Edmunds.com reports that zero-financing deals hit a record high last month, with more than 22 percent of financed new cars purchased with such deals. That’s up 9 percentage points from a year ago, and just beats  the previous high of 21 percent set back in July 2006.

Toyota, beleaguered by its reported safety problems, offered a zero percent APR on 71 percent of new vehicles financed in March – nearly twice the previous Toyota record of 39 percent in August 2009, Edmunds.com reports. The two brands with the next highest percentages of such deals were Mazda at 58 percent of all financed transactions and Mercury at 32 percent. 

Keep in mind these deals are available only to buyers who meet the credit criteria. “Shoppers should always check their credit score and secure financing from a bank or credit union before setting foot in the dealership so that they have a back-up plan if they get declined when seeking the special deals,” advises Edmunds.com’s Philip Reed.

You can find a list of zero-percent financings offers from Edmunds by clicking here. In addition, because of the special financing, more than 100 new vehicles currently cost less than their one-year old used counterparts. See that Edmunds list here.

Parents will be interested in a story in The New York Times today about Baby Einstein videos. Walt Disney Company is offering a refund of $15.99 each for up to four videos purchased between June 5, 2004 and September 5, 2009. For those who’ve never seen one, Baby Einstein videos feature bright colors, puppets, flashy graphics and classical music. The company, founded in 1997, claimed the products were educational for babies. Disney bought the firm in 2001

But the American Association of Pediatrics recommends that children under age 2 do not spend any time in front of a screen. I wrote about this issue in 2007 when I interviewed Susan Gregory Thomas, author of “Buy Buy Baby,” an excellent expose of the children’s “educational” video and toy business. Some child development experts even suggest there is a connection between early exposure to videos and attention deficit disorder (ADD).

Back in 2006, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission over DVDs marketed to babies. As a result, the Times reports, the companies dropped the word “educational” from their marketing materials. The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood thought that didn’t go far enough, and last year threatened a class-action suit for unfair and deceptive practices unless Disney offered a refund to all consumers who purchased the video since 2004. That’s now part of a settlement; click here for information on how to get your refund.

For many employers, the fall season brings open enrollment — that once-a-year opportunity for workers to change their benefit packages. But the vast majority of workers stick with the status quo: A recent MetLife survey of 1,000 people finds 77 percent of employees plan to maintain current work benefits, while 10 percent plan to increase them and 11 percent will cut back.

Many workers don’t make changes because they don’t recognize the upside of some benefit programs. A 2008 survey of human resources managers found only 21 percent believe their employees have a good understanding of the company’s benefits. One issue is that workers may get little guidance: 40 percent of the firms in the survey require workers to self-enroll to receive benefits.

In a nutshell, an FSA allows workers to have money deducted from their paychecks pre-tax to pay for out-of-pocket health care expenses as well as the costs of dependent and child care (including summer camp for children under 13 when both parents are working). I’ll explain the details in this post — but if you prefer the video version, check out my recent appearance on ABC News Now’s “Money Matters.”

For example, someone in the 25 percent tax bracket who spends $2,000 a year on qualified medical expenses (or a qualifying day care center) would save that 25 percent — or $500 — if he sets aside the money in an FSA and has his employer reimburse him for those costs. (You also save on Social Security, Medicare and state taxes, so the savings are even higher.)

By law, the maximum contribution to a dependent care FSA is $5,000; there is no legal limit on health care FSAs, but employers typically limit them to $5,000 as well, experts say.

Here are five questions to ask to make the most of your FSA:

1. Do I have expenses that qualify to be paid out of an FSA? Go to www.irs.gov and check out Publication 502 to see which of your medical expenses qualify, and 503 for child care expenses. (The IRS dubs them “Flexible Spending Arrangements.”) It can be anything from co-pays to eyeglasses to the cost of a weight loss program if the weight loss is ordered by a doctor.

