Retirement Planning, Elder Law, and Senior Finance Money-Saving Tips for Three Big Bills 8/10/2022 | By Emma Patch and Ellen Kennedy Kiplinger Personal Finance experts offer money-saving tips for fighting inflation in wireless phone plans, streaming services, and electricity. With inflation remaining at 40-year-highs and not likely to plunge anytime soon, consumers need to find ways to stretch their dollars. These money-saving tips on a wide-range of services can help. Wireless phone plans The following are money-saving tips picks from the wireless plan comparison website WhistleOut.com. All the plans offer unlimited talk, text, and data: Mintmobile, at $30 per month for new customers, is just about as cheap as it gets for good coverage.Visible, rated best overall by WhistleOut.com, offers a $40 per month plan with unlimited mobile hotspot data or, for families, $25 per month per line.US Mobile offers plans for $40 per month as well, and US Mobile’s family plan costs $85 per month for four lines.Tello’s unlimited Text, Talk and Data plan costs $39 per month, and qualifying new customers can get 50% off their first month.Consumer Cellular’s unlimited Text, Talk and Data plan is $55 per month; it offers special plans for seniors and offers AARP members a 5% discount. Streaming A favorite among the modern money-saving tips is cutting the cable cord and opting for streaming services. One advantage of the hyper-competitive streaming market is that you can generally sign up for monthly subscriptions and then cancel them at any time. You’ll save a bundle if you combine well-timed stops and starts of your preferred streaming services with promotions or free trials. Among the latest promotions: Get one month of Hulu’s Ad-Supported Plan for free, or a seven-day free trial of Apple TV (or three months free when you buy a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV or Mac).Or take advantage of the Disney Bundle and get Disney+, Hulu’s ad-supported plan and ESPN+ for $7.99 per month. One reliable money saver – password sharing with friends and family – may be endangered. Netflix has signaled that it plans to crack down on password sharing outside of the subscriber’s household. Related: Tips for cutting the cable cord Best TV shows for people over 50 Electric bills Community Solar is a little-known way to shave between 5% and 15% off your electric bill without owning or leasing a rooftop system. You can reap savings even if you have a shaded roof or are a renter. When a community solar project launches, it builds a large “farm” of solar panels that provide renewable energy to the electricity grid. These farms take advantage of the plummeting cost of solar power and economies of scale, usually generating electricity more cheaply than an electric utility. You purchase shares of the project, and savings are passed on to you through your local utility. Of the money-saving tips, solar not only shaves price off of your monthly bills, it is also an efficient way to help your region reduce fossil fuel emissions and improve air quality. Not all states or utilities allow community solar. To find out if there are projects open to subscribers near you, go to CommunitySolar.EnergySage.com and enter your zip code. You’ll see available projects, estimated cost savings and cancellation terms. Some projects even offer sign-up bonuses. Your savings may be lower in the winter and higher in the summer. © 2022 The Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Read More Emma Patch and Ellen Kennedy Emma Patch is a staff writer at Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine and Ellen Kennedy is associate ESG investing editor at Kiplinger.com. For more on this and similar money topics, visit Kiplinger.com.