It's a pretty good bet that you have leaks in your budget--car insurance that costs too much, bank account fees, home-energy wasters or mutual funds with high expense ratios. Each of those leaks in isolation won't damage your finances, but all of the drips can quickly add up to big bucks--maybe even thousands of dollars a year--going down the drain. We identify typical leaks and show you how to fix them so you can keep more money in your pocket.

Hunt for Discounts

Getty Images

You can find store discount codes, often worth up to 20%, at sites such as Retailmenot.com and Promocodes.com. But if you're not in the mood to conduct the search yourself, Honey (www.joinhoney.com), a browser extension available for Chrome, Safari and Firefox, searches for coupons at thousands of sites and applies the discounts at checkout. Honey also searches Amazon.com for the lowest price.

But don't just assume Amazon has the best deal. LendEDU, a comparison marketplace for loans and other financial products, compared a shopping cart of 50 identical items from Amazon and Walmart in five categories: home goods, kitchen/appliances, tech, food and beverage, and miscellaneous items. Walmart bested Amazon in every category except food and beverage.

You can score deals at the supermarket without clipping coupons. If you sign up for a loyalty card, you can save up to 30% on sale items, and you may be able to add virtual coupons to your card if you register it on the grocer's website.

Avoid Shipping Fees

Getty Images

If you're paying pesky shipping fees, maybe you're not shopping right. The coupon sites mentioned in the last slide may turn up free-shipping codes.

Or search for more than 50 stores--including Coach, Dell, DKNY, Microsoft, Neiman Marcus, Nord­strom, North Face, Ray Ban and Zappos--that always offer free shipping with no minimum purchase. But compare what you buy at sites with shipping fees to make sure you're getting the best overall deal. Another option: Best Buy, Nordstrom, Target and other large retailers offer free shipping to nearby stores, so you can take advantage of the online price. Or contact customer service through the chat box to ask about