How to pay less for utilities: ways to save

I’m choosing a new building, should I already think about utility bills?

It’s worth it, because you can reduce costs even before you buy an apartment. To do this, you just need to choose the right LCD. It often happens in practice that the price of an apartment seems very attractive, but the developer can establish his own management company with an increased cost of maintenance.

So, how to reduce utility bills:

First of all, read the reviews of residents who already live in the new building from the developer from whom you are going to buy an apartment.
Choose an energy efficient project. It involves the introduction of a number of innovative technologies to reduce heat loss in the building
. At the same time, savings on utility bills reach approximately 36%.
Pay attention to how heat is supplied to the apartment. That is, is individual energy consumption taken into account, is it possible to adjust the temperature regime.

These 3 details will help you understand how the developer approaches the problems of excessive energy consumption.

To reduce utility bills, you need to pay attention to how the developer approaches the problems of excessive consumption of energy resources.

When can you reduce the cost of utilities for an apartment?

Is it possible to reduce utility bills? Photo No. 1

Every year the cost of utility services in Russia is growing steadily. Not every family can afford such a luxury, namely, paying for utilities in the amount of 10-20% of the family budget. This phenomenon often causes dissatisfaction among citizens, and it is often justified.

If ordinary people are not able to change tariffs, then many of them can get some relief in paying for housing and communal services and, most importantly, if possible.

Most often, citizens seek to reduce the cost of their “utilities” for an apartment for the following reasons:

low quality of services provided (dirty tap water, lack of hot water supply, heating failures, etc.);
the cost of services is too high for them and they are unable to bear such financial expenses;
citizens have already been notified of their preferential status and want to take advantage of it (there is a disabled person in the family, the family is recognized as low-income, etc.).

Each of the reasons presented above is a good reason to reduce the cost of utilities. It is important to follow the procedure for organizing savings of this kind within the framework of the law and not try to circumvent it in order to save money.

Otherwise, there is a considerable risk of having to bear responsibility before the law, and not always civilly.

What payments on a receipt can I refuse?

If you carefully study the receipt, there will be services that you don’t need to involve your neighbors to refuse. Such services include, for example, TV antenna, radio and public address. In total, you can overpay about 4,000 rubles in 12 months.

To refuse radio and notification, you need to come to the public services center, write an application and pay 60 rubles. You must have an identity document with you.

To turn off the TV antenna, just contact and write a statement about refusal of the service. Have your passport and an extract from the Unified State Register with you

. This document can be replaced by a copy of the state registration certificate of the right.

If you submit these documents before the 20th day of the current month, the next receipt will not include these services.

Recalculation

You can submit papers to adjust the amount of utility bills if the provision of services is poor. The legal basis is significant interruptions, systematic breakdowns and poor quality of services. For example, if there is no debt, houses should have constant hot and cold water.

According to accepted standards of water supply, it must be uninterrupted, regular and around the clock. At the same time, there are acceptable breaks - approximately 8 hours in total for 1 month, but no more than 4 hours in one day. For example, if the population is left without water longer than expected, the payment to housing and communal services should be significantly less. Deviations in the pressure standards inside the pipes, water quality and temperature are also unacceptable (water should “run” no colder than 50°C along the hot branches of the pipes).

Attention! If any discrepancy is detected, the emergency control service should be immediately reported.

In this case, an employee of the organization must put a special mark to take into account the application from the consumer. In the future, such a designation may be the basis for confirming the fact of improper provision of services.

In practice, achieving success and proving your case in such situations can be difficult, but possible. For a positive outcome of the situation, problems should be reported as quickly as possible; it is better if several residents of the same high-rise building call.

You can also recalculate if you were away from the apartment for more than 5 days. To do this, you must have a number of documents to confirm your departure. Having the papers, you can submit an application and recalculate payments for basic and additional housing and communal services payments. Such actions must be taken no later than 30 days from the date of departure. If the trip from home is planned, you can prepare in advance and notify the utility company.

List of documents that can confirm the right to recalculation upon departure:

travel tickets and accommodation/hotel reservations;
a certificate from the medical institution where inpatient treatment was carried out;
business trip certificate;
a note about registration at another place of residence and others.

Copies of available documents must be attached to the completed application. After an official review of the papers, the government agency is obliged to communicate its decision.

