by Laurie Childree

Created on: August 03, 2009

The holiday season begins around November and ends around January. I think, anyway Thanksgiving and Christmas are the two major holidays most people think of. This is also the time of the year when we usually spend the most money without even trying. Most of us vow each year not to spend as much as we did the previous year but somehow we fall short of these goals as the season overwhelms us. So how do we manage our spending better and save money during the holiday season?

Plan and Save Ahead of Time

Dinners and gifts are a big part of the holiday expenses especially when you have a large family. A little planning goes a long way. Making a list of all those you plan to buy gifts for will help you to set a realistic budget for the amount that you can afford to spend on gifts. You might find the amount you can afford to spend on gifts and the amount that you want to spend on gifts is completely different. Assigning an even dollar amount to everyone is far but not always possible when the people on your list are of varying ages. There is nothing to say that you can't buy a gift or two during the rest of the year to give and put up until time to wrap it.

Dinners being planned ahead of time are a good idea too. If you have a large family chances are that everyone will meet at one place to have dinner on the same day or you could end up going to two or three different places. Splitting the cooking means that there are multiple people sharing the cost of the meal instead of just one.

Decorating

There is no need to have the entire house covered in decorations. While some people love to decorate too many decorations can cause clutter. There isn't anything that says you have to have new decorations each and every year. The decorations that you have used in the past will work fine. If you need more decorations for the kids why not let the kids make them. Not only will it save you money on decorations but it can help to keep them occupied while you're wrapping the presents that you a have hidden.

Wrapping Paper

When the holidays end stores usually put wrapping paper on sale. Buying holiday paper after the holidays so that's ready next year will save you money. You don't have to use traditional wrapping paper on everything either. Kids like the comics, so why not wrap their gifts with the Sunday comics? It'll save you money on wrapping paper since you've already paid for the paper once. You're just reusing it before you recycle it.

There are dozens of other ways to save money when you're spending on the holidays. It doesn't require a lot of effort just attention to detail and a little thought.

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