Many people know they pay too much in energy bills each month but aren't sure what to do about it other than shell out thousands of dollars for new windows. There are some small things you can do to help stop the financial bleeding however.

One of them is to insulate your electrical outlets.

How do you know if you even need to do this trick? You can check this yourself pretty easily. It's best when tested on a cold windy evening. Hold a candle next to the outlet. Any cold air blowing in from outside would cause the candle's flame to flicker and dance around. Any smoke being generated would also start blowing so you can see the movement.

Of course you could also have big air leaks in your windows if you haven't properly insulated them, but if you've done that step already and have the candle flame closer to the outlet than to a window you can be pretty sure the draft is coming through those electrical switches.

If this happens to you, there's good news. Insulating your outlets takes very little money and almost no time. You can purchase foam covers, called foam gaskets, for mere pennies and they are easy to install.

Simply unscrew the outlet cover exposing just the outlet and the gaping holes around it. The foam cover looks like the outlet cover so you just slip it over the outlet and then cover it with the actually outlet cover. Screw it back on and then move onto the next one. If you have a large home you'll take some time doing this to each one, but it will be well worth it. Not only will you be more comfortable and feel less draft in your home, but you'll spend less money on heating and cooling bills. It's a win-win for everyone.