Well I haven't had a ton of use the past day. A couple of texts, maybe 10 minutes of phone calls, WiFi off, GPS off, Bluetooth off, screen brightness at about 25% (which is more than enough), live wallpaper, a little bit of music, a couple of emails (and I have email set to fetch every 30 minutes on the weekend vs. every 5 during weekday business times), and a little bit of internet browsing... I'm still at 70% after 23 hours since charging. Yesterday was a more active day use-wise, but I still didn't get lower than 48% after about 20 hours. The thing is, I've spent the past month doing all the experiments to maximize my battery life and now feel like I'm benefitting from all the research and experiments I did. These included using the stock battery instead of the Seidio extended (which is useless), turning off things I didn't need when I didn't need them like Bluetooth and GPS (if I'm not lost, why is it on?), streamlining the phone's features like lowering the screen brightness and turning off the always-on mobile data, and, quite simply, learning how to properly charge the phone. When you simply leave the phone on the charger overnight, you're going to lose 8-10% of your battery right off the bat within the first hour without doing much of anything at all. Charging it properly, I can unplug it fully charged before I fall asleep and when I wake up (usually 5-6 hours later) it's generally still at 98 or 99%.
But yes, if you turn on all the lights and gadgets in your house and run them all simultaneously, your electric bill is going to be higher. That's why you generally turn off all the lights and appliances you're not using until such time as you need them. A smartphone is no different. Like you, I also use the features I pay for, but I've realized that when I'm not using them it doesn't make a lick of sense to have them all turned on.