Our first electricity bill with new Time-of-Use service

For those who have been waiting for an update on my most recent electric bill with our new Time-Of-Use service:

Our bill for the month of December is $87.70! That is $19.50 lower than our last bill! My goal was to get our bill under $100.

This is a big deal to us because #1 - it is winter. AND #2 our bill for last December was $158.44! That is a difference of $70.74!

Some changes we've made with our electricity use along with our new Time-Of-Use service:

1. We turn off our hot water heater when it is not in use. We actually started doing this half-way through the month, so I'm curious how much lower our bill will be next month now that we are much more persistent with it.

2. I started unplugging our washer and dryer when not in use. I unplug just about everything else that isn't in use either, except for the oven.

3. We work around our off-peak rate. We take showers either early in the morning or after 8pm. We do our laundry the same way or on the weekends. The dishwasher runs early in the morning or after 8pm as well.

4. We switched to CFL lightbulbs.

5. Although we have used our oil furnace a few times in the morning (sometimes we get lazy to stoke the fire in the middle of the night) our woodstove has been our primary source of heat. I have also used our woodstove to cook several times!

6. We rarely use our dryer. I hang dry our clothes, except for towels.