In past years, Americans’ holiday spending has averaged around $700, for a total of $465 billion, according to the National Retail Federation. If you’re trying to trim your budget a little this year, or if you’d just like to get more value out of your spending, here are simple steps you can take, says the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
Make a list
Write down all of the people to whom you plan to give gifts, then set a realistic budget and see if you can afford to buy all the presents you have in mind. If you can’t, this advance planning will help you rethink how much you can spend on each person or how many people you can include on your list. That’s much better than buying first and finding out later that you’ve gone over budget and will have to do some skimping in the new year.
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