Even though this time of year is supposed to be a joyful time spent with family and friends, it isn’t always as relaxing as we all may wish. Unfortunately, the holiday season can sometimes be just as stressful as the rest of the year. And you’re supposed to be on vacation. In order to reduce some of your stress this time of year, here are a few tips:

• Schedule certain days and times for your holiday shopping and block it out on your calendar. Take with you a list of gifts you want to purchase.
• Don’t feel obligated to attend every event you’re invited to. Limit it to your favorite and most meaningful occasions.
• Have the store put together any gifts that require assembly.
• Have gifts wrapped at the store or use gift bags.
• If you need to ship gifts, look into a delivery service that will pick up your packages at your home.
• Use useful items such as shampoo, soap, toothpaste and deodorant as stocking stuffers.
• Keep your decorating simple by limiting it to some of your favorites
• Tell your children to keep their wish lists to a handful of items. Consider spreading some of the more expensive gifts out through the year for birthdays and such.
• Don’t put the whole burden of entertaining on yourself. Assign guests to bring certain dishes and desserts.

These are just some of the ways that you can reduce your stress levels this holiday season. I’m sure there are many others. If you’ve got some other ideas, we’d love to hear about them in the comments.

I have also added two new blogs to the blog list in the sidebar:

• Clever Dude
• How I Save Money

If you would like your blog considered for a link in the blog list and a mention in an upcoming post, let me know either in a comment or via email.

With the Holidays fast approaching, many of us will be traveling to visit friends and family. While this can be a great time of year to reconnect with those we care about, we shouldn’t ignore the costs associated with such travel plans. Here are a few ideas to help keep your costs down and still have a great time.

1. Plan ahead and research the best gas prices that are along the route that you’ll be traveling. It only takes a few minutes to take a look on GasBuddy.com and find the cheapest prices. The savings may not seem monumental, but for the amount of gas that you’ll go through on a road trip it can add up pretty quickly.

2. Plan ahead and pack some food to take with you so that you don’t have to stop and “pick something up”. You can save quite a bit of money by not having to eat out on the way to where you’re going. A couple of meals can quickly add up. Pack sandwiches, fruit, chips and other snacks. It would also probably be a lot healthier as well.

3. Plan ahead and take coupons for fast food restaurants if you insist on eating out. Some people would rather not hassle with a cooler and worry about packing food. If that’s the case, save some of the coupons that come in the mail for chain restaurants that almost certainly are along your planned route. It only makes sense to pay less for something if you’re able to.

4. Plan ahead and make hotel/motel reservations in advance if your trip requires an overnight stay. This way you’re able to make sure to get a great rate; you’ll also be assured of a room when you get there. Don’t just hope to get a decent rate wherever you decide to stop for the night.

5. Plan ahead for the trip back following the previous advice. If you’re trying to save yourself the money on the trip out, it would only make sense to do the same on the way home.

I’m sure by now you’ve noticed the recurring theme here, and it doesn’t only apply to saving money when you’re traveling. A lot of money can be saved in many areas of our lives by doing a little planning ahead. With this said, everyone enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday.

If you’ve been a long time reader of Fiscal Musings, you know that I’m not big on eating out. There are a couple of reasons for this, but you can read the Restaurant Lifestyle for more information. Unfortunately, even if we would rather save the money, we have friends and family who don’t share the same opinion. Sometimes the only way to maintain a friendship is to go out.

So how do you find a compromise in these situations? I’m going to give a few ways to keep your restaurant tab down while still having a good time with family and friends.

1. If you’re married, or are in a relationship, try splitting a meal. Restaurants are usually very generous with their portion size, and most of us could stand to eat a little less. So cut your bill in half and share a meal.

2. Take a pass on the alcohol. These drinks can easily be the largest part of a bill. If you’re going out with friends who want to drink, order a soft drink instead. You’ll typically get free refills and you can still enjoy the conversation. I have also been given these drinks at no charge when everyone else is ordering alcohol, and nothing beats free.

3. If you don’t want to split a meal, or are single, don’t think that you have to eat everything on your plate. Feel free to take home leftovers. Even though you won’t save anything on your bill, it’ll save you the money you would have spent on another meal.

4. Finally, don’t just let your friends dictate where you’re going to go to eat. Take an active role and lobby for a place that you know won’t break the bank. People sometimes take forever to decide where to go, and that’s the perfect situation for you to suggest some place that you’re comfortable with.

Ultimately, it’s your money, and you can decide how to best spend it. Don’t just give in to the peer pressure when it concerns your personal finances. Too often we just go with the flow and figure we’ll take care of the finances later.

