The bills have gone up!

I know it's ridiculous and after seeing this we know the other bills are going to be bad as well. My grandmother wasted water like it's no ones business and it annoys my mother and me. She may not care about saving money but we do. This bill is now costing an extra $200 which could have been better spent. Hmm, water can be a tough one to save. Only suggestions I can think of is shorter showers, make sure the taps aren't dripping and if you have a garden that needs watering you can put a bucket in the shower to collect water to use in the garden

We have 3, well really 4, different reasons our water bill is so high. 1. We recently moved from Texas to California. Water in the dessert is cheaper than San Diego by A LOT 2 Our usage is up from where we were in Texas (I reference Texas because that was the first time in about 7 years we had to pay our own water bill) because we could not drink the tap water there. We would fill up 5, 1 gallon jugs of water a week 3. This house has a sprinkler system for the lawn & garden 4.When we moved in, the house had a commercial grade washing machine & dryer. We switched that out at the end of May This is what we have done to reduce the usage: swapped out the washing machine for our own HE machine, banned my son from playing outside witht he house (Which is fine because it is just now getting hot here and he is at his Dads running up their bills lol), modified the sprinkler system so it runs just enough to keep the lawn mostly green. Get this though: our last bill that I just paid was for 5/8-6/12. We were 100% out of town no one running water - even the sprinkler system was off - for 2 days and the HE machine had been in place 2 weeks. The water bill went UP by $5!!! I called and had them come out and check the meter, the meter shows we have no leaks. The customer service rep said that our usage (at our last bill) was consistent with usage from the previous tenant. So, in the desert our average water bill was $60/month. The average water bill right outside of San Diego: $150. The flip side to this is the electric bill. In the desert we were spending about $180 to cool the house during the 115 heat (which for 1430 sqft of a house with everyone home all the time isn't bad IMO). We haven't run the a/c yet here, my son is gone & my husband went out of town for a week. I got our bill that covers 6/22-7/22: $83!!! Down from $119 last month I'm anxiously await the next water bill which we probably own't get for at least another week. The rep said our usage went down a lot. We will see. Yes,all of this does make it hard to save. We are cutting corners where we can, but most of our bills are rent, car note, ect things that do not fluctuate at all and we can't get rid of.

Well I do love San Diego it's a beautiful place with plenty to do but I must say it is an expensive place, I think Cali is one of your most expensive states isn't it? I have a friend that lives there who was considering moving to a cheaper state Wow that really sucks that it went up after all that effort you put in but maybe you will find on the next one it will come down a little if you keep up the good work. I'm glad the electricity bill went right down for you though Just keep finding ways to save on all your usage costs, I hope you are successful with them all!

Well I guess it's better that she is paying for her wastefulness, but I still agree with you! Why waste if you don't have to!? A sweater is much more logical then leaving the heater on all day. If I was you I'd just follow her around and turn everything off behind her! Haha I try as much as I can to save energy. I even unplug things (computer, laps, etc) that I'm not using because even if they are OFF, if they're plugged into the wall it's still using some energy, and it's still costing you money!

Yes she switches on her TV and leaves it on even when she is not using it. She switches on the central heating at 2 in the afterneen and leaves it running all day. Mum and I only switch it on sometimes after 5 or 6 pm when it starts getting really cold. If she is cold she can put a cardigan on but doesn't, rather waste the electricity and gas Oh no this is her house and always has been, she moved out though for about 10 years and has come back so we are not used to living with her anymore. She actually also does pay most of the bills now too so it is no affecting me like that but I just can't stand people being wasteful. Why waste and pay an extra $200 that could have been saved for other things? We used to have strict water restrictions because we were running out and it wasn't raining andso we got used to living on those restrictions. It was people like her being so wasteful that would have caused it in the first place Oh you're not rubbing it in. Because the house is owned I don't have to pay rent either I just buy my own food and chip in the bills but since she moved in she's putting more in so it's less for me there so it's good but I can't get past those other facts

Haahaaa that would get her even more annoyed me thinks I'm exactly the same. I turn off my laptop, PC, toaster and microwave and now my TV and bluray player all off at the switches and I do unplug a few things as well that we don't use as often as those. I was doing well with saving some money too. It's not just her though all the bills went up on the 1st thanks to the government so now we are struggling even more to survive whilst they get their pay rises!

