Homeowner's Insurance Money-Saving Tips:

Raise your deductible.  If you're willing to cover more loss, the cost of your insurance premium will go down. For example, if you raise your deductible from $250 to $1000, you could save between 10% and 30% on your premium for not a lot of additional risk.

Ask about non-smoking discounts. Many insurance companies offer discounts for non-smokers.  These are not always automatic.  Sometimes you have to ask for them.

Get your automobile insurance and homeowners' insurance from the same company.   This could entitle you to a multi-line discount, which might be more than you think.

Insure only the house and not the property. If there is a fire, only the house burns, not the land, so don't pay to cover the lot the house sits on.

If you are age 50 or better, ask about senior discounts (and yes, age 50 is too young to be consider "senior" anything).

Tell your insurance agent if your house is near a fire hydrant.  Some companies give discounts for this.

Ask about getting discounts for fire alarms, fire sprinkler systems and security systems. Most companies will offer discounts for these devices so it can pay to install them.

Automobile Insurance Money-Saving Tips:

If you have towing and roadside assistance through your vehicle warranty, why also buy it through your insurance? If you do not have roadside assistance through your vehicle warranty but have it though an auto club membership, it may be less expensive to carry it through your insurance policy than pay for the auto club membership (although you many want to keep the auto club membership if you use it for hotel discounts and travel reservations, etc.).

And if you have separate medical insurance, consider dropping your car insurance's policy’s medical payments coverage (although some states require that you have this coverage).

Depending on your education and job title, some insurance companies will give you an occupational discount.   Health care givers, scientists, teachers, engineers, IT professionals and other jobs that require certification, a college degree or a license may receive a discount.

Getting an anti-theft discount can lower the comprehensive portion of the policy premium (which covers vandalism and theft)  To qualify for this discount, a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) based system is usually required since it lets the police locate your car if it is stolen. 

Some companies offer a 2% to 15% discount to active and retired members of the military.

Premiums have dropped dramatically in the last 10 or 15 years, and it may be worth replacing a life policy bought years ago with a new one that is similar.   For example, a $600,000, 20-year guaranteed level term life policy from the Harford or similar company would have cost a tobacco-free, healthy 50-year-old man about $2,200 a year in 2000.   Today that policy would probably cost about $1,450 a year for the same coverage over the next 10 years.  This is a significant savings of  $750.

And if you adopt a healthier lifestyle, you can get re-rated and get a lower rate.   For example, a 40-year-old man with a $1 million, 20-year term policy could save $50 a month by cutting his cholesterol by 30 points.  He could save $65 a month if he dropped 50 pounds to reach normal weight and save an additional $165 a month three years after he quit smoking.   Doing this not only saves money but creates a healthier lifestyle.   But don't cancel your existing policy until you have a new one already in place!