Do water meters help you save on bills?

Yes, after installing meters, savings can be up to 50% of the usual payment. It should be noted that many new buildings already have individual utility metering devices

.
In their absence, water consumption will be calculated according to general standards. For example, you will have to pay more than 500 rubles per month for water consumption
.
If a meter is installed, this amount will be about 350 rubles for 20 cubic meters of cold water. To install the meter, you must contact the management company and be sure to ensure that the device is sealed after installation
. In each receipt, indicate the current readings of the device.

What housing and communal services can you avoid paying for if you don’t live in an apartment?

If utilities are paid based on meters, that is, according to the volume of resources actually used, then if there are no residents in the apartment, a number of services will not be paid for, for example, electricity, gas, water, and in some cases even heating.

At the same time, receipts for payment for housing and communal services include such items as maintenance of premises, maintenance of common property, and so on. Payment for such services must be made even when no one lives in the apartment.

Attention! Calculator for calculating penalties for paying for utilities (Part 14, Article 155 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation).

If there are no meters, then receipts will come with an average indicator, which will require an additional contact with the management company. However, no recalculation will be made.

Installation of multi-tariff electricity meters

Installing a two- or three-tariff meter will save money

There are one-, two- and three-tariff meters. In the first case, the device multiplies the consumed kilowatts by the standard tariff
.
In the second and third, the device takes into account the time of day of electricity use. Please note that during the day the cost of electricity for two-tariff devices will be higher than for a regular single-tariff device
. A two-tariff meter will allow you to save money if you leave for work early in the morning and return late in the evening.

Recalculation after vacation

This action is appropriate if there are no metering devices in the house. To receive a recalculation, you must provide documents confirming your absence - tickets, checks from the hotel, etc.

. d. It is also worth providing a statement explaining why it is impossible to install metering devices in the apartment.

This measure often allows you to save more than all the energy-saving light bulbs installed in the apartment. That is, how to save money... Just don’t pay too much.

So-called “double receipts” are still not uncommon. This is when they try to charge you twice for the same service or services. The calculation is that many citizens pay without looking and do not delve into the details at all
.

Another typical scam is when the payment invoice overstates the volume of services consumed. Say, extra cubic meters of water are attributed

.
More often this is done when meters are not installed and it is more difficult to figure out why so many rubles have flowed in. But other options are also possible - again, counting on the inattention of citizens
.

If you have any doubts, the first authority you should contact for clarification is the organization that issues you the payment. If they did not give a clear answer there, or did not give any answer at all, you can complain to the State Housing Inspectorate - this organization has the right to check the correctness of the accrual of housing and communal services

It is better to contact all authorities in writing - so that one copy of the application (with a note that it was accepted) remains with you.

An important point: if it turns out that you were actually cheated, you now not only have the right to demand a recalculation. The management organization is also obliged to pay you a fine - in the amount of 50% of the excessively accrued amount.

“This money will be deducted from the payment for the next month,” explains Svetlana Razvorotneva, executive director of Housing and Communal Services Control.

In today's article, I will give you 7 tips on how to save on utility bills and at the same time receive significant savings on your own funds without paying extra.

Apart from saving money, you will also learn some tricks on how to wisely use resources such as electricity, water and others.

How to pay less for utilities?

Absolutely all electrical appliances operating in standby mode consume electricity. This means that the TV, computer and other electronics “pulls” money from your budget even when you are not at home.

To stop wastefulness, do not be lazy to turn off everything from the network; also remember that even if the charger is not connected to the device, but plugged into the outlet, it also causes your electric meter to add kilowatts.

We install motion sensors. An adult will learn to press the switch button every time he leaves the room over a long period of time. In order not to waste precious resources while you develop a useful habit, you can use motion sensors; they can turn off the lights on their own when they leave the room.
We buy energy-saving equipment.

A good reason for receiving a recalculation may be poor water quality, low room temperature at the height of the heating season, lukewarm water from a hot tap, or untimely garbage collection. In addition, it is necessary to require recalculation in situations where the management company charges for services that are not performed or that the citizen does not need.

Saving on rent Some household tricks allow you to save money. One of the most effective ways to significantly reduce the monthly rent is the reasonable use of supplied resources, as well as the installation of individual devices for their metering. Installing two-tariff or multi-tariff meters will help you save on electricity bills.

