Saving Money on Electricity

I just recently got a huge reconciliation bill from my hydro company. It seems that they underestimated the amount of power that I use and undercharged me over the past year. Now they have readjusted the bill and I owe a lot of money. I have always been somewhat conscious about keeping lights turned off when not using them but I never thought of appliances using "phantom" energy. Appliances with clocks and timers draw power even when you are not using them because they have to keep time. If you leave your phone or battergy chargers plugged in they also draw energy even though you are not charging anything. Another thing that I should be doing is to shut down my computer at night. I haven't been doing that because it takes a while to restart in the morning and I get impatient. I also have an older fridge and older washer and dryer and I know that they are not energy efficient. I would love to upgrade to newer models but cannot afford to do so right now. I have not tried the CFL lightbulbs because they cost more than the incadescent bulbs but I think I will switch to those and see if they make a difference. I am going to start recording my meter reading on a daily basis to see how much energy I am using per day.