Here in Bulgaria we realized what we actually pay few months ago, when mom's man showed us the list of calculation for the electricity bills they had. They have used electricity for like 50$ and after putting all the taxes the bill got 100$ .. I don't know how is it there, but you probably may try to follow your grandmother and turn off things after she used them. That's how for a month you will see if there is any change. Here when they write us a large bill, the next one will be very close to the last one. And even we receive few bills very close to the first higher one. Once they learn to calculate us higher bill, they easily get used to it. Of course now in the summer they just can't do that, because we don't use heaters, but I am sure as soon as the winter comes they will do the same.

Oh that's strange, it doesn't work like that here, the more you use the more you pay and to have the bill go up by $200 quite a lot would have to be used. We do have other fees on the bill too that are usually already there so this $200 extra is just usage of the gas. If 2 of us only used so little then what other reason could there possibly be? Mum and I know she does waste a lot and it's what the bill is reflecting. There is no need for her to be this wasteful

Ahh yeah we have fees and things on them too but it's still so drastic. It will annoy her if I go switching things off but I might need to do that so she gets in a habit. Rather than tell her and get yelled at I'll just go switch things off HAHA Thank you for the help, we will have to wait and see what happens now and if we can keep saving

That's a really good thing. I do my best to switch off and unplug as much as I can as well, it really does make a difference

Oh no our gas bill is every 2 months but that is still too high! And she is a little old Italian lady, we did tell her and showed the last bill. I hoped showing her would make her think twice before wasting everything but instead she decided to yell at us. Apparently somehow it's our fault the bill has gone up even though all previous bills were around $150 and she is the only thing that's changed. Ever since she moved back in last month it's been a nightmare!

I understand your feeling when receiving a high bill. Don't blame her too much right now because she will be mad with blaming...you can remind her day by day and she feels easy to take it. I hope your next bill will go down...

I can only hope that you are right about that and she changes her ways but apparently she has always been like this according to mum so I don't know how hopeful I am but I can't change it overnight I guess

I know it's just horrible isn't it? Our government adds taxes and lets these companies raise prices and then they give only themselves huge payrises whilst we are left with nothing! I'm scared of the other bills coming now, we were doing fine before but now I'm not sure how we will go. Just need to wait and see

Yeah, you probably have that new charge on your bill too reflecting the impact of the Carbon Tax...

We do which affected it as well but we still used more than usual. And thanks for our stupid cow of a PM we have carbon tax. Next election I'm voting for dumber because dumb has done nothing good

Oh I know it's getting worse with bills going up all the time. I hope after a few of these bills she will stop wasting everything but why should hundreds of dollars be lost because of this? Why can't she see that it does matter. We can't afford to be paying these high bills but she is putting towards them but why waste so much? I hope you will be able to save. Getting rid of hte card is a good idea and you should save a bit from that. Good luck to you

I agree and you know they just keep lining their pockets. They bring in all these taxes for us to pay and then they gave themselves 2 payrises in a space of 3 months! Our government is screwed and we only have the choice between dumb and dumber for our prime minister!

The gas bill is every 2 months here but it's still excessive! Little old Italian grandmothers, there is no reasoning with them at all. It's been a nightmare since she has been back. Our routines have changed, my mum and I feel like we can't really do much in our own house. I went out to have lunch and my grandmother was there in the way because she was cooking and I fely like I just couldn't make anything. It's really weird as she isn't stopping me but I just feel like I can't around her. So I grabbed a packet of potato chips and left. That was over 2 hours ago and she is still in the bloody kitchen. So my eating habits are out of whack too now

If only we could do that. Our gas bills are every 2 months I think they are definitely not monthly. Ther are 3 of us now so you seem to be doing pretty well with your gas at least Oh and if only we could stop her. She's an old Italian grandmother and all she does is clean. I swear you put ony small plate or a cup in the sink and it's gone within 10 minutes. She wastes water on it and all she does is yell at us when we tell her to sit and relax and to stop cleaning for hours!

It is very frustrating. I've never been a wasteful person so it's upsetting that she is. There is no need to waste and then pay more for it. That extra $200 could have gone to something else and not to the gas company