Hi everyone I'm Laura Adams and you're listening to the Money Girl

podcast. The holidays are supposed to be filled with happiness and joy, but they can also

wreck your finances if you're not careful. Besides overspending on gifts for family and friends,

there are other financial pitfalls that can sneak up on us.

In order to make sure you have fun during the holidays and don't do anything you'll end up regretting

after the new year, follow these seven tips.

Tip number one, plan ahead.

Start planning for the holidays as early as possible.

Decide how much you can afford to spend on the whole enchilada. Like gifts, wrapping paper, shipping, holiday cards, a party, decorating travel and new clothes if you still

haven't paid off last year's holiday expenses you definitely overspent so be

sure not to repeat that mistake again this year

why not start a separate savings account that's just for the holidays you can automatically

deposit a small percentage of your paycheck each month throughout the year.

So when the holidays roll around, you'll be sitting pretty with cash in the bank.

Tip number two, stick to a gift budget.

Instead of deciding what present to buy each person on your gift list, like a sweater

for Aunt Jane and a new grill for your brother, set a gift budget for each person instead.

That way you don't get fixated on buying a particular item, which might turn out to be too

expensive. Once you know the total amount you can spend on gifts,

make a list of people to buy for and then assign each person a gift amount

and remember to include sales tax and shipping where necessary.

If you don't have enough money to cover each person on your list, either you need to shorten

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