2. How much do I spend out-of-pocket each year on these expenses? Get a firm handle on that number by looking back through your checkbook and credit card statements. Flexible Spending Accounts are “use it or lose it” – in other words, if you don’t spend the money you set aside, you forfeit it. So it’s important to add up the numbers – that will give you an idea of how much to set aside in the account. A mom of three I interviewed for my recent Yahoo!Finance article on this topic used Mvelopes.com to track her spending, so over a period of a year or two, she knew precisely how much to set aside for medical expenses for her child’s asthma and other costs. That will save her family hundreds of dollars over the course of the year.

3. What’s my tax bracket? This tells you how much you’ll save by using an FSA. Many people don’t know their bracket off the top of their heads. Assuming you filed the standard Form 1040, look at Line 43 of last year’s tax form. That’s your taxable income. (If you expect to earn more or have more deductions this year, just add and subtract those factors to get an estimate of this year’s taxable income.) Then go to irs.gov and look at the federal tax tables to figure out your bracket. Then multiply the amount you would put in the FSA by the bracket, and that’s roughly your savings. ($1,000 in FSA x 25% = $250; $1,000 – $250 = $750 in actual cost.)

4. How does my plan work in terms of reimbursing qualified expenses? It’s important to talk to your co-workers who have used your company’s FSA. An FSA is only as good as the plan administrator. Some companies have administrators that make the FSA very easy to use – for example, they’ll issue employees a specific debit or credit card for their FSA spending. Others require you to jump through a lot of hoops – for example, filling out and faxing paperwork to prove the expenses are qualified.

Ask your co-workers how responsive the plan administrator is, what their call center is like, how often they approve or reject claims, and what the appeal process is like. (For some people, the savings aren’t worth the time they have to put in to get their claims approved and paid for with their own money!)

5. What happens with my FSA if I leave the company or lose my job? You typically have to use the money before you depart. So if you think your job is in jeopardy, schedule those dental and medical checkups, get prescriptions refilled and get a new pair of eyeglasses. You can submit the paperwork as long as the expense is incurred before your termination. In addition, you can sign up to extend your FSA benefits under COBRA (you don’t have to sign up for the COBRA health insurance itself to continue your FSA). But you have to pay in the monthly amount you committed to, plus a 2% charge.

One last note: Aside from the open enrollment period, you can also make changes to your FSA plan if you have a qualifying life event – if you get married or have a child for example. For more on FSAs, see this Yahoo!Finance column.

by Alix, the eco-czar

Buy. Less. Stuff. It’s that simple. Buy less stuff. When you buy less stuff you spend less money, so the economic angle is a given. When you buy less stuff you are also making a dent in the giant heaving mountain of garbage that almost all of our stuff eventually becomes. Buy less stuff and stem the tidal wave of consumption that for years has been the American birthright. It has also been giant contributor to the swirling gyre of plastic trash polluting the Pacific Ocean. This garbage dump is visible from satellite footage.

Buy less stuff is a simple rule, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Lest I get a bad reputation as a sanctimonious scold, let me be clear: I love nothing more than strolling through a swanky mall, shopping for wardrobe, access-ories, and cosmetics that I do not need. I love retail therapy.

Like a growing number of Americans, however, I want to save more money. The exuberant spending that marked the last ten years or so has been replaced by attitudes reminiscent of our childhoods when saving for a rainy day was the norm.

I still love to shop, but now I do it with a new attitude. I’ve had a paradigm shift, as they say. Now, whenever I am about to buy something, I take a moment and ponder, “Do I want this or do I need this?” When every item must pass the want-or-need test, far fewer items make it to the checkout aisle at Target. Perhaps initially shopping was not as much fun, but it’s like exercising an atrophied muscle. It might hurt at first, but when you get home and there is still that chunk of cash in your bank account, the pain will have subsided greatly. Like workouts, the more you do this, the easier it gets.  

If I find that the item I left on the store shelf is still haunting me days later, I’ll go back and buy it. But more often than not, I walk away from items in stores and never return to buy them. I have cultivated a strange sense of satisfaction when I walk out of a store empty-handed. I’ve discovered a strange power in my immunity to the relentless shills of our materialistic world.

As everyone with young children knows, there is a never-ending stream of stuff the world wants you to buy for your kids–from the patently unnecessary warmers for diaper wipes to expensive video games, to the way they rudely outgrow the shoes and clothing we buy. I think teaching them the lesson of want versus need is a vital part of my role as a parent. They almost always leave toy stores, Target, and supermarkets without the token piece of trash or candy they whine and plead for.

