With the release date approaching with Breaking Debt's first short story, "Water Rate Challenge," I must say that with the water rate going increasingly high throughout the major cities in the country, it must be quite difficult to save water. People who owns houses and rent houses are struggling with paying their water bills because of the hike of the water rate. Some number of people living in the United States are owing the water company money for the price of water usage.

I can't say that I'm one of those people because I don't pay water where I'm renting, but I can say that I have a friend who currently owns a house in an urban city that she's owing money for water. She had a medical condition that landed her deeper in financial debt and kept her out of work a decade ago. She, like some of the people in America, is struggling to become debt-free. But she is still living her life normally and she's back working normally with belief in hope.

In the Water Rate Challenge short story, the female character Michelle used to teach at an elementary school for a few years before she had a massive occurrence with her being in a car accident. Her accident left her out of the classroom and it caused her to dig deeper in financial trouble. Michelle and her husband Sean used nearly $100,000 worth of credit to pay for her surgery and medical costs. Michelle had broken ribs and her injury expanded to her knees and back.

With Sean working in the nuclear plant industry, the couple managed in an attempt to pay off their debts by living their lives frugally and simply, reusing water for washing laundry and bathing, reusing bags, using cash and debit cards in place of credit. After 15 years, the couple was closer to completely wiping out their debt worth $190,000. A year after the recession hit and the most part of the United States was in a crisis, a major crisis in the water system broke through, malfunctioning, and every resident in the couple's town received water bills worth thousands of dollars. Everyone, including the couple panicked in a screaming manner, lining up at the water company, and complaining. Of all the things that the couple had experienced, a mishap in the water system was the last thing they would think of or worry about.

With the crisis going on in the story, it is tough for anyone to deal with the water rate being high, especially if it is difficult to afford. But as life goes on, there are always possible solutions for bills, especially for utilities like electricity, but for water bills it's tough to solve high water bills. In the story, the water company's president finds a solution to the high water bills that no other town could have ever thought: a solution that lies within the mystery of the cause of the water malfunction. What will the mystery solution hold for Michelle and Sean? Their town? Who knows? There's only a way to find out as this story is getting more mysterious.