1. Save Money
A house in California is worth 7.5% less than it was a year ago. Regular gasoline costs 92 cents a gallon more now than it did last November. Milk, bread and pasta are more expensive too. For most of us, money matters. You don't have to spend all you have and then some. The experts, including the pros at the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Los Angeles, have many words of no-nonsense advice:
* Limit your holiday spending to what you net -- that's after taxes -- in three working days. That way you can (theoretically at least) pay it off by the end of January.
* Pay with cash and go home when you don't have any more.
* Write your holiday budget on a piece of paper and carry it with you, consulting it often. The total should include travel expenses, postage, decorations, seasonal clothing, eggnog fixings and "White Christmas" DVD rentals. Add up purchases as you go (downloadable budgeting forms are available at www.bydesignsolutions.org/budgets), and when you reach your limit, STOP.
* Walk, ride your bicycle or take the bus to the store or mall. You won't be able to purchase more than you can cart home. You can always pedal back if you need something else. (Of course, when you return, it may be gone. Then you'll save even more money.)
Spend with style
Presentation is key when you're pinching pennies, says Lili Munson, a Fallbrook, Calif., mother of five who budgets with panache. Every year she buys a pile of presents for friends, her two daughters and their friends, and her sister (usually 10 to 15 gifts), limiting her spending to $10 a person. She shops wherever the price is right -- and the packaging over the top. And free.
Over the years, Munson has found deals at Victoria's Secret (lotion, five bottles for about $20, wrapped in pink), at Wet Seal (clearance-sale tank tops at $2.99 each that came in a diamond-shaped box) and at Restoration Hardware (red glass candle holders, packaged in what looked like a hatbox and, at 75% off, were $6.99). Last year she found fingerless gloves at Nordstrom in a buy-one-pair-for-$9.99-and-get-one-pair-free deal. So pleased was Munson that she treated herself to a martini while a clerk boxed her purchases with silvery tissue and a beautiful bow. "They even put a little Nordstrom sticker on the tissue as they fold it perfectly over your $5 gift."
The best part? Strolling back to her car with five huge holiday bags slung over her arms. "I spent less than $100," Munson says, "and people looked at me like I was a big shopper."
Stores get stingier with their fancy boxes as the season winds down, Munson warns, especially if your goal is to spend $5. "The key," she says, "is to go early."
Try outlet malls
Creative consumers abound in Southern California, and some of them swear by outlet malls. At Ontario Mills recently, the Off 5th Saks Fifth Avenue Outlet was selling a St. John jacket for a tenth of the original price and the Levi's Outlet was offering a denim miniskirt for about the price of a greeting card. Warning: Much of what you'll see isn't much of a bargain, and a lot of it is made specifically for the outlet store. But if you have the time and energy, you can get lucky.
Just ask Robin McQuay, a kindergarten teacher and avid outlet shopper. The Pasadena resident bought her nephew a Polo shirt at Citadel Outlets five years ago for $5. "I still see him wearing it," she says. "My friends and relatives think I'm way more generous than I am."
Of course you don't have to go to an outlet mall to find markdowns. Across the retail landscape, stores generally are expected to cut prices earlier and deeper than ever this year. For our money, the key piece of advice is this: Keep your wits about you.
Retailers are counting on you to do plenty of impulse shopping, which by some estimates accounts for about a quarter of holiday sales.
Fool them this year. Tamp down your inner personal shopper, the spendthrift prone to pillaging a gift budget before the first present has been identified.
Anthony Fitzgerald is one who is often a beneficiary of his own largesse. "I am so guilty of buying things for myself," says the 23-year-old actor. "I think, 'Someone would really like this -- and so would I.' So then I'll get two of them."
At least he doesn't just buy for himself.
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2. The spirit of the season
The winter solstice custom of exchanging gifts dates to the ancient Romans, but in this day and age the season should be, many believe, at least as much about spirituality as splurging.
So spend time instead of money. And spend it in new ways. Delve into your own faith. Show respect for those of others. Visit a mosque if you're a Jew or a Quaker house of worship if you're a Mormon.
"It doesn't really make a difference what train you're on," says Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, "as long as you're headed for the right station."