Olga Bregnova | Insurance Law | 03/23/2018 03:14 0 Comments

Is your management company honest?

Always check the receipt your property management company sends you before paying. It is possible that unscrupulous managers include extra payments in the payment bill or count more utilities than you have in the basement according to the meters.

Remember that this obviously includes:

replacement of risers
maintenance and timely replacement of plumbing equipment at home
cleaning common areas
landscaping and landscaping of the local area

Tips on how to save on utility bills include more active actions.

Turn off everything you don't use

One of the simplest options on what you can really save on. Some people's bills include payment for radio points, which they often had before, especially in older housing stock.

If you do not use it, disable this service by writing a statement through the MFC. Also, many people pay for a common house antenna
. But if your Internet provider provides IP television services, which is included in the monthly payment, then you can safely refuse to pay for the antenna.

If you do not use a landline phone, but have completely switched to the services of cellular operators, then refusing this payment can make your housing and communal services payments easier.

Meters are the key to lower payments

If you still don’t know how to save on utility bills, then remember if you have meters. Many people still pay for far more services than they actually consume.

. So those who have not installed water meters sometimes pay 10 times more than they would have, taking into account actual consumption.

For those who do not have water meters, consider the service to be standard according to the average values for the home; savings with meters can be up to 75-80%.

How to pay less for an apartment?

Something very important needs to happen for us to start paying attention to the numbers on our rent receipts. For example, the financial crisis. Or a decrease in income. Or retirement. Or moving to a house managed by a housing construction cooperative.

Yes, yes, not all housing cooperatives have been transformed into homeowners' associations. They function just as they were built 15-20 years ago. At the same time, as a rule, the management of the house is carried out by a group of people, it is unclear who was elected and it is unclear in whose interests they act. A woman, the owner of a two-room apartment in a small town near Moscow, came to me for advice. The invoices she presented for review were impressive: 37 rubles. 29 kop. per square meter. Where did this amount come from? A study of prices on average in the city showed that the highest tariff was 35 rubles, and we were talking about residential premises in an elite new building with its own boiler room. And here it’s almost 40 rubles. for a small-sized “kopeck piece” in a fifteen-year-old house.

Based on the results of the conversation, it turned out that a housing construction cooperative operates in the house. However, in this case, the tariff for the maintenance and repair of residential premises, as well as all components of the payment for the maintenance and repair of common property in an apartment building, are established by the general meeting (subclause 8 of Article 156 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation). Since the law does not prohibit setting extremely prohibitive tariffs, perhaps the residents themselves agreed to pay that kind of money?

In order to find out, we sent a request to the board with a request to provide minutes of the general meetings at which the tariffs charged were approved. As one would expect, the board refused: “they say, you weren’t at the general meeting, but you approved everything there.” This is despite the fact that there is a Standard for the disclosure of information by organizations operating in the field of management of apartment buildings (approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated September 23, 2010 No. 731), which obliges them to submit not just minutes of general meetings (subparagraph “d”, paragraph 9 (1) of the Standard), but even copies of these documents, certified by the signature of the chairman and the seal of the Novy housing cooperative (clause 9(2) of the Standard), and personally to the applicant at the address of the actual location of the management bodies within 20 days from the date of receipt of the request (clause 21(1) of the Standard).

In this simple way, an administrative offense was committed under Article 7.23.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation “Violation of legal requirements on the disclosure of information by organizations operating in the field of management of apartment buildings.” For information: liability arises for violation of the procedure, methods or deadlines for disclosure of information established by the information disclosure standard, or disclosure of information not in full, or provision of false information. The sanctions are as follows: • for officials: from 30 to 50,000 rubles; • for companies and individual entrepreneurs – from 250 to 300,000 rubles.

However, the client did not want to raise the issue of administrative liability. She was more interested in where the strange numbers on the bills came from. When, with the help of housing inspectors, it was possible to literally “hardly” demand the minutes of general meetings, it turned out that the amount of payment for the maintenance and repair of residential premises, actually approved by the residents, was: • 23.30 rubles. per sq. m - in 2012; • 26 rub. per sq. m - in 2013.

