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Whew. I'm still in shock after receiving our power bill for this month. $278!

Our house is a little over 1100 square feet. It's just the two of us. The house faces west, and is in the sun the vast majority of the day, so it really shouldn't cost THAT much for heating.

Bad thing is, our house costs way more to cool in the summer, than it does to heat in the winter. At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if our power bills are $400+ this summer. Budget-wise, there's NO WAY.

We've already changed our light bulbs to the CFL kind, and have battery-powered LED lights for backup/night use. We try to turn lights off when we're not using them. Etc. Etc. Etc. Oh, and we've got a timer-controlled string of LED lights that light up the hall at night (working on adding more throughout the house). Edited to add: I've also got motion-sensing battery-powered LED lights throughout the house, but I've got to relocate them or something. The cats keep setting them off, and they stay on nearly constantly.

But I've also started:

--- leaving the heat completely off during the day, and turning it down to 60 at night. I'd leave it off 24/7 if it was up to me, but DH can't handle the cold.

--- line-drying the clothes, except for DH's blue jeans. DH built me a clothes drying rack to fit in the bedroom, so I can dry them inside if I want. It fits right over the vent, so (unless the heat's off - LOL!) the air coming through helps dry the clothes faster. DH doesn't like his clothes to be "crunchy", but he said he could live with it if I line-dry everything but his jeans. Okay, so his jeans kind of stand on their own unless they're dryer-dried. But one dryer-load every 4-5 days is better than one nearly every day.

--- making sure the computers are turned off at night. I usually did pretty good about remembering, but sometimes I'd forget. I'm doing better, though.

--- got a Kill-A-Watt gadget on order so we can see exactly what things are using up more power than we'd like. Hopefully it'll be here soon. We'll unplug anything that is being a piggy!

--- got a water heater timer on order. I figure we can cut our water heater use by 2/3 or more.

--- hand-washing the dishes rather than using the dishwasher. I hate hate hate washing dishes , but if it helps with the power bill ...

DH is also talking about getting some radiant barrier foil insulation for the attic. Found some for $139 with free shipping, which is a pretty good deal, but I've read mixed reviews on how well it actually works.

Everybody around here is unhappy about the price increase. DH's out-of-work friend's power bill was $300+ last time, and he lives alone, only getting his two kids every other weekend.

Got any other suggestions that might cut down our power usage ... short of flipping the main breaker?

It was 21 degrees when I got up. 22 now. Good golly Miss Molly, it's COLD in here!

Now DH is talking about re-insulating the attic, rather than getting the radiant barrier stuff. Should be around $250. I sure hate to spend that much, but hopefully it'll pay for itself quickly. No way to know for sure, I suppose.

Okay. I received the Kill-A-Watt gadget in the mail today, and have started checking the electric things in my office to see what's being a Power Piggy.

So far I've discovered that the DirecTV satellite receiver uses almost as much power when it's "off" than it does when it's on! (15w on, 12w off) How crazy is that?!? Needless to say, it and the other two receivers are getting unplugged. You have to call DirecTV if the receivers are unplugged for any length of time ... apparently they "forget" their settings ... but as little as we watch TV, it shouldn't be THAT big a deal. I hope.

Ouch! That is not good.

Nope, sure isn't.

DH is going to finish installing the water heater timer today. Hopefully it'll help.

We also discovered that our 120-gallon aquarium is costing us $17-20 a month. Mainly it's the heaters that are being the Power Piggies. Considering downsizing it to a 55-gallon, but we'll see.

It would be a shame to have to downsize. The 120 gallon tank must be spectacular.

We've decided to leave it as-is, for now. There are so many guppies in there ... both adults and itty bitty babies and every size in between ... that it would be nearly impossible to catch them all.

The water heater timer is working out great! We can't even tell any difference. DH set it so that the timer turns the water heater on three times a day, but it looks like we can cut it back to just twice a day. Hope it helps on the power bill!

The timer is a neat idea. I'm sure it'll make a big difference to the bill.

I think you made the right decision not downsizing. Yikes, it would be a nightmare trying to catch all those fish and I'll bet they wouldn't be too happy about moving house.