Water charges are due to commence next autumn which means the first bills should arrive early January 2015.  Some of us are currently enduring water restrictions in our homes and are becoming accustomed to less water being available to us in the evenings.

This could be a great learning curve as it might teach us to be more conservative with our water use and subsequently greatly reduce the cost of impending water bills.  A recent survey shows that the average water consumption per person is 150 litres per day.  That equates to two fills of a standard bath tub.  A great deal of this water is wasted and most of us are not aware of the amount of water we each use on a daily basis.

Although there have been no announcements of pricing, or indeed the value of the free allowance that each household is due.  Based on current commercial water charges the cost might be as much as €120 per person per year excluding the free allowance.

As we are all trying to reduce the cost of our household bills, this is a bill where we could make cost reductions.  The simplest of changes such as reducing the time you spend in the shower by just one minute could save 9,000 litres of water per person per year – reducing your bill by about €20 per person per year.

For more ways of reducing your water bills try the website taptips.ie giving some great ideas to get the kids involved also.   To prepare for the new water bill be sure to add this to your household budget.  If you don’t have a budget plan try BillsManager.com , the easy to use free online tool that will help you to budget and manage your bills.   It takes one minute to register and once your budget plan is set up, BillsManager will enable you to maintain your household budget which should only take 10 minutes a month.