Where then did the other amounts appear on the receipts? The answer was discovered after studying the tariffs posted on information boards at the entrances. It turns out that in addition to the tariff approved by the general meeting of residents, the board charged monthly:

during 2012 – 2.71 rubles. per sq. m for garbage removal and 8.00 rub. per sq. m for the elevator; during 2013 – 2.93 rubles. per sq. m for garbage removal and 8.36 rubles. per sq. m for the elevator.

Meanwhile, the fee for the maintenance of the common property of the house already includes: • collection and removal of solid and liquid household waste (subparagraph “e” of clause 11 of the Rules for the maintenance of common property in an apartment building (approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of August 13, 2006 No. 491) ); • current and major repairs, preparation for seasonal operation and maintenance of common property (subparagraph “h”, paragraph 11 of the specified document), which includes elevators (subparagraph “a”, paragraph 2 of the specified document).

That is, the amounts are already included in the tariff for the maintenance and repair of the house, but they were and are being charged again. In addition, the tariff for maintenance and repairs, as it turned out, included VAT, despite the fact that, according to the receipts, the house maintenance is carried out by the housing cooperative on its own (residents were not notified about the conclusion of contracts with third-party contractors). This is while the implementation of work (services) for the maintenance and repair of common property in an apartment building, performed (provided) by housing cooperatives, is exempt from VAT taxation (subclause 30, clause 3, article 149 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). Attempts to find out from the accountant at what rates VAT was charged and where it actually went, “brought” the unfortunate woman to a nervous breakdown (she, as the board said, “was offended” and “threw everything” (?!)). Well, nerves are nerves, and almost 14 thousand rubles, which in two years the board managed to “remove” from the owner of a single “kopeck piece” is 14 thousand rubles. By the way, at the same time it turned out that all this time an extra square meter was included in the bills, not only for our client, but also for a couple of her neighbors. As they say, the hen pecks every grain. However, the board graciously agreed to correct the footage. Based on the results of the research, a letter was drawn up to the Main Directorate of Housing Inspection for the region. The results of the inspection confirmed our suspicions: there was no reason to charge for garbage removal and elevator maintenance in excess of what was included in the fee for the maintenance and repair of residential premises, approved by the residents at the general meeting.

The board was ordered to carry out a reconciliation, recalculate and return the overpayment. Of course, nothing of this has been done yet, so the dispute is moving to another stage - the judicial one. So, if you are starting to be confused by the numbers on your bills, then it’s probably worth finding out where they come from. Let's not forget that soon we will have to make contributions for major repairs, and this will be another 5-7 rubles. from square (depending on region). But where your money will end up is not always known, especially if the business is run by “all your own” people, headed by “nervous” accountants.

Replace incandescent bulbs with LED or energy-saving ones

LEDs are modern assistants for those who like to save money without losing quality of life. Firstly, LED lamps consume up to 80% less electricity compared to conventional incandescent lamps.

Secondly, they are practically eternal, because they burn out much less often. Remember how many times a year you changed ordinary Soviet light bulbs?

Thirdly, LED lamps are environmentally friendly, because their production and therefore their composition do not contain mercury.

How to SAVE on housing and communal services (HCS). We reduce utility bills and rent. Lifehacks

Paying utility bills takes away more and more money from residents of multi-storey buildings every year. This situation is associated with the depletion of natural resources that provide us with heat, light and running water.

.
However, not everyone can survive in such conditions, so people who want to learn how to save on housing and communal services have long begun to use useful advice from experts
. There are several proven and effective methods for maintaining a family budget that will be very easy to test in practice.

How to save on housing and communal services: step-by-step instructions

Preferential categories. It is quite possible to receive benefits from the state if the family includes people who are entitled to them
. Consider carefully whether the following categories live in your apartment:
- disabled people;
elderly people over 80 years of age;
children under 1.5 years old;
orphans who have not reached the age of majority.

If you find any, you can get a discount on utility bills from 30 to 50%. Also, large families with 3 or more children living before or after the age of 16 can pay less, but provided that they are students of general education institutions

. If you managed to find several categories of beneficiaries in your family, you can choose which of them will be most profitable for you to pay your bills.

