save

save your breath: seebreath.

save the day (or situation) find or provide a solution to a difficulty or disaster.

1990Richard CritchfieldAmong the British When the postwar social fabric started to tear, amid a stagnant economy and global decline…Edward Heath…was supposed to save the day. He failed to deliver.

save (someone's) face: seeface.

save someone's skin (or neck or bacon) rescue someone from danger or difficulty.

to save your life used in various expressions, especially can't (or couldn't) do something to save your life, to indicate that the person in question is very incompetent at doing something.

☞ The first recorded use of this expression is by Anthony Trollope in The Kellys and O'Kellys (1848): 'If it was to save my life and theirs, I can't get up small talk for the rector and his curate'.