Another key to maintaining control with my kids is hand-me-downs and resale/consignment shops. Other kids are outgrowing their clothing and gear as fast as yours are, and somewhere in your town is probably a store like Milk Money where you can get great “gently used” kid stuff, cheap. If no stores near you are good, try handmedowns.com or e-Bay. (For the latter, just search on your child’s shoe size or clothing size.)

Changing my attitude has led me to discover a host of other ways to get what I need and want while still saving money or not spending any money at all.

The Library has been a huge “a-ha!” for me. I spent my childhood going to the library but somehow forgot about it as a childless adult. Now I don’t know how the parents of young children do without a library—you cycle through so many picture books with kids. As an adult, you can ignore both sides of the Kindle debate, still read whatever you want, and keep all your money in your pocket. Get yourself a library card and it’s all free: Books, DVDs, books on tape, CDs. I check out tens of books, for my kids and me, and if we don’t like a book there is not an ounce of buyer’s remorse. In fact, purchasing a book has become something reserved for gifts and very special book (i.e., a guide to gardening I’ll use all the time, or a picture book my boys adore)—a money saver for certain.

A few years ago we had a sofa bed that we couldn’t pay someone to take. We couldn’t even get goodwill to pick it up. Then we posted it on Freecycle and within 24 hours it was gone. We quickly discovered it’s a two-way street. Our big living room TV was free, and I found a piano for my neighbor as well. Register locally and you can receive updates of what’s available, post your own ‘wanteds’, or just visit the Web site whenever you want.

Craigslist is like visiting every garage sale in your area without leaving the house. Like eBay, Craigslist is addictive. Once you score a great deal—like $75 for the ideal table and chairs for my back deck—you check it for everything.

Like so many elements of going green, a big change came from a small shift in my thinking. My contribution to the planet’s garbage problem is smaller, and my bank account stays… well, small too, but not smaller!

For more on the less-is-more movement, see this link. Have you cut back on buying stuff? Comment here or email your thoughts to laura at laurarowley.com.

I always knew credit card companies were sneaky, but now the airlines seem to be copying their “best” practices. This is my conclusion after a weird encounter with Continental today.  I use a Continental mileage-reward credit card because I fly out a Newark, a hub for the airline. In the mail today I received two gift certificates for $20 off a flight in the U.S. that said “Here is your free gift. Thanks for using your credit/debit card.” Very handy, as I was just booking a flight to Chicago for August.

Now I had priced this trip a week ago, and it came up at $178 round-trip, but I didn’t book it because my plans weren’t confirmed. When I logged into Continental. com, and submitted my gift certificate promo code, it priced at $258. So I logged out and did a quick check on continental.com again, without using the promotion certificate. Price? $198.

So as you make your summer travel plans, beware of credit cards and airlines bearing gifts. This one was apparently a $60 Trojan Horse fare hike — or make that $40, as I would have “saved” $20 by using the gift certificate. It’s kind of like a corporate membership program I had with a rental car company years ago. You would price the deal, and then price it again with your membership number — and it always came out to a higher rate.

Have you run into sneaky practices by the airlines that empty your wallet? Comment here or email me at laura at laurarowley.com.

My daughter Anne has been asking me for a fish, which I told her she had to purchase out of her allowance (hey, I paid for the dog — which we adopted from another family who couldn’t take care of her, not a puppy mill). Anne had about $6 left in her piggy bank and needed $10.

We talked about her alternatives — waiting two weeks for her July allowance, or figuring out how to earn extra cash. She decided she liked the extra cash idea, so we brainstormed entrepreneurial possibilities. She just turned 12 and enjoys little kids, and there are dozens of them within a two-block radius, so babysitting looked like a slam dunk.

This in turn led to a discussion about the training one needs to be a successful babysitter/entrepreneur, so we signed her up for the Red Cross Babysitter’s Training course. Since I am always happy to pay for educational stuff, I wrote the tuition check for the all-day course. Bottom line: Instead of giving her $4 to pay for the fish, I spent $65. But as they say, give a kid $4 and they’ll get a fish today, teach a kid to babysit and they can buy fish forever. Or something like that.

