Give Santa a run for his money without busting your budget – buy gifts that are frugal, but not cheap.
Easy for me to say – But how about promising yourself a frugal holiday? While it’s common to associate frugal with cheap, experts say there is a big difference.
A gift has meaning behind it when there’s thought behind it, not if the gift is expensive.
Here are a few ideas that may help you out this holiday season:
1. Plan a budget
List everyone you are planning to give a gift to and assign and amount of money
2. Keep an eye on sales
Watch the store circulars and also look for deals online
3. Get the family to go frugal
Ask your family to agree on a per-person spending cap
4. Save on your spouse
Agree to a low spending limit for your sweetie
5. Give of yourself

Share with us your ideas for a frugal holiday!

Smashing the Credit Crunch

With the markets still in turmoil and most companies in trouble, there is one business in San Diego that is thriving -- Sarah's Smash Shack. Customers can go there and break anything from mugs to TV's to vent their frustration over the credit crunch -- for a fee!
It costs $10 for up to 15 minutes of stree-relieving smashing. Plates are the most popular because you can write anything on them with black marker before hurling them into a wall.
Check out the video and tell us how you take your frustrations out on this bad ecomony!

Finding Small Ways to Save

By just making a few small changes in your spending habits, you can save money. Here is a short list of ways you can save money:

Brown Bag It: Bring your lunch to work. This is likely to be very difficult. Start out with once a week and slowly increase until you find a balance.

Use the Library: Instead of buying books, borrow books from the library.

Matinee: Ever heard of going to a movie before 6:00 pm? The ticket prices are a few dollars less. And if you don’t absolutely want to see that movie right away, wait for it to go to the discount theater.

Sell stuff on eBay: Can’t really have a yard sale in winter. And besides, you reach a much wider audience online, who tend to appreciate more what you have to offer.

Establish automatic savings: Each paycheck, save a little as $10. With AFCU’s Dedicated Savings account, it will automatically take this from your account and put it away into a stash of cash. Check it out!

Vote and Get FREE Food!

Starbucks: Starbucks said it would give voters a free Tall coffee on Nov. 4. The freebie was announced during a national TV ad last night (Nov. 1) on Saturday Night Live. All you have to do is say you voted, the commercial said. Limit one per customer. To view the ad go to, http://www.youtube.com/starbucks.

Krispy Kreme: The doughnut chain is giving a free “star-shaped” doughnut to voters. To find locations -- http://www.krispykreme.com/

Ben & Jerry’s: All ice cream stores will give one free scoop of ice cream to customers from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day. This deal is good for “everyone” not just voters, says spokesman Sean Greenwood. I can only imagine the lines. http://www.benjerry.com/