Another option is an on-demand hot water circulator. Not as cheap as pipe insulation, but depending on the system you get and the piping of your home it may be possible to install a single pump to cover the whole house. We had the same problem with waiting for hot water. We went with a circulation system that had both scheduling and on-demand capabilities. So, if we wanted hot water late at night, we just pushed a doorbell button activating the system for one run then stop. For two other baths on the same hot water main we used wireless buttons to activate the system.
We also "use to worry" about pipes freezing here as well. We read about how this unit could be used to protect pipes from freezing by lowering red temperature dial and set the timer to run once time every 30 minutes. We've survived to winters now without leaving the heat on when we're both at work which dropped our gas bill a little. We knew it was working for the fact that the water coming out the taps always seemed to be around 60F when opened and not icy cold like expected.
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