Anyway, while she was in the pet store picking out Thursday — the name of her new fish — I was making a deposit at Wachovia. The teller asked if I wanted to sign up for the bank’s new program, Way2Save and receive guaranteed 5% interest on the account’s balance at the end of the first year. Since my online savings account has dropped to a paltry 1.5% I took the bait.

Thursday, the Betta fish

Alas, the fine print reveals that Way2Save is not smooth sailing to the riches of Atlantis, but may be helpful, especially for people who occasionally overdraw their checking accounts. And it might be a nice way to build up a mini emergency fund, or save for an annual vacation, especially if you’re one of those spontaneous types who books a cruise at the last minute and charges the excursion to a credit card.

Here’s how it works: You link the Way2Save account to your checking, and are allowed to make an automatic transfer of $100 a month. Then, for every purchase you make with your check card and every bill you pay online, the bank will transfer $1 from your checking to savings. (Wachovia aggregates the payment at the end of the day, and if it overdraws your account, the transaction does not go through.) There’s no minimum balance, and no initial deposit required.

You can opt to use Way2Save as overdraft protection, and Wachovia will waive its usual overdraft transfer fee when funds are swept from the savings to the checking account to prevent a bounced check. A convenient backup plan, as we all make mistakes. I also like that the Way2Save program encourages the use of online bill pay, because that’s a great way to get in the habit of paying bills on time (avoiding pesky late fees), and it saves you money on stamps.

In the fine print, however, you’ll find that the maximum Way2Save “bonus” is $300 — which means you don’t get anything if you put more than $500 a month, or $6,000 a year into the savings account (5% of $6,000 = $300.) That number would be hard to reach anyway, because you’d need 400 transactions on top of the $100 you’re allowed to transfer in directly. So, for instance, let’s say I transfer $100 a month, pay 10 bills a month online, and swipe my debit card five times a month. That equals a monthly Way2Save deposit of perhaps $115, or $1380 a year. Interest earned: $69, for a total of $1,449. (As I said, a nice little cushion for overdrafts, emergencies or vacations.)

It’s worthwhile to shop around for these savings programs. Bank of America offers one called Keep the Change, in which it rounds up the purchases you make with its check card to the nearest dollar, transfers that amount from checking to savings and matches the funds up to $250 a year. Imagine you buy a bagel and coffee for $1.40; the bank rounds it up to $2, transfers 60 cents to savings and then matches it with 60 cents. (Note: It matches 100% in the first three months and 5% in the next nine months. So that 60 cents round-up would only garner a match of 3 cents in the fourth month and beyond.)

Presumably you might reach $250 over the course of a year if you had enough transactions on your check card — but this also requires using your debit card like crazy. (Even the example on B of A’s website presumes you’re swiping that sucker 40 times in a month.) That may make it difficult to stay on top of your account balance — I’m one of those old fashioned people who writes down everything in my check register — and overdraft fees are at record highs. If you’re trying to control your spending, it’s better to use cash. One study found that people overspend by a two-to-one margin when they have the opportunity to use plastic versus the green stuff in their wallets.

Gotta a good tip for earning more interest on your savings? Comment here or email me at laura at laurarowley.com.

Editor’s Note: Please welcome Alix, a writer and married mom of three kids (ages 6, 4 and six weeks!) who will be guest-posting for the blog on a regular basis. I met Alix when she moved to New Jersey from Washington D.C. She’s a sharp, thoughtful freelance writer who’s spend the last 15 years covering health care, the arts, education and the environment. When she moved to Jersey she decided to clean up her act, environmentally speaking, and spent the last year figuring out how to reduce, reuse, recycle — and save money. She’ll show you how going green can be easy and cheap – and she’ll chronicle her eco-exploits – and other adventures in saving money — here.

