Travel less this season
Traveling at holiday time is expensive and stressful, and this holiday season is proving to be an absolute bear. The weather in the Northwest and the Northeast is causing huge delays at airports. Many airlines are letting you reschedule at no extra charge. Be sure to ask about these special offers and if you are able to cancel at no charge, even better. We hope you are not one of the thousands of stranded travelers at the airports but if you are, we wish you the best in getting where you want to go as soon as possible.

Curb your spending!
There are going to be some incredible bargains after the holidays. In order to keep myself away from the stores I say – “do I really need this?” And “do we have the room?” Most of the time it is a resounding no!  If you think your spending is not optimal, there are online tools you can use to do a better job of budgeting such as Mint and Wesabe. You can use their budgeting tools and discuss strategies with active online communities. It may be that you find out those extra take out meals or that additional night out at the movies and dinner is costing just a little too much at the current time and if you cut back, your savings could exceed more than $500 a year.

Credit cards
Yes we all know we need to cut back on credit cards. Easier said than done? Try shifting everything over to your debit card. If you are carrying a large balance and have good credit try getting a balance transfer and a lower interest credit card. But pay them off whether you have transferred the balance or not. And while looking for those lower interest cards, assess your lifestyle. There are so many cards that offer value added perks such as cash back, gasoline discounts etc. - you can select one that best meets your needs.

How’s your driving?
If it’s good you could always up your deductable so that the annual premium is lower. You could also do this on your dental and medical if you have not signed up for your annual plan. It’s really a lifestyle choice and an assessment of whether you can afford the deductable if you have to use is, vs. the ongoing higher premiums.

Receive more money in your paycheck
If you think you are going to get money back for this year you might want to reassess your
W-4. It’s wonderful getting the tax refund – makes you want to jump for joy, but you could have been using that money throughout the year rather than waiting until the first quarter of 2009 to receive the money back. There are really good online tools you can use to determine whether you could take more exemptions and therefore have more take-home pay each paycheck.

This holiday season I requested edible gifts – we can all enjoy them, they are relatively inexpensive and we don’t have to worry about finding the space for them!  Have a very Happy Holiday with your loved ones. And hopefully you are not stuck with the horrible holiday weather holdups.