Stick to the Speed Limit

Don’t be a slacker when it comes to car maintenance — if you give your car a tune-up every year, change the oil frequently and keep your tires properly inflated, you’ll improve fuel efficiency by seven percent, says Diane MacEachern, author of Save Our Planet: 750 Everyday Ways You Can Help Clean Up the Earth.

Think that doesn’t sound like much? If we all followed these rules, we’d save four million barrels of oil every day! And slow down when you’re on the highway — you pay roughly 10 cents a gallon extra for every five miles an hour you drive above 60. Just think how much whizzing along at 80 can cost you.

Change Your Lightbulbs

“If every household replaced just one incandescent bulb with a fluorescent bulb, the U.S. would conserve enough energy to light seven million homes,” says Ronnie Kweller of the Alliance to Save Energy.

Want more reasons to switch? Fluorescent bulbs use only a third of the energy an incandescent bulb needs to do its job, yet they last up to 10 times longer, says Kweller. Also, with summer ahead, keep in mind that fluorescent bulbs generate very little heat. This means your AC won’t have to work as hard to cool your home, so you’ll bring down energy costs.

Plug Those Leaks!

Maybe the drip, drip, drip already hasn’t driven you nuts, but a sky-high water bill might. “If your sink or tub is leaking, you could be wasting a lot of water,” says MacEachern. “If your toilet’s leaking, get it fixed, fast — it’s wasting 200 gallons a day!”

Even without leakage, you could be wasting water if you have an older toilet. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, replacing your 1992 model with a high-efficiency toilet can save you $90 a year on your water bill and more than $2,000 over the lifetime of the toilet. Conserve by placing a water-saving device like the Toilet Tummy (or use a plastic jug filled with water) in your toilet’s tank. It cuts the amount of water flushed by about a half-gallon, because less water is needed to refill the tank after each flush.

Clean Up With Basics

Next time you find yourself staring at shelves full of colorful cleaning supplies at the supermarket, switch gears and buy an extra box of baking soda instead, says MacEachern. Many common cleaning solutions contain abrasive chemicals that can harm our environment and water.

On the other hand, you’ll be surprised at what baking soda, regular soap, vinegar and a little water can do. “I use those four ingredients to clean everything from my kitchen sink to my bathtub,” says MacEachern.

Grow Your Own Produce

If you have a green thumb, planting fresh organic veggies can help you cut grocery costs. Strapped for time? Make your own “salad garden,” suggests MacEachern. “You can plant mini peppers or cherry tomatoes in a pot on your patio — these grow quickly and require less maintenance than a full-size veggie garden.” (Or try growing your own herbs, which can even be kept indoors as long as they get adequate sunlight and water.)

Not only will you be confident that pesticides aren’t being used on your food, but your produce will also be fresher. Think of it: Veggies ripe for the picking, just in time for dinner!

Think Insulation

Now that it’s spring, you may not need to warm your house. Your water heater, though, still is firing up to provide you with hot water for showers, washing dishes and doing the laundry.

MacEachern suggests wrapping an insulating blanket around your water heater to reduce the amount of heat escaping through the metal. “You can pick one up for as little as $10 at a hardware store, and over time, you’ll save up to nine percent on your monthly heating bill,” she says.

If you want to go the extra mile, insulate your attic. Not only will doing this reduce your total energy bill, but come winter you’ll notice the house is quieter — attic insulation muffles the sounds of howling winds.

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