I started cutting back in the 80s, when the CFL bulbs appeared. I found that my main electricity usage was lighting and cooling. In the winter, you could easily use a kWh a day with one 100W bulb in a single room. My fridge/freezer is a Danish thing, with a completely separate compressor for each compartment, so I turned the freezer off and it's been a cupboard since then. These two stages had a dramatic effect on the consumption. I also observed, via a plug-in wattmeter, what individual appliances used over a week, fridge, kettle, washing machine, etc. It's been harder in recent years to see how the cost is varying via the bills, as they clearly don't believe me, most of the time, hence why my monthly combined gas and electricity DD is £1 now.
Apart from the light bulbs, a lot of modern stuff consumes less than the older things did, with valves and tubes to be heated, but there can still be a bit of 'stand by' waste. But there also is more stuff, even if it's a bit more efficient. People often have a screen, or screens, running all day, even if they are LCD/LED things, when they would have had one CRT TV going for a few hours each night and the heat from that went into the room...
