Buy an electricity monitor. Maybe not right now with the financial stress of that massive bill (hugs...) but when you have some spare cash, invest in either a wireless or mains electricity monitor. You can pick one up for about $70-$100 or thereabouts. We got one that is directly connected to the mains - you need a licensed sparky to do that bit - and then it sits on our wall glaring at us with these LARGE NUMBERS that show, in real time, the dollar value of our energy consumption.

We have worked out what our "resting" power consumption is, so what we expect to see when everything is off and only the essentials are on. We also know now about what our oven costs us when it is heating, plus what our dryer costs to run ($2 every time!!!!).

We look at it now and go "80 cents. Why is it on 80 cents??? What's running???" And go round turning off lights, turning down the heater etc. It's making us very aware of our consumption.