Target wants to be sure it gets your holiday business this year. The retail giant has seen its profits take a nosedive this year, as shoppers cut back to just the essentials. Nearly half the store's revenue comes from nonessentials, though, like fashion and trendy housewares. To be sure they move items like this over the next month, Target will be offering some serious bargains.

The company says that it will match prices with its chief rival, Wal-Mart, in local markets, and will offer daily rotating value items on its website, while aggressively cutting prices on popular national brands. Though Target has cut prices around the holidays in previous years, Chief Executive Gregg Steinhafel says the company is really ramping up its promotions for 2008, and expects to be the price leader on many gift items.

This makes Target very attractive for holiday shoppers this year. I remember doing most of my shopping there last year anyway, and I saved myself 10% extra by opening the Target credit card on the day I spent $500 on gifts for my family. Then I paid it off and closed the account. If you can exercise discipline, there's no reason not to go for the in-store credit card offers, especially if you can take 10 or more percent off a large purchase. With the Target credit card profits dropping sharply recently, I wouldn't be surprised to see the store offer even better incentives to qualified applicants. Don't forget to check the website for those rotating value items, too.

Imagine it's Christmas morning. You rush downstairs and first check your Christmas stocking to see what Santa put inside -- a gasoline gift card. Surprise! Merry Christmas!

In what is now an ongoing joke in my household, I buy my wife a $10 Christmas gift card at one of the finer stores in town: Longs, Safeway, McDonald's or Burger King. I see practicality, she sees a cheapskate. Now, with the economy in a recession, it looks like more people are coming around to the practical view, despite the lack of Christmas morning excitement they produce.

This holiday season, more gift card recipients plan to use them for necessities and not on luxuries, according to a new study released by Bankrate, Inc.

November is one of the biggest months for video game releases as publishers try to make their way onto holiday wish lists with big titles such as Gears of War 2, Mirrors Edge, Call of Duty, Brothers in Arms, Little big Planet and many many more. Even picky gamers can easily spend $300-$400 to snap up just the highest rated games, let alone any of the casual games set to invade store shelves in the next two months. With so many releases it is no wonder that the GeekDad at WIRED came up with 5 ways to stretch your gaming dollar this fall.

GeekDad offers the following 5 ways to save money on games this holiday season.

1. Know your release dates and what games you can wait to buy.
   
2. Read reviews to avoid the crud that many developers shovel out this time of year.
3. Play the demo; nothing helps you separate the wheat from the chaff quicker than hands on time.
4. Trade in and or buy used games, even new release used games are $5 cheaper.
   
5. Join a gaming community, which exist solely to help others find cheap video game deals.
   

These are some excellent ideas for saving on games. I've already prioritized my game purchases for the rest of the year, planning to pick up Mirrors Edge on launch day while waiting until after the holidays to snag a used copy of Gears of War 2. With the prevalence of demos and reviews these days there is no excuse for making an uninformed game purchase, even as a gift. While we are talking about gifts, let me be one of the first to say, "there is no shame in giving a used game as a gift, after all, used games play the same as new ones!"

It was sticker shock that had me talking my six-year-old into helping me gather sunflower and calendula seeds from our yard a few weeks ago. A few dozen sunflower seeds had been nearly $3; same with the calendula, seeds so impossibly lightweight that the paper packet must have weighed four or five times its contents.

And there we were, gathering the dried curly seeds from the spent flowers, filling the little jar I'd brought outside to overflowing, requiring me to get a half-pint jar to house the wildly abundant cosmos seeds.

"We'll give them as Christmas gifts!" I said exuberantly, and since then, my son has been industrious, helping me gather seeds from bachelor buttons, onions, and calendula. When I do laundry, I find sunflower seeds in his pockets. They're the good ones -- infrared, a startling and gorgeous almost black-red flower -- so I save them.

Calendula and cosmos grow like weeds here in Portland, so it's easy this month to gather them and sort by color (if any of the flowers are still growing on the plants from which you harvest seeds) and store them in airtight containers. You'll want a relatively cool place; if you keep them in the fridge, be sure to find a moisture absorber to include in the container. Buy small envelopes or, even better, recycle spice jars and old manila envelopes into homemade wildflower seed packets. Have your kids help you decorate the envelopes. Flower seeds are not just a welcome gift (at least in my house) that will grow into beautiful flowers, but these species are all beneficial to other plants, mostly edible, and attract honeybees. What's more, you can sneak a little science into your holiday preparation. It's way better than going to the mall!

