Hi friends, and thanks for stopping by to read How Single Senior Women Can Cut Monthly Bills and Save Hundreds of Dollars.
From time to time I write about how single low income women can save money by changing spending habits or things I’ve ditched when money is tight.
This is real advice coming from a low income woman. Who needs to take advice from a financial expert – especially a man! – who’s never been stuck in a low paying job struggling to make the rent payment and keep up with all the bills? Telling us to stop going to Starbucks every day and pack a lunch instead of going to a restaurant isn’t relatable advice when these are luxury items to us. Not everyday habits.
And for those of us who became seniors with even lower income, cutting costs is more important.
We need to look at what we can stop spending money on. The goal might not always be so we can save money and pocket it away – but to redirect that money to more vital expenses.
Helping my friend save hundreds of dollars a year
One of my friends was diagnosed with a chronic disease over 15 years ago, ending her working life earlier than planned. She had long term disability with the last employer so there was some income each month until she turned 65. That’s when government assistance for seniors kicked in.
Luckily for her, she bought a small house back in the olden days when it was affordable to do so, and she’d paid off her mortgage prior to going on disability. This means she does not have a huge monthly housing expense of a mortgage or rent to deal with.
But there are still plenty of other bills to pay. Utilities. Property taxes that keep going up every year. Replacing appliances that break down. A leaky roof that needs to be replaced. And an older car that needs gas, insurance, and repairs.
In a recent conversation, she brought up something to me that I’ve never addressed in past articles – extended health care insurance.
This is an insurance that some people purchase independently if they don’t have an employer providing these benefits. It covers things like prescription medication, eye care, and dental work.
She pays $256/month for this health care insurance.
I started to break it down with her. The insurance does not cover some prescription medicines that she needs, so she goes without because she can’t afford them. That’s an unfortunate situation many of us low income women find ourselves in. Do we buy medicine or do we buy groceries and pay the bills?
Her insurance plan covers one prescription medicine that costs $13/month.
Glasses and dental
Let me keep dissecting her health care plan. Every 24 months she can spend $200 for eye care. That’s a combination of an eye exam or new glasses. She pays out of pocket when the amount exceeds $200. For example, an eye exam plus new glasses from the optician cost $425. The insurance plan covers $200 and she pays the amount remaining over that balance – $225.
I tell her that citizens over the age of 65, at least in British Columbia, get free eye exams. And I’m not talking just reading the eye chart.
I’m talking the whole shebang of sitting in the chair and looking into those binocular things and pressing a buzzer when you see a dot. The OCT scan and being checked for things like glaucoma.
Free. One of the benefits of getting old.
I get the free eye exam at Specsavers where I can get a prescription and buy two pairs of glasses for about $200.
I told her she’s eligible for the Canada Dental Care Plan. It is similar to her extended health care, which covers about 75% of basic dental care and she pays the balance out of pocket.
There appears to be no benefit paying $256/month to cover something that costs $13/month, covers $200 every 24 months for eye care, and for dental coverage she can now get through the Canadian government’s plan for free. Except paying out of pocket for balances not covered by the plan, which she is doing anyway under the current extended health care plan.
Cancel that plan!
My advice to my friend is to contact the health care insurer and get a breakdown of how much money they have paid out to service providers in the past year.
If she’s paying over $3,000 a year for health care coverage and they’re paying out $300 – $500 to service providers over that year – cancel the plan.
My suggestion?
She should open a separate savings account and redirect that $256/month in there and that will give her a bit of a buffer to purchase prescriptions, etc.
She mentioned her extended care covers massage therapy. She’s never used it because she doesn’t like being touched.
What’s that old saying? Use it or lose it.
Lose the health coverage.
Cable TV
My friend told me she had just cut some of the channels on her cable TV service. Provider is Rogers, by the way, which my Canadian readers will recognize as one of Canada’s largest communications providers that’s out there gouging consumers.
Her TV bill is over $200/month and she’s now reduced it to $140/month on a 2 week trial to decide if she’ll keep it that way.
My friend is a busy person who takes on side gig jobs, volunteers, has hobbies, and a busy social life.
“How much TV are you really watching?” I ask.
Knowing her lifestyle, she’s not home that much to watch TV.
Her answer is probably a handful of times a month. She likes to watch the news on Global TV and some other shows and movies.
That’s way too much money to spend on cable TV that you don’t watch regularly, I point out to her.
Then I also found out the $140/month includes Internet.
Roku to the rescue
I recommended she buy a Roku streaming stick for her TV. They cost $40 to $50 and have tons of free channels and streaming apps, including the Global app.
