Success! We're consuming less energy!

Bills are arriving, and we had our first little victory!
We lowered our electric bill $45 from last month. I couldn't be happier to see that thing drop so much! We hadn't even begun the big push yet!
Here's what we did for the bigger difference:

-Cut back on AC to only when absolutely necessary- usually when I'm so hot I will pass out or puke. (We live in Paradise, a couple hours a day in a stuffy house wont kill us). It also helped that we had a cooler month than June & July.
-Turned off light switches and fans in rooms we weren't using.
-Lots less TV. The kids are at school that keeps the room heater called our 50" Plasma off for most of the day.
-Use "Light" setting on dishwasher. It runs a shorter cycle that cuts back on hot water usage and operating time.
-Wash everything on cold in the washing machine. Less hot water means more savings. I find the clothes are still very clean and a little vinegar added to the load keeps odors down that you would normally get out on a very hot wash cycle.

It seems like such a small change of lifestyle to see such a huge drop in spending. We hadn't even begun the bigger changes that should drop our bill even more next month:

-Line drying clothes. One of the biggest energy wasters in your house- did you know they can't even issue and Energy Star rating on brand new dryers because they are so inefficient? We've set up our garage as our dryer- with the door open a load of wash dries in about 4 hours. It rains here at least a couple times a day, so outside was not an option. Plus, we live in one of those annoying HOA-run neighborhoods and I'm sure they'd nab us for being so uncouth as to dry our clothes outside.
-Power Strips. We've put the TV, all it's gadgets and the modem on power strips. All day and night those things are just sipping energy despite being turned off. You can actually hear a hum of power going to the TV when we click the power strip on (that's without the TV actually being turned on and everything!). We click it on only when it's being used and love that we can be dropping our bill even more.
-Unplug anything that's a charger. This includes the toothbrushes (they don't need 24 hr/day charging), phone chargers, Wii Remotes, DS chargers, etc. A few hours per gadget is enough to rejuice any battery.

Next month I might:
-Decrease number of lightbulbs in fans and vanities. I mean seriously, who needs 6 or 12 lights to come on when we go into the bathroom? Loosen a few and noone will ever know. If you're paranoid about what the neighbors will say, just screw them back in if you feel impending judgement.
-Turn off the computer at night. Standby mode is still sucking energy, plus it's good to give her a rest to regain her thoughts and run better. (Yes, I rarely do a formal shutdown on the computer! With a Mac it just never seems necessary- it always runs perfectly! I might go weeks without shutting it down- gasp!)