Make a spending plan and get specific, advises Shannon Plate, Chicago-based budget counselor and author of Degunking Your Personal Finances. Don’t just budget for gifts -- estimate costs for gift wrapping and mailing, tips, cards, your family holiday photo, etc. Add it up. Shocked at the total? If so, cut back on expenses now, on paper, before you hit the stores.

Try a "Walden Week." Craig Israelsen, family finance professor at Brigham Young University, named this strategy for simple-living advocate Henry David Thoreau. The concept: For one week, spend as little as possible. Don’t eat out, pass up your daily takeout coffee, skip everything but essentials at the grocery store and challenge yourself to cook what you have in your pantry. At the end of the week, add up your savings and put it in your holiday fund.

Spend your tax refund. If you get money back from the IRS in April, you’re having too much withheld from your paycheck in taxes, says Mary Hunt, author of Debt-Proof Your Holidays. Fill out a new form with your employer so your tax withholding more closely resembles what you really owe. When you see the extra money in your next paycheck, immediately transfer it to your holiday stash.

Round up gift cards. Check your wallet and drawers for unused gift cards, store credits or gift certificates you never used, and put them to work buying holiday gifts.

Cash in on card rewards. Use any accumulated cash-back rewards or points from your credit card for gift shopping. Some cards even double the value of your rewards at certain retailers.

Shop sales with a friend. If you hit the post-Thanksgiving sales, take a bargain-minded buddy, suggests Ellie Kay, author of 1/2 Price Living. Combine your want lists and split up. Your pal can be at one end of a store shopping for limited-quantity items while you’re across the store buying others.

Double up on magazines. Renew magazine subscriptions now. Many publications offer reduced-rate or two-for-one gift subscriptions at this time of year. Give one as a gift and keep the other for yourself.

Next page: 7 more top money-saving tips