Have You Started Saving For Christmas?

Christmas may be a few months away, but it's never too early to start saving up, especially if it keeps you away from thousands of dollars of debt that can take months, even years, to pay off.

Splurging with your credit cards during the holiday season can affect your credit score. If you charge a large portion of your available credit, your credit utilization will go up and your credit score can go down.

About Holidays has an article on Avoiding Credit Card Debt During the Holidays. Tips include setting an overall spending limit and a limit for each person on your list.

Here are some other ways you can cut down on the amount you spend for Christmas:

1. Purchase family or couple gifts rather than individual gifts. You can spend $100 for a single gift for a family of 4 rather than $50 for each person in the family.
2. Purchase gifts as a group. For example, you and your siblings can combine your budgets to purchase a single gift for your parents.
3. Organize a Secret Santa for large families, group of friends, or co-workers.
4. Give away unused gifts from previous holidays and birthdays. Make sure you don't give the gift back to the same person who first gave it to you.

If you choose to use credit to purchase some of your Christmas gifts, use a low interest credit card and don't charge more than 30% of your credit limit. (See Do's And Don'ts Of Using Credit Wisely.)

Poll:Have You Started Saving For Christmas?

• Yes, of course!
• I'm going to start soon
• I'm not saving for Christmas this year

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