Don't Get In Over Your Head on Spending

The holiday season is just around the corner and you should be creating a holiday spending plan now.

This is often the time when the budget that has been working fine for people all year gets completely blown, resulting in a pile of debt for the new year. According to the National Retail Federation, people will spend $474.5 billion this holiday season, an increase of 4% over last year.

Here are 10 basic steps you can take to help avoid holiday debt:

1. Make a master list: When it comes to holiday shopping, most people make a list of the people that they need to buy gifts for and leave it at that. They conveniently forget to budget for all the other expenses that come with the holidays. Some other basic areas of your holiday budget that you need to consider are, home decorations (both inside and out), party costs (both as the host and as a guest), travel, greeting cards, postage costs, gift wrap and other supplies. There can be many others depending on how extravagant you get with your holiday planning.

2. Estimate the costs: Once you have your holiday list, look at each item and make a quick estimate of the cost. Be sure to include estimates on the prices for each of the gifts you are planning to give. Add everything up and you will have an estimate of what the holidays are going to cost.