When it comes to your groceries, it’s easy to excuse yourself from “going green” by saying it’s too expensive. Just look at the price of organic food. Still, there are good reasons to go for it and you can start by “cross-shopping” — the way you might buy a dress at Target and splurge on the accessories at a department store. In other words, you do not need to buy organic everything. I sure don’t. Certain produce, milk, chicken and meat always get the bump up to organic. A few tips:

-Organic milk always costs more, but shop around—Target offers a good price, I‘ve noticed, and the Whole Foods 365 brand is not certified organic but the milk has no antibiotics.

-The criteria to earn a “Certified USDA Organic” label can exclude produce that is grown without chemicals or pesticides. Find a farmers’ market near you to buy local, and ask the sellers how the food was grown. Produce that has a thick peel — bananas, citrus fruits and avocados — offers some natural protection against pesticides.

We love farmers markets!

-Use coupons. Mambosprouts.com focuses specifically on healthy, natural and organic coupons — just click and print. Organic producers including Stonyfield Farm, Annie’s Homegrown and Earthbound Farms offer coupons on their own websites. You can find some of these brands, and other organics, in bulk at Costco.

-Spend more on organics by spending less on those individual snack-sized portions. According to research from the University of Florida, packaging makes up one-third of all waste generated. Per-ounce, single-servings can be 50 percent more expensive, and generate twice the waste as products packaged in bulk. You can save more than $50 a year by avoiding single-serving food items, the study found.  Buy reusable containers and then purchase cheaply in bulk.

-Eat less meat. This is good for your body and good for the planet. Even Paul McCartney is advocating No Meat Mondays. A huge source of global warming is all the cows in our country, and waste runoff from the giant chicken farms near the Chesapeake Bay is poisoning the water. Alternative proteins are not only better for you and the planet, they are cheaper! Grains like quinoa, spelt, faro; any sort of bean; nuts, eggs—all of these are excellent sources of protein and much less expensive than meat. For recipes, check out the blog of Amanda Louden, a holistic nutrition educator in California and mom of two, who posts her recipes online at www.mydailydiner.com.

-Grow a garden! The cleanest tomatoes will always be the ones you grow in your backyard. Sites such as www.backyardgardener.com show you how to grow your own produce.

Finally, walk into the store with your canvas reusable bags in hand, ready to drop in your cart for checkout. I’m not going to try to sell you on the $0.10 per bag savings some stores offer. This is purely an altruistic move on your part. I will say that canvas or reusable bags are sturdier than paper or plastic so you will grow to prefer them. It’s a tough habit to start, however. So many times I was at the checkout with a cart full of groceries when I realized all my reusable bags were still in the kitchen. So I put the bags in my car. The frustration and aggravation at the checkout is considerably heightened when the bags are in the parking lot of the supermarket. Eventually I got into the swing of it, and now it’s a habit.

If you have ideas to save green while you shop green, comment here or send them to laura at laurarowley.com.

I had coffee recently with Gretchen Rubin, author of the blog “The Happiness Project”. If you’re interested in happiness and haven’t heard of her work, you’re in for a treat. The Yale Law grad and author of four books spent a year “test-driving every principle, tip, and scientific study” she could find on well-being, and reports on what works and what doesn’t in a new book to be published by Harper Collins later this year. I’ve followed Gretchen’s blog for some time — it’s literally a treasure trove of thoughtful ideas on happiness. (A note of caution for novices: You could spend days or weeks combing through her compelling posts.)

Gretchen interviewed me for her Slate blog.  Take a look at the questions she asks, and pose them to yourself — hopefully you’ll have as much fun as I did in this interview.

Speaking of posing questions, I recently did an interview on Meredith’s Better TV, asking host Audra Lowe a series of multiple-choice questions about finances, with tips to make savvier choices. We filmed in Central Park’s Boathouse Cafe on a gorgeous day in the Big Apple. How savvy are you? Follow this link to the video and find out.

Finally, I spoke with Wayne Cabot, the anchor with WCBS 880 radio in New York (wow, what a voice!) about why frugal is sexy. Check it out here.

Do you think frugality is here to stay? You can comment here or email me at laura at laurarowley.com.

