The economy has forced people to cut back in many areas of their lives. For the first time, women are clipping coupons for the grocery store, men and women are car pooling to work, and families are cutting back on entertainment, and other extras. We have learned to cut down on lots of the extras to save money to pay our bills, but many have overlooked one of the best places to save money in their monthly budget, and that is in your automobile insurance.

Car insurance is one area that has come down in price in the last three years, by almost 21%. This could turn out to be a considerable difference, especially if you own two or more vehicles. Have you compared your car insurance rates since you purchased the vehicle? Since you added any other vehicles on the policy? Since you child began driving? These are all good times to evaluate what you’re paying, and if you haven’t compared rates lately, now is the time to do it.

Getting a better car insurance deal is the best thing you could do for your budget, and it is so simple to do online. You want to make sure that you are getting a comparable rate with your present policy. What this means is that you are comparing apples to apples, in your present policy to what you are looking at.

Here are simple steps to accomplish that.

• Get your recent policy. You can go to your insurance company’s website and print it out.

• You will also need your registration number. Typically, it is under the windshield, or on the driver’s door.

• Next, go to the comparison site, where they will ask you about your vehicle and you simply fill in the blanks.

• Next, call the company that gave you the best deal, and give them any "good driver" discounts that you have: over 60, no traffic violations, took a defensive drivers class, are a few.

• This process should present you with an automobile insurance rate that you can compare to your current car insurance coverage.

If you are like most people, you will find that in the 20 minutes it took you to enter your vehicle information, and talk to a representative, you found a better car insurance deal. Just think what you can do with the money you saved!