A place I housesit at uses Roku and has the Global app. I can watch the Global TV news at 5pm, 6pm, or 11pm. TV shows on Global are uploaded the following day and free to watch on the app.
Now she’s starting to get excited about the possibility of spending even less money. This is something that will work for her.
I mentioned she can also subscribe to channels like Netflix or Disney for $15/month, but that didn’t seem to interest her.
The best part is that someone gave her a $100 gift card for Best Buy so she can go there to buy the Roku stick and not outlay any money.
Internet
Now that we’ve taken care of my friend’s cable bill, it’s time to tackle the Internet. She needs Internet to watch TV with Roku and for her devices.
Rogers does have an assistance program for low income and people with disabilities. We looked at them, but it does not appear she qualifies.
Well, that sucks.
I found a company called Wakey Internet that costs $40 to $50/month and typed in her address to make sure they provide service there.
The point being that some little guy communications companies are around, and us consumers don’t need to stick with the larger well known brands that cost too much money.
My advice to her is to start with Rogers and see if they will price match Wakey so she can just keep her coverage with them. If not, it’s time to move along. There’s no need to keep overpaying for speed and loyalty.
Notice what we’ve done? On her own, she cancels some channels to reduce her cable/Internet bill from $220/month to $140. And then I come along and say you can do better than that. And we make a plan to reduce it by another $100.
Between the Roku stick and cheaper Internet, her communications bill drops around $170/month.
That’s nearly $2,000/year she will not be spending on cable and Internet.
Ditching the landline
Something I’ve brought up in other articles on how to spend less and save more is to get rid of the landline.
This is harder for older people who grew up with landline phones in our homes. Younger people who grew up in the cell phone era do not have this problem – ha ha!
I asked how much the landline costs. Oh, it’s nothing, she says, about $16/month.
And who calls you on it that doesn’t already have your cell phone number?
One uncle in his nineties and her doctors.
I can see the wheels turning!
Surely you can give your doctors your cell phone number. That’s probably all they use anyway, and they’re certainly used to calling people who only have cell phones.
I brought up that she had mentioned her house insurance had just increased by $160/year. I suggested she take the savings from ditching the landline to redirect to paying her insurance.
She decided to cancel her landline at the end of the month.
But not so fast.
She has an alarm system in the house and I asked if it went through her landline phone. The last house I owned, the alarm system went through the landline. As much as I wanted to disconnect it, I could not because of the house alarm.
Her task? Call the security company and see how the alarm system communicates with the monitoring center.
My advice to everyone thinking about ditching their home phone: Before you cancel your landline, make sure your home security system doesn’t rely on it. A quick call to your alarm company can save you from an unpleasant surprise.
What else depends on it?
In my case, my home security system depended on a landline. This might be the same story for older alarm systems.
Before you cancel your home phone, ask one question: What else depends on this service?
For example:
- Does your security system use the landline?
- Is your medical alert system connected to it?
- Are there any automatic discounts or bundles you’ll lose by changing services?
In other words, don’t just willy nilly cancel your home phone system and then realize you’ve messed something else up that you rely on.
I can’t tell you how glad I am to no longer have a home phone. The only people calling it were telemarketers, scammers, and collection agents looking for my deadbeat ex.
How Single Senior Women Can Cut Monthly Bills and Save Hundreds of Dollars
As low income women, whether or not we’re seniors, we have to look at things to stop spending money on. Sometimes it’s a case of redirecting the money saved towards another bill, and other times that money we don’t spend anymore can be put into a savings account, investment account, or emergency fund.
You don’t have to cancel everything. You just have to stop assuming every monthly bill is written in stone. Pick one bill this week. Call the company. Ask questions. Compare prices. If you save $20 here, $40 there, and $16 somewhere else, you could easily keep an extra $500 to $1,000 a year in your own pocket. And on a fixed income, that’s real money.
Let’s do a quick tally up of what my friend can avoid spending money on.
If she cancels the extended health care plan she no longer spends $3,000 a year. Instead she will take advantage of programs like Canada’s Dental Care Plan. And my apologies to my American friends and those from other countries who don’t have a similar dental plan.
Cancelling the Rogers cable/Internet package means she no longer spends $2500/year on communications. She can use Roku TV for free and find an Internet provider for around $600/year.
No more landline means no more spending $160/year.
That’s close to $6,000/year she is no longer spending on things that she will barely miss having in her life. Mostly because she has found cheaper or free replacements.
It isn’t about extreme frugality. It’s about questioning the “set it and forget it” bills that keep increasing. That’s a problem almost everyone on a fixed income faces.
Published by Cheryl @ The Lifestyle Digs on September 3, 2026.
