91 ways to save on almost anything

Take care with yard care: Water your outdoor plants in the early morning, before the sun can burn off moisture. And take care not to overwater. Before starting your sprinkler, step on the grass. If the blades spring back, hold off on watering for a day or two. The average lawn needs only an hour of watering a week.

Also, raise your mower blades to the 3-inch setting. Shaggy grass holds moisture longer, requiring less watering.

Be a drip: For gardens, consider installing a drip irrigation system, which maintains moisture in the soil. Drip irrigation can reduce water loss by 50% to 60% when compared with hand-watering or sprinkler systems.

A drip system consists of a tube or hose with holes or emitters along it. It uses a timer to deliver water to plants. By maintaining the moisture level of the soil, less water is lost to the sun and the wind.

Retrofit your faucets: Consider faucet aerators -- doohickeys that screw into your faucet threading and cut the water flow from 3 to 4 gallons per minute to as little as a half-gallon. As their name suggests, aerators blend water and air, reducing the flow without sacrificing pressure. At 50 cents to $3 apiece, the devices are some of the cheapest green gadgets available.

Aerators come in a range of flow rates. A faucet that flows at 1 gpm is fine for the bathroom. But for a little more oomph in the kitchen, use an aerator with a flow rate of at least 2 gpm.

Save money on phone service, Internet and TV

Bundle up: Bunch your services and save some green. For about $100 a month, you can get cable or satellite TV, local and long-distance telephone service, plus high-speed Internet service. This is often cheaper than paying for each service separately.

In addition to paying just one bill, you have just one company to call if you have a technical or billing issue.

(Read "Save a bundle on telecom services" to learn more.)

Rethink your phone company: Save on your long-distance bill and chat via computer with free software from Skype.com. You won't pay a dime for any call to another Skype user. You can call nonusers' landlines, too, for about $3 a month. Sure beats the $15 to $25 fee for a typical no-frills land line.

Or consider other low-cost Internet phone services such as Vonage. It comes with more perks such as voice mail, caller ID and call waiting and costs $25 per month for free unlimited local and long-distance calls.

Prepay for your cell-phone service: The average wireless-phone user spends about $60 a month, including taxes and fees. If you talk for 200 or fewer minutes per month, you may save by switching to a prepaid plan charging 25 cents a minute or less.

Prepaid plans generally charge 10 cents to 60 cents a minute, and compatible phones cost as little as $20.

(Compare plans at MyRatePlan.com.)

Cut the cord: If you have a good cell-phone plan that you use almost exclusively, get rid of the dead weight on your finances and drop your land line. You could reclaim $20 to $50 or more each month.

Evaluate your cable use: Do you really need all those cable channels? Take a look at what you're paying for and what your family actually uses. Then trim accordingly. Dropping premium channels, for example, is a good way to start saving.

You may even find you don't watch TV enough to justify the cost of your cable service. Consider dropping cable entirely and watching your favorite shows online or on DVD -- or reading a book.

Hang up on phone extras: Do you really need caller ID? Call waiting? Voice mail? Internet service on your cell phone?

Drop one or all of the extras and shave $5 to $50 off your bill each month.

Get a calling card: This is a great way to keep phone costs under control when you've got a roommate. That way, you're sure to only pay for the long-distance calls you personally make. No more billing disputes. Calling cards may also save you money over the long-distance plan offered by your phone company.

At Costco, for example, you can buy a Verizon phone card with 700 prepaid minutes for $20. That's 2.9 cents per minute.

Negotiate a lower rate: With cutthroat competition among phone, cable and Internet providers, you can probably haggle your way to a better deal on your service.

Many of the best offers are for new customers, but that shouldn't stop you from asking for the same deal, or at least one better than what you're getting. You could always threaten to take your business elsewhere.

Save money on credit, debt and banking

Unload your burden: Carrying a $1,000 balance at 18% blows $180 every year on interest. That's money you could put to better use elsewhere. Get in the habit of paying off your balance in full each month.

If you've already racked up a large balance, do what you can to pay it off. This may sound obvious, but it is the best way to save money on those hefty interest charges.

(See MSN Money's Debt Management Decision Center for help.)

Negotiate your rate: Instead of paying an APR of 18% on your credit card, call your issuer and ask for a lower rate. If you have good credit, your lender might consider it.

You'll strengthen your case if you can provide examples of offers you've gotten from other companies.

Consider a balance transfer: Shop for a new card with a lower interest rate.

Watch out for introductory offers, though. You don't want to get reeled in with the promise of a 5% rate only to find that it'll shoot up to 18% after three or six months -- unless you're confident you can pay off your entire balance within the introductory time frame.

(Find a good deal on a credit card here.)

Say goodbye to your annual fee: Your low-rate card may not be the deal you think it is if you pay an annual fee.

For example, if you pay $40 each month toward a $1,000 balance on a card with a 12% interest rate and a $50 annual fee, that's equivalent to a no-fee card with an 18.4% interest rate.

(Use our calculator to find out whether a low rate is worth the annual fee.)

Reap some rewards: You have to buy groceries and gas anyway, so why not use those purchases to get a little more green in your wallet? Sign up for a rewards credit card and get free money, gift certificates, airline miles or other perks.

If you spend $600 a month on groceries and gas, for example, on a card paying 2% cash back, you'd save almost $150 per year.

Of course, it's only free if you pay the balance in full each month without incurring interest charges.

Continued: Student loans

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

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