (before I got into gardening) we had dodgy drains that blocked reguarly - DH used to lift the drain cover and blast it through with water (so did our neighbours a few doors up). Something I would not like to be worrying over the cost of. I doubt my current water use would be less money than it is on rates. I also do not want to become like my sister and a few of my friends, who dont always pull the flush on the loo, only shower once a day when they admit they used to shower twice a day when on water rates. My sister piles up the whole days dishes (family of 7) and only washes up once a day, having ditched her dishwasher because washing up once a day by hand saves even more water. The woman next door was telling her kids a few weeks back in the hot weather she wasnt going to pay to fill up their swimming pool before the start of the summer holidays.

I certainly dont waste water but I use it as I want to. There is no way on a water meter I would be growing my own fruit and veg thats for sure.

DirtyMugPolice · 01/08/2015 13:05

£51 a month with 2 adults and one 4 year old who has a nightly bath. We are on a meter too.