I co-hosted a Blogger Briefing this week on behalf of Kodak for a group of influential mom bloggers. I shared some savings tips (see previous post) and then asked for their ideas. As I expected, they had some terrific ones. Here are just a few quick highlights:

-Heather from LittleMissKnowItAll.com suggested dumping Netflix or other movie-by-mail services in favor of RedBox, where you can get first-run movies for $1 a night. (There are 12,000 locations, including one right in front of my local grocery store, so I’m planning to give it a try.) Heather adds that RedBox often promotes codes online for a free movie to get consumers to try the service, so do a Yahoo search (or check her site for the codes).

-Nicole from Mom Trends, whose blog focuses on style, just redecorated a nursery by throwing a bright splash of color on just one wall (requiring one can of paint rather than three) and using wall decals rather than expensive wallpaper. She also recommends repurposing artwork — the most expensive part of framing is the frame and the glass, she points out. Remove a tired print, buy a new mat and frame pictures of the kids.

-Nicole also recommends finding a food co-op in your area to save on groceries; she belongs to one of the nation’s largest — the Park Slope Food Co-op, which has 14,000 members. You have to volunteer a few hours a month, but Nicole says the savings are worth it! To search for a co-op near you, click here.

-Amy from Selfishmom.com says giving an allowance to her four- and seven-year-old saves money. The kids know that certain treats — such as the ice cream from the truck jingling its way up the street — have to be paid for out of their personal stash. (I’ve also found giving kids control of their own purse strings also cuts down on the “Mom, can I have….” every time you walk into Target.)

-Marcy of The Glamorous Life Association is a big fan of bartering. She trades advertising on her blog for kids’ services, getting a 50 percent discount on her son’s Tae Kwon Do class and free entertainment for one of her kid’s birthday parties. “They were thrilled with the trade,” she says. “It never hurts to ask!”

-As for family vacations, Christine from FromDatestoDiapers just took her six kids to Las Vegas for the week. Rent a unit that has a mini-kitchen, or at least request a microwave, she advises. (Some hotels send them to the room, just as they’d send an extra cot.) Buying cereal and muffins for breakfast and packing snacks while touring saves on the budget; click here for her funny observations on the trip. 

We usually rent a condo and buy groceries on vacation, but Katja from Skimbacolifestyle offered an idea I hadn’t heard before: If you bring food from home, freeze a case of juice boxes and put them in the bottom of the cooler. Her family travels everywhere by car, and she swears this keeps the food in the cooler cold for three days.

Thanks to all the mom bloggers who participated in the briefing for their tips! I would love to hear your tips as well. You can comment here or email me at laura at laurarowley.com.

(Full disclosure: I am the spokesperson for Kodak’s Print & Prosper campaign. However, Kodak did not pay for this post, I just really liked these ideas. M&H.com does not accept payment for posts.)

This week the folks at Kodak asked me to share some savings tips with consumers. (Full Disclosure: I am the spokesperson for Kodak’s Print & Prosper Promotion. However, the company did not pay for this post. M&H.com does not accept payment for posts.) Kodak estimates  that the average consumer spends $180 a year on ink, while its All-in-One printers averaging $70 a year. (Click here to figure out what you’re spending.)

That’s a great illustration of the fact that boosting your savings sometimes means simply patching the small leaks can make a big difference. Take a tour through your home, and you’ll find savings in every room:

Kitchen

The average household spent $2,700 on food purchased away from home in 2007. If you can cut that by one-third by eating at home and bringing leftovers and snacks to work more often, that’s $900 a year. To avoid the take-out trap (and create lunch leftovers):

Plan at least four to five dinners for the week, basing menus on what’s on sale in your store circular (most are available online). Use the store’s loyalty card religiously, and be willing to buy different brands, based on lowest cost.

Register for free at a coupon site such as couponmom.com. It publishes weekly lists by state and store showing the best deals, and whether a coupon is available for an item by listing the circular name — such as “Smart Source” — and its date. Subscribe to the local Sunday paper, pull out the circulars each week, write the date on them and put them in a drawer. When it’s time to shop, clip the relevant coupon and go. You can also easily search for them online, download and print.

Buy ingredients in bulk at a warehouse club. Then double the recipe, freeze the second meal, and set up a meal swap with a friend so you have more menu variety. (You can also get produce cheaper at a warehouse club; I split the giant packages with my friend Kim to avoid spoilage.)

