How the Yellow Brick Road Got Its Color

Extremes are a variable type of occurrence with anything in life. Even when the extreme might be trying to save money. I knew a guy in a freshman class of mine who knew I was really into being frugal and whatnot. He decided to tell about his trials of saving money, especially as a desperately short-on-cash college student. I figured I'd listen and gain some potentially interesting information about saving money and being frugal and the like. I mean who knows, maybe I'd be able to write an interesting blog post about what he mentioned? Unfortunately, only one of those conditions were met and here I am.

This man liked to save on the water bill in a rather interesting manner. Instead of peeing into a toilet like a normal person, he would pee into a cup large enough to accommodate his own bladder contents. From there he would either pour the cup down the drain in the sink, in the shower, or simply just outside. I put on my best poker face at this point and tried not to laugh. He continued and explained that he was saving a great deal in money from not flushing the toilet all the time when he urinating. I can't imagine what he does for other pertinent toilet occasions.






Was he saving money at all?

The average household toilet uses around 3 gallons per flush according to USGS.

On average it is normal to urinate around 6-8 times a day. This of course changes depending on your fluid intake, but let's stick with the average.

The average price of water in the United States is about $1.50 for 1000 gallons. Which means it is $0.0015 per gallon of water. Cheap, I know.

Let's say he urinates 6 times a day at 3 gallons per flush. That's 18 gallons per day.

There are 365 days in a year. This means that he is using 6570 gallons of water on just peeing per year.

At $0.0015 per gallon, he is saving $9.86 per year by not flushing while relieving the bladder. Imagine if his family all did the same thing!

It doesn't seem like much. But you decide that.

Comments

  1. "If its yellow, let it mellow. If its brown, flush it down."

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  2. I guess this is a more in-depth account of that :P

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  3. better drink your own piss

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  4. better eat your own... sorry, i'll just stop.

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  5. why not just pee in the shower if he was going to dump it there anyway?

    ReplyDelete

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