We receive a subsidy. People whose income is below average should think about how to save on housing and communal services by applying for compensation from the state
. To do this, you need to calculate how much income per family member is received per month.
If the figure is 2,000 rubles or less, the total payment for utilities should not exceed 3% of the total family income
. If 1 resident of an apartment has 2000-2500 rubles per month, you can pay 6% of your earnings, but in order to spend 10% of your total income, you need to have 2500 rubles or more per person.
If you have recalculated the total wages of all family members and it turns out that it is not enough to pay utility bills, you can apply for a subsidy
. This can be done under the following conditions:
you are a tenant who lives in council or public housing;
you are a tenant who rents an apartment from private individuals.
We pay attention to the quality of the services provided . Very often we pay for heat, which in fact is not available during the cold months of the year, for hot water, which is turned off several times a week
.
If you find such violations, you can contact the emergency dispatch organization with a request, and make sure that the request is necessarily documented. Facts such as turning off water for more than 8 hours a month can be considered violations, and one shutdown session should not exceed 3 hours; only in case of serious accidents is it allowed to leave the population disconnected from the centralized water supply for up to 24 hours.
Heating the water is also important - very often on the upper floors it is simply impossible to wait for hot water from the tap, since there is not enough pressure . This is also a strong argument for recalculating tariffs; hot water is considered really hot if its temperature is not lower than 50⁰C.
We sign everyone out of the apartment who is not needed . To find out how to save on rent, you need to think about how many people actually live in your living space and how many people are registered there
.
Surely there will be those who are simply listed in the documents and at the same time take money from your family budget.
Try to get rid of all the “ghost residents” and the amount in your receipts will be significantly less .
In order to discharge a person from an apartment, you can contact him personally or through the court
. Such issues can be resolved most favorably by owners of privatized apartments, provided that the persons being discharged do not have the right of lifelong residence, i.e. abandoned privatization at one time.
We do not pay for the time we do not live in the apartment . According to the law, a person who does not live in an apartment for more than 5 days can draw up a special application and take it to the housing office for recalculation of tariffs.
be valid, you must provide documentary evidence of your absence along with it: these could be personalized boarding passes, vouchers to sanatoriums or resorts, calls to a session, etc. If your family has several people who are rarely at home, you can avoid paying for them using this trick.

How to reduce rent

To significantly reduce your monthly payment, you should take a number of steps.

Completing only one of the points will help reduce the total amount, but not as noticeably as if you do it comprehensively:

Save consumed resources. This method is applicable to all categories of citizens. Many residents doubt that in this way it will be possible to significantly reduce payments, but practice shows that proper use of resources reduces rent by almost a quarter. You can save with the following options:
replacing light bulbs with energy-saving ones. Electricity is one of the most consumable items, especially in the winter, when additional heaters work and the lights turn on very early. In some regions there is a reduced nightly rate. Therefore, it is better to turn on energy-intensive devices such as a washing machine or dishwasher at night;
disabling unclaimed services. To do this, you need to carefully study the receipt. Perhaps it includes a bill for radio broadcasts that no one uses anymore. To waive extra costs, you should write an application to the management company.
Extract excess members. Each additionally registered person increases the payment for housing and communal services. For example, a registered relative moved long ago and acquired his own home. If you remove him from the total number of residents, the rent will go down.
Recalculate. If a citizen travels a lot or works on a rotational basis, during his absence he can recalculate the total payment amount. To do this, you should go to the Criminal Code and fill out the appropriate petition. In addition, recalculation can be made for poorly rendered services. Frequent shutdowns of hot or cold water supply, cold radiators in winter may be a reason to request a recalculation of the payment receipt. Here you should have knowledge of the established standards:
the total number of hours per month during which there is no water should not exceed eight;
a one-time shutdown of water supply should not exceed 4 hours;
the water that flows through the heating pipes is not allowed below 50 degrees.
Get a benefit.
Apply for a subsidy.

The last two methods are worth considering in more detail, since benefits for calculating rent are not available to all categories of citizens. The circle of persons who apply for them is defined in Article No. 160 of the Housing Code of Russia.

A preferential accrual involving a 50% discount is available to the following categories of residents:

disabled people and parents of disabled children;
large families with ten or more children.

A 30% discount is provided for:

families with three or more children;
children under the age of one and a half years;
elderly people who have crossed the 80-year mark;
orphans until they reach adulthood.

