With everything from the price of rice to the price of gas going up, many people are looking for ways to cut costs.  We came up with a few simple things you can do around the house that could have a big impact on your bottom line.

With the help of Portland General Electric, we did an energy audit, looking for home appliances and electronics that waste energy. What we found will surprise you.

We'll begin with the biggest energy offenders, furnaces and refrigerators. To soften the blow to your budget, turn the thermostat down when you are gone and turn your refrigerator and freezer to a slightly warmer setting.

But there are other not so obvious appliances using energy, even when they're off.  PGE Residential Energy Expert Garrett Harris calls them a phantom load

"Cell phone chargers, TV's, dishwashers, microwaves, a lot of the things you think are off are in fact on," he said.

To measure the phantom load, PGE uses a device called the "Watt's Up Pro."  We measured the microwave and the coffee maker. Both were plugged in and sucking power just to run the clock - not to mention we already had an oven doing that.  So we were keeping the time three times. That is a little redundant.

The biggest power sucker was the entertainment center, which according to Harris was using between 45 and 50 watts while it was off!  The cell phone charger actually used the least amount of power.

In all we measured eight appliances, none of which needed to be plugged in. They all added up to about 60 watts of energy, equaling over 525 watts a year, for doing nothing.

According to PGE's calculations we could save more than $50 a year just by unplugging.

PGE's energy audit service is free but only customers who have abnormally high bills can use it. 

If you want to test things out yourself, you can buy a similar device online.  We bought the "Kill-A-Watt" for about $25 including shipping, and the results were almost identical to PGE's.

You can't unplug all your appliances, but the ones you can, could end up saving you a lot of money.

For more energy saving tips, click here for Green Power Oregon or click here for PGE.