my savegames are around 8.5mb in size. looking at my extensive save game list, i can see that the file size has been steadily increasing. I tried to remove the bloat with wyre bash, but whatever save i perform that function on ends up not being able to save any new games without them becoming corrupted. how can I remove this bloat? thanks.

8.5MB isn't enough to worry about. I've got some approaching 10MB and it's all fine. The size is supposed to steadily increase. Not explode quickly. I wouldn't worry about it unless you are going to end up hitting 20 in the next couple of weeks or something.

Agreed with what Arthmoor says. My current save games are averaging 11-13 MB and the game is still pretty stable for me. If you're concerned, though, you could always try a mod called Kuertee's Cleanup, which is designed to minimize savegame bloat. It's also good for cleaning junk and corruption out of saved games.