Preferential accrual can only be provided on one basis. If, for example, in a large family there is also a disabled child, you should select one of the categories. This only applies to one immovable property.

Both home owners and tenants of municipal housing have the right to apply for subsidies and compensation. The key condition for filing an application is to receive an income that does not exceed the subsistence level.

Regardless of the cost of living, subsidies are available:

pensioners;
disabled people;
single-parent families;
families with a disabled person.

For pensioners

They have the right to receive subsidies if the rent reaches the maximum possible amount, and when it is deducted from the pension, an amount remains that is less than the subsistence level. Moreover, this opportunity is available not only to single pensioners, but also to those who live as part of a family.

For the poor

This category includes citizens whose income per family member does not exceed 1.5 times the subsistence level. Not all individuals will be classified as low-income. If a person does not work without a good reason, for example, he suffers from alcoholism, then he will not be classified in this category, and therefore will not be subsidized.

If the entire family is working, but their total income is such that the rent is 22% or more of it, then they also fall under preferential accrual. They can apply for a housing subsidy.

If no one lives in the apartment

Even if the purchased real estate is actually empty, charges for utility bills are still made. However, not for the entire list. You will only have to pay for the maintenance of the house. At the same time, by contacting the housing and communal services authorities, you can remove the fee for cleaning the house and surrounding area from housing services.

Utilities are paid only for registered members. If no one is registered in the living space, payments for water, gas and other items will not be made.

The only payment that cannot be removed is the heating fee. It is calculated from general house indicators and will not be recalculated for a specific apartment.

In order to bring the receipts into compliance, the owner or tenant should contact the Housing Office with an application.

Reasonable consumption is the key to low payments

Even after you carefully study the composition of your family, it may happen that you will not be able to discover objective factors that will allow you to use the above legal tricks. This is not a reason to despair!

You can find out how to save on housing and communal services by optimizing your resource consumption. Follow simple rules and notice how your bills decrease and your family budget increases.

Save on lighting

In Belgium there is a very good tradition; when darkness falls, it is customary to use candles to illuminate the premises. In our country, such a romantic method of illumination would hardly take root, since a good candle costs several tens of hours more than electricity. There is only one way out - save light!

We do this by introducing the following rules into everyday life:

We replace all incandescent light bulbs with energy-efficient LED analogues . Don’t be alarmed by their cost - it is absolutely justified; on average, one innovative lamp helps save from 50 to 80% of electricity per month. In addition, such lighting devices have a service life of up to 10 years.
Learning to make the most of daylight . To do this, you need to make as many windows as possible, avoid cluttering the window sills with flower pots and other trinkets, and hang light wallpaper in the room that will reflect light well.

Learning to turn off what we don't use . Absolutely all electrical appliances operating in standby mode consume electricity
. This means that the TV, computer and other electronics “pulls” money from your budget even when you are not at home. To stop wastefulness, do not be lazy to turn off everything from the network; also remember that even if the charger is not connected to the device, but plugged into the outlet, it also causes your electric meter to add kilowatts.
We install motion sensors . An adult will learn to press the switch button every time he leaves the room over a long period of time. In order not to waste precious resources while you develop a useful habit, you can use motion sensors; they can turn off the lights on their own when they leave the room.
We buy energy-saving equipment . New generation household appliances can consume much less energy, but still have high power
. Such equipment has an energy saving class of A and higher; its purchase will cost more, but within a few months it will pay for itself.

We pay less for heating

To find out how to pay less for heating your apartment, you should immediately figure out whether there are heat meters in your house or entrance. If there are none, you need to install them, because this way you can eliminate the cost of paying for the lines through which heat flows to you. You can also significantly reduce costs if you take care of ensuring a comfortable microclimate at home, the following tips will help you do this:

Replacement of windows and balcony doors . Up to 70% of the heat intended for heating the room can be “aired” through old window frames and balcony doors. Replace outdated windows with energy-saving double-glazed windows - they will help warm your apartment and also protect you from street noise.

Insulation of the entrance . Make sure that the front door is always tightly closed, this will prevent cold air from entering your apartment
. Also try to replace the old windows on the staircases and you will immediately see how much warmer it will become in the entrance and in the apartment.
We insulate the façade of the building . Now it is possible to insulate not only windows and doors, but also the walls of apartments. This service is not cheap, but you will be able to appreciate it at its true worth already at the first frost.