In order to really get a handle on your finances and understand what’s going on, you need to know where all of your money goes. Most people know how much money they make and where it comes from because it usually only comes from a couple of sources at the most. Knowing where your money goes is more difficult since there are so many places for it to go.

So take some time to go over your bank and credit card statements and find out what you’re spending all your money on. It can be an eye opening exercise and allow you identify problem spending areas. You can’t fix something if you don’t know it’s broken.

These days there is such a large focus on entertainment. Everyone needs to be going and doing something and entertaining themselves in some form or fashion. There is also no shortage of people and businesses trying to capitalize on this. From concerts, movies, to the countless number of restaurants, you can always find something to do that interests you.

What so many people don’t consider however, is the financial impact that this constant pursuit of entertainment has on them. As an aside, it would be a useful exercise to look over your credit card or bank statement and add up all the money that you spent on keeping yourself entertained. It can be quite surprising to a lot of people. So, in order to keep this constant spending to a minimum, look for alternative forms of entertainment:

1. I’m sure that there are plenty of movies that you haven’t seen yet already out on video that you could watch instead of going to the theaters. Not only is this a cheaper option, but there are also ways to rent movies for free.

2. In my opinion, so many people pay a lot of money for gym memberships that they hardly use and derive very little enjoyment from. Perhaps you should look for other ways to stay active and healthy. Just this last weekend, a friend and I went and played tennis for a couple of hours. It was a great time, and it didn’t cost a thing. It also helped that I dominated my opponent.

3. I’m amazed at how many people are so unfamiliar with where they live. In today’s society where people move around quite a bit, there is ample opportunity to explore your surroundings and see the sites. Most cities have museums and historic sites that are either free or relatively cheap. Not only is it cheap, but you might learn something.

4. Instead of always going to big name concerts and events, try checking out the local scene. There is a lot of live music venues that charge very little and also local amateur sports. It’s also a great way to be active in the community.

There are a lot of other ideas out there, but I’m not going to try and list them all. With a little creativity, you can find a lot of ways to enjoy yourself without straining your finances.

You go to work everyday and nothing is out of the ordinary. You work on your projects and make significant headway. Perhaps you also help out a co-worker finish up an important task. You keep the customer happy by providing excellent service.

Suddenly the end of the year rolls around and it’s time for your annual performance review. Maybe you’ve also decided it’s time to look for another job and you need to update your resume. You then ask yourself the question, What have I been doing for the past year?

This scenario is more common than you might think. I’m revamping my resume currently in order to apply to business school. You won’t find yourself in this unsettling situation in the future however, if you take some time now to prepare for it.

You know that at some point you’re going to need to know what you’ve accomplished and what you’ve been working on so you should try and keep some sort of record of these things. There isn’t one “best” way to do this so I’ll offer a few suggestions that I’ve either used or seen.

Keep a work journal. At the end of each workday, take a few minutes to jot down what happened that day and what major tasks you either accomplished or made significant progress on. Reflect on how these experiences or tasks could benefit you on a resume, in an interview, or during your performance evaluation. Do this every day and you’ll never be caught without a great experience to demonstrate your skills and qualifications.

Archive your To Do lists. If you keep a task list or something similar to remind you of what you need to do, be sure to keep it even after you’ve accomplished what was on it. If it helped remind you to do something, you can be sure it’ll be able to remind you of what you’ve done. It’s a great resource to pull from when you’re gathering information.

Save your old appointment book or calendar. This is a great way to keep track of important meetings and dates. It can also serve as a backup record for important contact information.

Take some time to figure out how you can best keep track of your past accomplishments so you’ll have them when you need them. It’s much easier to pull from a source than to try and recreate and remember things from a long time ago.

Every once and a while we receive some amount of money we didn’t really expect. Maybe when you get married a distant relative writes you a large check. Perhaps you’ve received what we’ve come to call “birthday money”. If you’d like, you can lump your tax return in with this category. I’m talking about any amount of money that you weren’t expecting to have.

Now for the question… What do you do with this money? I would guess that most people see it as an opportunity to splurge.

“There’s this great new steak house that I’ve been wanting to try.”
“Now I can finally get that outfit I’ve had my eye on.”
“I’ve always wanted to go to Florida, and now I can.”

These are the types of things I hear people say all the time. Perhaps you see yourself in some of these statements. What I hardly ever hear are things like these:

“I think I’ll buy some stock in Company X; I’ve had my eye on them for a while now.”
“I’m going to pay off my credit card once and for all.”
“There’s this person I know who could use a little help. I think I’ll make their day.”

Obviously whatever you decide to do with your money is solely your business. I submit though, that some of these attitudes and decisions have a lot more to say about you than just your money management skills. Next time you are on the receiving end of a little extra cash, give some serious thought to what you’d “really” like to do with it.