Eight Sure-Fire Ways to Sock Away $100

Let the economic pundits argue whether or not we're in a recession.

Either way, consumers are cutting back on spending.

Along with this comes a desire to save money as well. But how? If you have a few hours to spare you can find ways to put $100 or more back into your pocket.

The money may not show up instantly, but the time and effort to create the savings is minimal. By year's end you will have saved a nice chunk of change. In some cases, your savings will keep piling up well after that.

Here are eight actions to add $100 or more to your savings:

1. Wash With Cold Water

Many people don't realize that the major cost of running a washing machine is the electricity it takes to heat the water. This accounts for 85% to 90% of the energy used.

2. Drink More Water

Many people have grown accustomed to having some type of flavor in their drinks -- whether that be soda, fruit juice, an energy drink or something similar.

While only drinking water (of the nonbottled variety) would be the ideal way to save the most money, there is about as much chance of that happening as you never eating another snack.

3. Compare Prices

The Internet has leveled the playing field when shopping for such things as auto insurance and homeowners insurance.

All it takes is a few minutes of inputting information to see if you can get a better deal. Since it's such a competitive field, you can often save hundreds a year -- especially if you haven't checked prices recently.

You can take this a step further depending on how dedicated you want to be by price comparing all your major purchases through sites such as PriceGrabber or Shopping.com and save hundreds more.

4. Use Coupons

Many people scoff at coupons because of the time it takes to gather and organize them.

Then there's the obvious nerdiness factor.

Truth is, even if you aren't the coupon-clipping type, you can still save quite a bit with them.

All it takes is five minutes to look at the ones that come with the Sunday paper, in the daily mail and any others that you happen across.

5. Start Haggling

While most people don't take the time to do it, virtually all the services you currently pay for are negotiable, including your cable TV, gym membership, phone bill and Internet service. While asking for a better deal may not work with all of these all of the time, you will get a discount a lot more times than you probably imagine.

All it takes is a 10-minute call to each service. If you can negotiate a $10 a month discount on each, that comes to $480 a year in savings for a few phone calls. It will probably end up being a lot more.

6. Get a Lower Credit Card Rate

While you're on the phone, be sure to make a call to your credit card company if you currently carry a balance on your credit card.

7. Sell Stuff

You have a lot more stuff stored in your house than you will ever need or use.

A quick check of your closets, basement, garage and other nooks and crannies should produce boxes of stuff that you own, but no longer have any use for.

8. Refinance Your Home

With interest rates at the lowest level in years, it's time to see if refinancing your home loan (or any outstanding loan you have) is worthwhile.

Knocking off a point can save thousands of dollars over the lifetime of the loan.