Holiday Frugality Roundup – Mid-November Edition

Several finance bloggers out there have started to write about the upcoming money-draining season, AKA the holidays:

Trent at The Simple Dollar has Eight tips on kids, Christmas and frugality. One of these we’re already doing (LED lights), others I have plans to do once I have a child that’s old enough (wrapping paper made with child-labour, open-ended toys).

J.D. at Get Rich Slowly has some basic advice on discussing gift exchange plans with family and planning now what you’ll do with any holiday bonuses you may receive. Way to resist those comic books, J.D.

Steve (who you may know from Brip Blap) wrote a useful guest post on what you should think about before giving to charity over at Consumerism Commentary. It covers thinking about what the charity stands for, how it’ll spend your money, how you’ll contribute, and whether you can receive a tax deduction. That last part is US-oriented in Steve’s post, but you can find a link to a listing of charities registered with the Canada Revenue Agency here. You can also find riveting subsections of the Income Tax Act at the CRA site. If you’re from elsewhere a quick search of your country’s tax bureau’s website will probably lead you to a similar listing and set of rules. I’m sure they’ll be every bit as thrilling to slog through as the Canadian ones, so don’t feel left out.

Feel free to add any other holiday frugality tips/links that I've missed in the comments.