My water bill crept up slowly over two years. I did not notice because the increase was gradual—an extra $5 here, $8 there—until I pulled the old bills and saw I was paying $23 more per month than I had been. Nothing had changed in my usage. Or so I thought.

Fix 1: The Toilet Leak I Could Not Hear

A silent toilet leak—where water seeps from the tank into the bowl through a worn flapper—can waste up to 200 gallons per day. You will not hear it. You will not see it. You will pay for it.

Test: put a few drops of food coloring in the toilet tank. Wait 15 minutes without flushing. If color appears in the bowl, the flapper is leaking. A replacement flapper costs $5 and takes 10 minutes to install. This fix alone dropped my bill by $11 the following month.

Fix 2: The Dripping Faucet I Had Gotten Used To

My bathroom sink had dripped for months. I tuned it out. One drip per second equals roughly 3,000 gallons per year—about 10 gallons per day. At the national average water rate, that is roughly $5–7 per month down the drain.

Most faucet drips are caused by a worn rubber washer or O-ring inside the handle. Turn off the water supply under the sink, open the handle, replace the washer (cost: under $1 at any hardware store), reassemble. Ten minutes.

Fix 3: The Showerhead I Never Thought About

Old showerheads dump 2.5–5 gallons per minute. A modern low-flow showerhead uses 1.5–1.8 GPM with no noticeable pressure loss—they mix air into the water stream to maintain the feel of pressure. I bought a $25 WaterSense-labeled showerhead, installed it in five minutes with no tools beyond a wrench, and saved about $6 per month.

Bonus: many water utilities offer free low-flow showerheads or rebates. I found out about this after I had already bought mine. Check your utility’s website before spending money.

Three fixes. Total cost: about $30. Monthly savings: $23. The toilet flapper alone paid for everything in the first month.