One of my current pet projects is reducing our electricity usage.

As Ima Saver suggested, I'm monitoring our usage by reading the meter regularly and writing the amount down, then calculating daily kwh. This really does work, just as monitoring your spending by recording every penny spent works.

I'm also turning off and uplugging things when not in use.

I decided not to try to cut back on laundry, stove, and dishwasher usage since we're already careful about those, and we're not about to start eating out more often just to cut down on stove & dishwasher use!

One area where I knew I could stand to cut back was hot water usage for showers, so I came up with the idea of a "steam free mirror" challenge for myself. Our apartment bathroom is smallish (just a single sink, toilet, and shower close together), so it doesn't take long for the mirror to steam up when showering. My challenge to myself is to finish my shower without one bit of steam on the mirror.

It has been almost two weeks, and so far I've been 100% successful! I either keep the temp lower (lukewarm), or shower VERY quickly at a higher temp. I also turn the water off for periods of time during the shower when it doesn't need to be running..

It's not total deprivation. If it's one of those days when I feel the need for a bit of morning pampering, if I'm quick enough and keep the temp low enough, at the very end of my shower I can turn the temp up and stand under the running water just long enough to say the Serenity Prayer and still have steam free mirrors.