This week’s episode features the utility bills, and he picked up on a tip I hadn’t thought of: Find out whether a cheaper wireless plan is a better fit for your actual calling patterns. The 700-minute family plans aren’t always the smallest plan now.

And when I was spot-checking family plan prices for a couple of companies to see what he was talking about, I also found at least one national wireless company offers a discounted “senior plan” for those age 65 and older.

Yes, there are news and consumer reports on this topic every fall. But here’s a tip involving baby safety equipment that I haven’t seen before, and would be very inexpensive to implement:

Secure outlets. To keep cold air from entering your home via electrical outlets, unscrew your switch plates and install inexpensive foam pads that fit snugly around the back, says Lou Manfredini, a Chicago hardware store owner who is also known nationally as the Ace Helpful Hardware Man.

Covering open outlets with baby-proofing plugs can block even more air, he says.

A snippet:

Michigan Gas Utilities customers might pay 20 percent less for natural gas this heating season than they did last year due to lower market prices for the fuel.

“Natural gas prices started dropping last spring, and that continued through the summer,” said Paul Livernois, MGU’s external affairs manager. “Right now we have a great supply of natural gas that is keeping the prices that we pass along to customers lower than last year. There are no guarantees, of course, but right now it looks like a typical residential customer could pay $225 or so less than last year over the course of the winter.”

Most of those deals expire at the end of October. So if you are thinking about scheduling a furnace maintenance appointment for the fall, do it soon to get the specials.

One of the ads is bragging about how much money you can save on winter heating costs by tuning up that furnace.

If you want to use the Find It Monroe database to look up business reviews or see who’s in your neighborhood, the keyword that works to pull up the furnace repair and maintenance firms is “heating.”

Detective Bryan Gee talks with resident Kelli Cook about the start of the fire that devastated her home at the River Raisin apartment complex in Monroe, Mich., Wednesday. The fire was most likely started by candles burning in the living room. It destroyed many of Ms. Cook’s belongings, but both she and her 2-year-old son Owen were able to make it out safely. Ms. Cook recently had her electricity shut off as she has been having trouble keeping up with the payments, and she was using candles as a light source until the power could be restored. The fire did not spread to other apartments, but one resident suffered multiple fractures when he leapt from his third floor unit.

– Monroe Evening News photo by KIM BRENT

• Today’s Evening News article about the fire.
• The sidebar article about DTE Energy’s utility bill arrangements.

If you know someone in southeast Michigan who is struggling to make ends meet:

• Julie’s List, which features community resources in southeast Michigan, includes utility bill information
• Tips on seeking financial assistance from the Monroe on a Budget blog archives.
• Michigan.gov’s Helping Hands site.

Note: All photos and news articles from The Monroe Evening News are copyright by the newspaper. I have permission to post them on Monroe on a Budget because the newspaper also sponsors this blog.

Unfortunately, those rates are going to go up anyway. Do you want to get stuck with an even higher bill?

That’s why it’s in your best frugal interest to pick projects with a good return on investment – and buy the supplies and equipment when they are discounted or on sale.

Now is a good time to research and follow up on often-recommended energy-saving steps. Depending on what you are doing, there are possible tax credits involved. And there’s a big push right now for sales and promotions on a variety of products.

Lowe’s has on its site a nifty resource called Build Your Savings. This page includes an interactive home audit tool and how-to videos for a variety of projects.

The lights that we left on the old-fashioned technology were the applications where the standard CFL bulb just wasn’t going to be the right product: such as ceiling fans, stove fan and bathroom fixtures.

This summer, several stores in Michigan have been advertising sales on CFL light bulbs in conjunction with a statewide campaign to encourage energy savings. It’s easy to find the single and multi-pack standard bulbs on really cheap prices right now, and some of the specialty bulbs also can be found on discounts.

Meijer in Monroe, Mich., has a sale until Aug. 1 on ceiling fan CFL bulbs: half off the usual price for the two-pack of 40-watt equivalents.

I bought six of those light bulbs last night to outfit our two ceiling fans in the two bedrooms at our home.

Hmm. ….

The lights didn’t seem as bright as we were used to.

We looked at the wattage. We took 60-watt bulbs out of the fixtures and replaced them with 40-watt equivalents. That was part of the problem.

How much of a difficulty will the wattage be? Well, there are lamps in each of those rooms that can be turned on for task lighting. So while we weren’t impressed, we think in the long run it won’t matter much.

The other part of the problem, as I have since discovered, is that these particular light bulbs seem to have had a break-in period. When I turned on the lights this morning, they were brighter this morning than they were last night. The lower wattage will always be a factor, but it is better.

Because of this situation, my husband warned me not to get CFL bathroom fixture lights until I can find a product that really will be the equivalent of the original light bulbs. He wants the bathroom lights to be as bright as possible – and, that makes sense since the bathroom is where he shaves and I put on makeup.

But I will tell you that we are pleased with the standard CFL bulbs we installed awhile ago in our overhead lights and lamps in the living room, dining room and kitchen.

If you’ve been wondering about CFL bulbs, go to GE’s information page to read about details such as ceiling fan issues and proper disposal of these products. Then, if you live in Michigan, take advantage of these special sales this summer.

To get the most out of your investment, use the light bulbs you purchased to convert over your most frequently-used fixtures. You can save the older bulbs for replacements in the fixtures you haven’t yet converted, or donate the older bulbs you no longer need to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore.

Out the door price $3.88 for a box of four 60-watt equivalent bulbs. That is after the $5.11 instant savings sponsored by the Michigan Public Service Commission.

There also are single bulbs available for 97 cents each and 3-way bulbs available for $8.99 each.

The MPSC promotion is part of a statewide energy savings campaign that my co-worker Charles Slat wrote about recently for The Monroe Evening News.

If money is tight, maybe you don’t need to cut that phone line. Perhaps a discounted service would help you out.

The Michigan Public Service Commission has information on the web about the Michigan Primary Basic Telephone plan. It is pretty reasonable in its usage limits with up to 100 outgoing phone calls allowed. Follow the link on that page to see what the individual companies are charging for that plan – the prices range widely but a lot of them are $20 or less.

You can’t use a dial-up Internet on this telephone contract, but free Internet access is available at many libraries.

• Single bulbs: 99 cents each.
• Four-pack: $3.96.
• Six-pack: $5.94.

There’s been some buzz about energy-efficient promotions in Michigan starting soon, so I expect to be seeing more such opportunities in the next couple of months.

This is how you change over your light bulbs when you are on a budget: You buy a box of the new ones, install them into your most-used fixtures. Save the bulbs you just took out for replacements into your fixtures that are not yet converted – or donate them to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore.

Then when you get some more money freed up and / or you notice another sale on those CFL bulbs, you buy another box of light bulbs and repeat the process for some more lighting fixtures.

Don’t fret about having mixed bulbs in your house. We still have a few older bulbs left in service. Generally, these are fixtures for which I have to look for special sizes or lights that are rarely used.

The key to getting the energy savings is to put those new light bulbs in the fixtures you use the most.