Frugal Tips to Help Avoid Overspending During the Christmas Holiday Season

The Christmas holiday season often brings out the worst buying, shopping, and spending habits of the American consumer. Too often the Christmas holidays finds us forgetting to budget or to stay on our budget. So how can we have a nice Christmas and still avoid overspending during the Christmas shopping season? Frugal buying and shopping will not only save you money, it will hopefully keep you out of debt for this buying season.

With the country in an economic recession and consumer prices at an all time high, many people are having a hard time just making ends meet. Then here comes the Christmas shopping season, with stores hoping to makes sales by having us dig deep into our pockets to spend money that's needed for bills or even just to eat.

The Christmas holiday season basically involves to separate but intertwined experiences: Christmas shopping for Christmas gifts and buying food to prepare for the Christmas holiday meal. Both of these can wreak havoc on your budget if you aren't careful. Therefore it's important to have a Christmas budget and plan before you start to spend money on Christmas items.

Let's start with the Christmas dinner meal. The traditional Christmas dinner varies from family to family and from one part of the country to another. Plan your meal ahead of time. Ask what guests might like to go with the meal. Take into consideration any health issues that some guests might have, such as diabetes or a gluten intolerance. Get a head count of how many people will be eating Christmas dinner with you. Always allow for extra unexpected arrivals. Next, decide if you are doing the entire meal or if you want to have everyone bring something.

If you are having everyone bring something, decide who will bring what, assign an item or items to each, and see what's left that you need to purchase and/or prepare. Figure out the cost that will be involved, make a shopping list, and stick to what you need. Remember that a lot of store brands are the same thing put up in generic labels or packaging, and remember to use your coupons for name brand items. Buying foods that are already prepared will cost more than if you cook foods yourself at home. Keep food costs down by looking for special sales for the holiday shopping season.

Some dishes can be prepared ahead of time, thereby saving time on Christmas morning. Cooking pies, cakes, and other desserts the day before will help on the time management issue. Cooking cornbread the day before is also a good idea if you are making stuffing or dressing to go with the turkey. Even the turkey can be cooked the day before and simply heated when ready to eat the dinner meal.

The other joyful experience of the Christmas shopping season is dealing with spending and buying gifts. This is where it's important to have a budget and a plan already made before hitting the stores and malls to buy anything. To prepare a Christmas shopping list, first determine how many you are buying for, what you are buying, and about how much you plan to spend on each person on your shopping list.

To be sure that you don't spend money that's needed for bills, either pay your bills first or set aside the bill money. This includes your groceries, health needs, etc. This way you will know exactly how much money you will have available for spending on gifts. Don't be tempted to let bills go just to spend money. It will only put you into debt or further into debt. Resist the urge to charge gifts on credit cards. To stay out of debt, shop and buy within your financial means. Don't charge what you can't afford. Don't spend money that you need to live on to buy gifts. Frugal living means living within your means.

A very nice and thoughtful alternative to spending money on lavish Christmas gifts and putting yourself into debt is to make gifts for your loved ones. The time and energy you put into creating something special for your special loved ones shows that you care for them. This could be a blanket or quilt you make, gift baskets you put together, baked goods like cookies or a pie, crafts such as paintings, a scrapbook or album, etc. The frugal possibilities are endless!

Another thoughtful Christmas gift is to give the gift of you. Give yourself, your time, your company, your heart. There are people who have no greater desire than just to have someone to care about them, to check on them and see how they are, to listen when they need someone to talk to, and to just be there. Giving the gift of self is probably the best Christmas gift any of us can give to another.

There are many frugal ways to save money on the cost of Christmas, to keep from overspending, to stay out of debt this Christmas holiday season. The condition of the American economy is such that it's time to live a more frugal life, to be more of a tightwad with spending dollars when it comes to just going out and buying.

Perhaps the one good thing about the economic recession is that Americans are finding out again what Christmas is really all about. It's not about how much money we can spend on gifts or how many gifts we get or how much was spent on us. It's about love, family, being together, caring and sharing, and celebrating the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember that He was born in a manger. The perfect Christmas gift doesn't cost even a penny, so why go into debt and break your budget? Have a wonderful safe and happy frugal Christmas. Your budget and piggy bank will love you for it, and you will get back to knowing the true joy of the Christmas holiday season.