91 ways to save on almost anything

Get a home away from home: Condo or house rentals can be a nice alternative to hotels. Vacation rentals generally offer more room and amenities for the same price as hotel rooms. Plus, their kitchens can spare you from having to dine out for every meal.

One of the best sites we've found for rental lodgings is at HomeAway.com.

Swap your house: How does free lodging sound? Trading homes with another person looking to get away can save you a bundle.

Aside from escaping hotel bills, a home exchange lets you save in other ways. By swapping cars, you can avoid renting one -- most exchangers are willing to trade cars, say the top clubs. And having a kitchen cuts your restaurant tab. Plus, you get more room to spread out and you can immerse yourself better into the local atmosphere.

(For more information, watch this video.)

Take a last-minute cruise: Deciding on a last-minute cruise can work to your advantage. When people who booked early cancel at the last minute, bargain-priced cabins become available. To find these deals, stop at SkyAuction.com or Moments-Notice.com.

(Click here for more tricks for getting a last-minute vacation deal.)

Join a frequent-flier program: Whether you travel for business or pleasure, consider signing up for an airline's frequent-flier program. Enrollment is free, and you can start collecting miles on your first flight that you can eventually cash in for free flights, hotel stays, merchandise and other perks.

WebFlyer.com is the most useful site for comparing programs and for getting the best seat or upgrade for the miles you've earned.

Bid smart: Bidding for travel at Priceline.com can save you money on airfare and car rentals. But we particularly love it for snagging luxury hotels at discount prices. (Bids of less than $100 a night on luxury lodgings are often successful.)

Priceline's rates for four-star hotels are usually the best values available from online travel sites. Yet you can boost the chances that you'll submit the lowest possible winning bid by checking the message boards at Biddingfortravel.com, where recent Priceline users note their successful and unsuccessful bids.

Save money on utilities

Take a flyer on fluorescents: Compact fluorescent bulbs represent one of the brightest ideas for cooling your electric bill. (Not every CFL produces a warm, candlelight glow. To achieve that effect, look for one with a Kelvin temperature of 2,600 to 3,000.)

Don't let the price of CFLs -- as much as $7 each -- turn you off. The lights not only last 10 times longer than incandescents but also save up to $60 in electricity per light over their lifetime.

(Read "A bright way to cut your power bill.")

Vanquish the vampires: Appliances that include a clock or operate by a remote, as well as chargers, are sucking electricity even when you're not using them. Of the total energy used to run home electronics, 40% is consumed when the appliances are turned off. The obvious way to pull the plug on so-called energy vampires is to do just that -- pull the plug.

Or buy a device to do it for you, such as a Smart Power Strip, which will stop drawing electricity when the gadgets are off, and pay for itself within a few months.

Insulate your water heater: Is your coffee mug more insulated than your water heater? The newest electric water heaters have plenty of insulation. But if you have one built before 2004, wrap it in an insulating jacket such as a Thermwell blanket. You'll save 10% -- about $30 -- annually on your water-heating bill.

Service the furnace: Have your furnace tuned every two years and you'll save about 10% on your heating bills.

Turn down the heat: For every degree you lower your home's temperature during the heating season, subtract 5% from your bill, according to the Alliance to Save Energy.

An Energy Star programmable thermostat saves more than twice its price within a year and will adjust the temperature automatically for you when you're away or asleep.

Set the washer to cold: Use cold water to wash your clothes and save 50% of the energy you would otherwise use for hot water.

Set your dryer on the moisture sensor, not the timer, and cut energy use by 15%

Stop drafts: As your father would say, don't heat or cool the great outdoors. Put weatherstrip around the frames of your front and back doors and save about $30 per year in energy costs.

Lower your water temperature: Set your water heater at 120 degrees Fahrenheit. If your heater does not have a temperature gauge, dial down until the water feels hot, not scalding.

(Before going too low, make sure your dishwasher has a booster heater, which gets the temperature up to 140 degrees, necessary for proper cleaning.)

Use timers on lights: Install occupancy sensors or timers on lights in areas you use only occasionally and for exterior lights, which tend to get left on during the day.

Anyone with basic wiring skills can install them.

Go low-flow: With a few twists of the wrist, you can save 25% to 60% of the water it takes and 50% of the energy necessary to shower and shampoo. Install a low-flow shower head, which restricts the water output to no more than 2.5 gallons per minute. The shower heads generally cost $10 to $20 (some utility companies give them away) and screw into existing fittings.

Older shower heads send as much as 5.5 gallons per minute down the drain. The new fixtures go as low as 1.5 gpm, saving 7,300 gallons and $30 to $100 a year over their 2.5-gpm counterparts.

Plug the leaks: A leaky faucet wastes as much as 2,700 gallons in a year -- if it doesn't drive you crazy first. So fix it already.

Test the toilet for leaks, too. Put a drop of food coloring in the toilet tank. If the color shows up in the bowl, your tank is leaking, and you're wasting up to 200 gallons of water a day.

(For more tips, see "Don't be a drip: Conserve water.")

Fill 'er up: Run full loads of clothes and dishes. Most of the energy used by dishwashers is to heat a set amount of water, so running smaller loads wastes both energy and water.

Air-dry dishes for added energy savings.

Continued: Yard maintenance

(Save on investing; food; transportation; travel; utilities; phone service, Internet and TV; credit, debt and banking; entertainment.)

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