A few years ago we moved a few blocks within the same town. Our water bill jumped about $40 a month, for what seemed like no reason. Our usage hadn't changed, so we were really boggled. I even called the water department to see if there may be a leak or some other issue, but they weren't able to come up with anything either. So we were stuck paying the bill - month after month, double what we had been paying before. Fast forward to a few months ago. We were noticing really bad hard water deposits, and decided that our water softener needed to be replaced. We have very hard water, and the softener was going through salt like mad. It would recharge every day, but it was as though it wasn't working at all. We decided to bite the bullet and have the softener replaced. The next month's bill was down by $20! That old water softener had been wasting water and costing us money all that time. I wish we had replaced it right when we moved in - it would have more than paid for the new softener by now! The moral of the story is this. If you think your bill is too high, do a self-check of every single place the water goes in your home, especially the out of sight, out of mind places!
