Holiday Gifting: You Need A Budget

BOSTON (CBS) - When I was shopping for Halloween candy last month I noticed the Christmas candy, then I saw artificial trees in hardware stores along with decorations. All before Halloween was over. The Christmas displays seem to appear in the stores earlier and earlier each year.

I personally like to begin to think about Christmas after Thanksgiving. Not before.

Most of us have HPS, Holiday Perfectionist Syndrome. We want the perfect holiday, like the ones we see on TV, a beautiful tree laden with perfect ornaments, packages arranged artfully under the tree, festive food and everyone happy! And the perfect holiday comes with a big price tag.

According to the National Retail Federation's Holiday Consumer Spending Survey the average spending per person will be $806 on food items, decorations, gifts and more over the holiday season.

And another survey done by Transunion found that most (65 percent) consumers do not save in advance of holiday shopping. So many shoppers will be facing buyer's remorse in January when the bills start coming in.

Hopefully you set up a Christmas Club last January and you have the dollars you need to start shopping. The average consumer who uses a credit card is still paying off Christmas in July! And some consumers are still paying off last year's Christmas gifts.

What can you afford without going into debt this year? Create a budget. Make a list of the holiday expenses and include all of your costs here.

Cards, stamps, invitations, parties, special foods, drinks, decorations, new outfits for the kids, the tree, babysitting, house gifts, hair salon, new clothes for the grownups and, of course, the presents you plan to buy for everyone!

What and who can you delete from your Christmas list? Do you need to send Christmas cards to everyone you know? How about just those that live far away. Or just your grandparents and the rest get an e-mail.

And when we are out Christmas shopping we also treat ourselves. To the tune of an additional $18 billion on non-gift purchases. We see something we would like or the sales are too good to pass up. On average, we spend over $100 on ourselves while out Christmas shopping.