Electricity bill help/idea

Hello!

I recently moved into a rental home with my bf and we are struggling to bring down the electricity bill. We live in Glendale and have the time saving plan through APS. I know it sounds insane but we keep the house at 85 when we are home, bring to 80 right before peak times and then shut it off for peak times. We start it back up an hour after peak. We both work night jobs so we're mostly not home between 12-9pm on during the work week. We run it at regular 85 all day on the weekend. Our house is 1190 square feet and we have a pool. Our power bills so far have been in the low to mid $300s and that doesn't seem right (a friend i was recently speaking to said the same). Its just the two of us so we don't use the washer/dryer a ton and only run the pool pump at night.

Now, my bf is used to living with no AC and just blast the fans when he lived in an apartment and doesn't have a problem living in our high temp. I don't either for the most part but would like to maybe bring it 80 instead of the 85 all week.

Also, I've heard that its better to bring the temp up rather than shutting it off completely during peak times but want to see what you guys think if y'all have more experience with this stuff and what you think of our current strategy. I'm also thinking of maybe getting a power eval on the house...

All in all, any advice regarding this would be great, thank you!