All Financial Matters offers six interesting ways to cut costs between now and the end of the year, and although we don’t completely agree with a couple of suggestions, we still think it’s worth a look.

1. Actually look at the price tag before you buy each and every thing for the rest of the year.

2. Avoid items marketed for the season. Their example: red and green candles work fine—you don’t need “Christmas” candles.

3. Don’t overspend on food. The concept of multi-day leftovers is as integral a part of Thanksgiving and Christmas as presents or family, but you’re not actually required to make so much food that more is left over than eaten.

4. Buy fewer gifts.

5. Buy cheaper gifts. We think the “buy cheap!” approach is smart, but the other half of this suggestion is “the gift wrapping is more important, so wrap them up beautifully,” but that only works if you make sure you don’t pay a fortune on gift wrap.

6. Make compromises with family and friends. “If you have a large family why not openly set limits on who buys gifts for whom or how many can be purchased?”

We don’t like this last one; this writer can speak from experience about the topic because his family follows a similar “compromise” strategy every year. The problem is that it takes a lot of the fun out of gift giving by layering a set of external rules on what should be a selfless, personal activity. We like “buy cheaper gifts” better.

“Tis The Season To Be FRUGAL” [allfinancialmatters]
(Photo: Getty)

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