For photo work, we use products like Colorvision Spyder or Eye One Display 2.These work with CRTs but not so good with flat panels. With a flat panel, the brightness is much greater than a CRT, so the color saturation can change dramatically. Find someone that has a monitor color calibration system and see if you can borrow it and see if it works.
There are also calibration systems for printers. I've never used one, so I don't know how wel they work.
David