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As the cost of food, gas and electricity increases, we have no choice but to spend more. But we have more control over how much dollars we allocate to one of our biggest ticket items: personal technology.

Compared to the cost of gasoline, which rose 48 percent from March 2021 to March this year, the prices of tech products like smartphones, computers and apps are only rising – 1.3 percent over the same period. US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Any increase is significant, though, because tech items like TVs and phones that range from a few hundred to thousands of dollars are very expensive to start with. Also, personal finance expert Jully-Alma Taveras says some luxury appliances are depreciating as quickly as cars.

“Technology moves so fast,” said Ms. Taveras, a YouTuber known as Ms. Taveras. Latina Investment offers workshops on investment and savings. “If we spend that much money on a computer, three years from now there will be another chip, another upgrade, something else.”

Apart from hardware, we tend to lose track of spending on other types of technology, such as online streaming services, cloud subscriptions, and cellular bills.

Here are some tips on how to hook up some of the biggest sewers into our budgets.

Take Control of Online Subscriptions

A few dollars a month to watch your favorite shows on Disney+ and a few more dollars a month to manage your data with online services like Dropbox can sound like a bargain. However These costs are increasing rapidly..

According to an analysis by Intuit-owned online budgeting tool Mint, people spent an average of $640 on digital subscriptions in 2019, including streaming services, cloud storage, dating apps, and productivity tools. That’s the equivalent of buying a fancy smartphone every year.

Here are ways to cut those expenses:

• Create reminders to cancel. Many of us subscribe to streaming services like Apple TV+ and Hulu to watch certain shows, but forget to cancel when the shows end. We’d save precious dollars if we researched the show’s broadcast schedule and set up a calendar reminder to cancel the service in the month the show aired its finale.

• Set goals for the year. if create reminder sounds so boring, there is a broader approach: set savings goals periodically, like every six months. Ms Taveras said dropping a few subscriptions would save hundreds of dollars for the rest of the year.

• Try to choose only one for cloud storage services. For most people, there are no practical reasons to back up data across multiple cloud services such as Dropbox, Box, iCloud, and Google One. Try to choose the one that best suits your devices and the type of software you use. A good rule of thumb is to choose a cloud service that works well with most types of phones and computers, such as Google One, should you switch to a different hardware product in the future.

Shave Your Wireless Bills

Cell phone bills can easily dwarf the cost of a cell phone if we are not careful about the plans we choose. According to an analysis by Mint for The New York Times, Americans who subscribed to a Verizon Wireless plan last year spent $1,342 and those who subscribed to T-Mobile paid $891.

But the plans offered by the major carriers aren’t the cheapest options. There are other brands that offer budget phone plans as well. WalletHub, a personal finance site with a phone plan calculator, found: VisibleOperating on Verizon’s network, its package with unlimited minutes and data offers the best opportunity for individuals at $40 a month. Backwards, Verizon’s core 5G plan It costs $70 per month.

What’s the purpose? You will not receive customer support from an established carrier. Also, non-brand carriers usually only support a limited list of mobile phones. The good news is that many now usually include the most popular devices from Apple and Samsung, so the trade-off is small.

“You’re basically going to get the same coverage at a much lower price,” said WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez.

Be Cautious About Hardware Upgrades

Smartphone costs continue to rise despite improvements increasing. (These years entry-level iPhone SEfor example, $429 is $30 more. 2020 model.) So it pays to be conscious of the best time and how much you spend investing in new hardware, rather than automatically upgrading.

The life of our technological devices, took many years with a little care – just make sure change battery every two years and clean unnecessary apps and photos clogs up your device’s storage.

When it’s time to upgrade, the newest and prettiest isn’t always the best for your budget. Ms Taveras said it’s common for her students, some of whom are in debt, to spend $5,000 on a new computer. That may make sense to some, but many can live without the extra frills and net significant savings, he said.

When something new arrives, it’s also worth keeping in mind that there’s also an opportunity to buy last year’s model – which is often very capable – for less.

Ms Taveras said, “I’m fine with getting the second last phone because the technology is still great.” “These small financial gains really matter.”