I am bidding quite high and I've realized -- I am the ONLY adwords ad for this term. If I bid 10 - 15 cents a click, would Google not put out as many imrpessions? Or could I do this and save a lot of money?
If your advert is appearing above the natural search results, then you can pay less per click, and appear to the right, though you'll get fewer clicks. If your advert is appearing to the right, then you should be paying approximately the 'estimated minimum bid to appear on page 1'. Reducing your bid below this will result in your advert now showing as often. To see your 'page 1 bid', click on the question mark next to a keyword.
If you go into one of your Adgroups, there's a magnifying glass next to the keyword (don't know why I said question mark - think I'm losing it!) Click on it, and it'll tell you your Quality Score, out of 10. Click on the Details and Recommendations under this, and you'll see, amongst other things, the "Estimated bid to show on the first page". This is, in effect, the minimum that you have to pay per click, when there are not many adverts on a search results page.