Reducing water consumption

Water use can also be minimized by optimizing your costs. To prevent bills from putting us into a state of panic, we need to adopt the following tips:

We use water wisely . Take a shower instead of a bath, wash dishes in a sink with a plug, or better yet, use a dishwasher
.
Wash clothes only when the machine drum is completely full, turn off the tap when brushing your teeth
. All these simple tricks will help significantly reduce costs.
We repair and replace plumbing fixtures . A dripping faucet or a leaking toilet is a minus of up to 140 liters of water per month. In order not to waste your money, take the time to repair and replace those parts and elements that have already worn out.
We equip taps with aerators . An aerator is a sprayer that fits onto a faucet. It allows you to increase the flow of water with low pressure
. Consequently, you can do all the same water procedures as before, but consume fewer resources.
We save on drainage . You should replace your old tank with a new one equipped with an economical drain button
. If this is not possible, then you can cheat, take a plastic container, it can be a canister or a 1.5-2 liter bottle, fill it with water, and lower it to the bottom of the tank. This way you can save up to 180 liters of water per day using just one toilet.

Those who are interested in how to save on rent in an apartment will definitely need all these tips. You can wait for help from the state, or you can do it yourself

start saving

on the consumption of gas, water and electricity. Take only legal measures to reduce gastrointestinal costs and you will be able to easily save a considerable part of your family budget.

Utility savings

When I met my neighbor downstairs and learned that he pays 12 thousand rubles/month for utilities , I was horrified

.
I even asked him for a receipt so I could trust him. Then he started asking his friends for meter readings and the cost of services
.
It turns out that many, knowing ways to save electricity and water, do not use them in life, and thereby pay huge sums to the management company, housing and communal services,
etc.
One of my friends said why should I save on utilities if the difference is small, about 20 rubles
. But 20 rubles. for one wash, and there can be 5-10 of them per month, and this already saves 100 rubles on electricity alone.

Different regions have different tariffs, so it would be correct to compare using meter readings. Compare your monthly readings with mine: cold water 2.5 cubic meters, hot water 0.5 cubic meters, electricity day - 29 kW/h, night - 19 kW/h. If your readings are higher than mine, then it makes sense to read about saving on utility bills, and if less, then share your ways to save in the comments.

Saving on utility bills

Where does saving on utility bills begin?! Let's start with saving water. Turn off the water whenever you are not using it, such as while washing dishes or while you are washing them.

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For some, it runs all the time from the beginning to the end of washing and even under strong pressure
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It is very convenient and economical, both in terms of money and time, to first soap all the dishes, then rinse them of detergent under a slightly lower than average stream. In summer you can do without hot water, since cold water is warm enough at this time
. During shower procedures, the same thing, while you are washing, turn off the water and do not apply strong pressure, it is of no use. A colleague and I recently remembered my grandmother’s method - while you wash your hands, put a bucket or basin so that water can be poured there, and then it can be used to flush the toilet.

How to save on utilities: electricity

Let's move on to electricity. Many houses have day-night meters installed

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In this case, it is beneficial to do many things at night
. It is very convenient to use the washing machine at night. In the morning you wake up and hang out your laundry, and at the same time pay 3 times less for electricity.

How to save on utility bills

The question immediately arises about food, how to cook at night. And here there is an excellent solution - a multicooker that will prepare the necessary dish. Night mode is valid until 7 am
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Accordingly, when you wake up for work, you can prepare yourself breakfast
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To boil water in a kettle, pour as much water as you need
. There is no point in pouring the entire kettle, since it will take more electricity to boil it.

Savings on payments

It happens that from the entire list above there is no reason for more economical payment. But there is no need to despair ahead of time. You can reduce the numbers on receipts due to reduced resource consumption.

In order to save on lighting, it is necessary to replace all incandescent lamps with energy-saving ones, make maximum use of daylight, turn off unnecessary devices, purchase only energy-efficient equipment, and install motion sensors.

To save water, you need to use it wisely, promptly repair all leaks in taps and pipes, and you can also install a sprayer on the tap.

To save on heating, you need to insulate your apartment as much as possible.

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