Media Room/Home Office

Americans pay an average of $60 for cable, but only watch 15 channels, according to the Consumers Union. If you pay for premium cable services, call your provider and put the service on “vacation mode.” You’ll still receive basic service but save temporarily on the extras – and get a good sense of whether you miss them. (If you don’t, call the cancellation department and say you’re considering eliminating service altogether – this department has the best deals on hand to keep you as a customer.)

Beware the “vampire” drain of electricity from appliances and electronics in “standby mode” — turned off but still plugged into the wall. One study found standby power consumes 5 percent of electricity and costs $3 billion. Plug items into fuse-protected power strips that don’t suck energy from the wall when turned off.

If you work from home part of the time but don’t have a fax machine, send faxes for free through faxzero.com. The service puts an ad on the cover sheet, and limits customers to two three-page faxes each day. An add-free option: Faxaway charges by the minute, and a typical fax costs less than a quarter (much less than a copy shop like Kinkos). Meanwhile, you can receive faxes for free through k7.net (you have to use it at least once a month to keep your account active).

Bathroom

Water bills can also be cut back 25 to 60 percent just by replacing your old showerheads and faucets with low-flow aerating models for $10 to $20 each. Look for a model that’s 2.5 gallons per minute (gpm) or less. The average household spends $474 a year on water, so your savings can be anywhere from about $120 to $285 a year.

Medicine cabinet: Only about one-third of prescription drug purchases are mostly or fully covered by insurance, according to a recent Consumer Reports survey, and prices can vary by as much as $100 for the same drug. Always ask your physician for a generic equivalent, which can cost up to 40 percent less, then shop around. About a dozen states sponsor websites that help you compare prescription prices. Discount stores and warehouse clubs offer the most popular generic drugs for as little as $4 a month.

Rethink grooming products. Americans spend an average of $577 a year on grooming supplies, but many people spend more without getting more bang for their buck. For example, Consumer Reports found a skin cream that sells for $19 in drug stores performed better than one that sells for $176 in department stores. A technical test conducted by Pantene found it performed as well as the top four salon brands. Just switching from salon hair care products to an affordable brand such as Pantene can save $80 a year.

Households spend an average of $1,500 a year on drycleaning, and 65 percent of those clothes are washable, according to Proctor and Gamble research. Wool, cashmere, silk, rayon, polyester and spandex can all be laundered. Assuming you begin to wash just half the clothes you dryclean, that’s $750 a year.

A few tips: Use the delicate or hand wash cycle and cold water, and a gentle fabric care product. Lay wool and cashmere flat to dry; everything else, including cotton and linen, can be thrown in the dryer on a low-heat setting, then pressed. Suits should be hung up immediately, aired out, and spot cleaned with a lint-free cloth. Follow that routine, and you can limit dry cleaning to two to four times a season.

In Every Room: Utilities

A programmable thermostat costs about $30 at the hardware store but can save as much as 25 percent on your energy bills by turning down the heat or air conditioning when you’re away from home or sleeping, according to the Energy Department. For the average utility payer, that works out to about $250 a year. Boost your savings even more by setting your water heater at 120 degrees.

Cell phone plans: The website letstalk.com offers an overview of various plans, and services such as Billshrink.com and Validas.com analyze your cell phone bill for a small fee and show you where to find savings. (Billshrink says its clients save up to $300 a year.) Alternately, use a pre-paid service such as Boost, a division of Sprint, which recently began offering unlimited voice, text and web browsing for $50 a month.

Boosting Income

Finally, layoffs and job insecurity are prompting more people to look for opportunities to make extra cash on the side. Be wary of “work at home” scams. Instead, consider opportunities to sell household items on eBay or Craigslist; virtual call center companies such as Liveops.com, Willow.com, AlpineAccess.com and teamdouble-click.com; and sites such as guru.com, elance.com, and oDesk.com, where you can market accounting, graphic design and other skills on a freelance basis.

Do you have great ideas for saving and boosting income? You can comment here or email me at laura at laurarowley.com.