The parent statement is something I can relate to also. We got yelled at if we left lights on. Somehow my parents always caught us when we left the room for 5 minutes to use the bathroom or something. They would turn the lights off in that room, and then yell at us when we came back and turned them on. Don't get me started on touching the thermostat! We would never dare touch that thing any time of the year.

We also have a house that is (was) heated only with baseboard electric. We are lucky enough that we could put money aside and buy a woodstove. Best decision we ever made. We keep the heat on in the bathrooms and kitchen, and pay $200/cord to heat the rest of the house. We go through about 6 full cords of wood a winter doing this - depending on how bad the winter is and how long the cold weather hangs around.