Depending on the domain name and the traffic you had visiting, you may want to look at sedo.com to park the domain and forget about the host. When visitors go to your domain name they land on sedo.com’s page for your domain. If they click on one of the links/adds you earn $. Not much unless it’s a domain name with higher traffic volume. There’s also a chance or options to sell the domain name on sedo.com.

Another option is to install a blog and post google ads for visitors to click as they participate. It would have to be interesting and attract visitors, but the revenue generated from ad clicks may add up over time to cover some of the host expense.

One last option is to check with your host. They may refund the unused portion of your payment.

i found this website very usefull

it has compared top 10 web hosting companies in a chart and will show the most reliable and affordable web hosting company
it has reviews for each web hosting company that will really help you to find the best web hosting provider company
and there are lots of articles about web hosting and internet.