Here’s How to Keep Your Spending in Check This Holiday Season

The consumer may be strengthening, but that doesn’t mean budgeting should be pushed to the back burner. ‘Ideally you would have wanted to created your holiday shopping budget last January while thinking about your spending for the year,’ said Tom Mingone, founder and partner of Capital Management Group of New York, a financial advisory firm. ‘But we recommend that people spend no more than one week’s gross pay on holiday shopping.’ On average, consumers are expected to spend roughly $805 over the holiday season, largely in-line with what they spent last year, according to a report from the National Retail Federation. ‘I think the hard part for people is that they swipe the credit card as they go and then they hope in January that the bill doesn't frighten them too much,’ Mingone added. He recommends creating a list for each person you plan on buying gifts for, how much you plan to spend on each person and resort to a debit card or cash instead of credit cards. TheStreet's Scott Gamm reports.