There are plenty of excellent reasons to find a good charity to support. Charitable giving is beneficial for your country and your community. Some people even say that charity is good for you health. Being generous with a portion of our own financial blessings is also a great American tradition.

Most of us already have specific charities which we like to support. For my household, we have given various gifts to The Arbor Day Foundation, our local volunteer fire fighters, local churches, and a smattering of other deserving causes. Most of our charitable gifts stay fairly close to home, but there are also many worthwhile national and international charities.

But how to decide which charity to support? How do you know a particular charity is trustworthy? Or responsible? Or actually helping the population you want to help? The answer to these questions are as close as your computer.

Stores used to wait until one season was pretty much over before filling the shelves with next season's props. In the last couple of years though, the trend has been to overlap merchandise. Thus, a month or more before gardening tools are no longer needed, Halloween paraphernalia starts to make an appearance. And even while people are still preparing for Halloween and Thanksgiving, silver bells and glittery garland are winking at us from store shelves.

Well, I usually like to start thinking about Christmas shopping in October anyway and the dollar store is always a great place to start. Here are a few holiday items I found while out and about recently along with what's available from Dollar Tree Direct. Everything listed here is only $1.

Expensive tastes are getting a little bit cheaper this holiday season. When a Starbucks regular realizes that the $3.50 he spends every morning on the way to work adds up to nearly $1,000 each year, he may decide that a good way to save money would be to brew some coffee at home. Of course, he'd be right, but the retail coffee giants don't want you to see it that way.

This year, as more of its customers take a closer look at their budgets, Starbucks is introducing some new ways to save money on coffee and gift items without skipping its stores every morning.

Savings start with new Gold Cards. Store managers will be giving out a limited number of Gold Cards to the very best customers, while others can buy the cards for $25. These cards are good for 10% off most items in the store, and the company expects to sell "millions." If you're one of the ones spending $1,000 annually on coffee, $25 buys you $100 of that back. So if you're not going to cut back on your Starbucks visits, at least you can cut the damage to about $925 this year.

In addition to selling savings with the Gold Cards, the store is cutting prices on many of its gift items in hopes of luring holiday shoppers. Coffee samplers and CD's that sold for $14.95 in 2007 will be marked down to $12.95 this holiday season, and stores will feature tables with gifts under $10 as well.

Lastly, the coffee giants have teamed up with Costco to offer savings on gift cards for the first time ever. Costco shoppers can purchase five $20 gift cards for $80. This deal has been available for just one month, and already the store has sold more than 1 million gift cards. Starbucks execs are optimistic that this will be a huge moneymaker in the holiday quarter. After all, shoppers love to save money -- but one of the best ways to save money still remains: Don't buy overpriced coffee every day.

A few years back, I decided that Mother's day was no longer a concern for me. My mother died a long time ago, I wasn't married, and I had no plans to become a baby daddy. Moreover, as I was staring down the barrel at 30, it didn't look like my situation was going to change anytime soon. I decided that Mother's day, like Washington's Birthday and the Feast of the Epiphany, was among the many holidays that I could more or less wipe off the calendar.

Needless to say, things have changed.

I now find myself the father of a two-year-old. Quite apart from the other little stresses associated with having a daughter in my life, I'm reliving the joy of buying Mother's day presents. When I was a kid, Mother's day was easy -- I'd pick up some bath salts, a kitchen tool, or some other innocuous item that my father told me to buy. I'd wrap it, pass it on to Mom and revel in her thanks. I'd get to feel like a big guy, my mom would get a little appreciation, and we'd both ignore the fact that the little present was hardly payback for the endless things that she did over the course of the year.

A good friend and coworker of mine was having trouble finding the right Mother's day gift for his mom. He dearly loves the lady, and wanted to get or do something very special for her. His problem was that available cash was in short supply. After careful consideration he came up with the perfect Mother's Day gift.

He shaved off his beard and cut his hair, something she had been asking him to do for a number of years. His mom is joyous about the change.

I think I'm safe in saying that most mothers couldn't care less about whether or not we spend any money on commemorating their government-declared special day. Moms want sincere hugs and kisses. They want babbling grandchildren close at hand. They want their hands held firmly as you tell them how special they are to you. They want to know how the lessons they taught you still serve as guides in your daily life. Moms invest their whole lives in their kids. The dividends of motherhood should be just as sincere.

Not only is my mother is really hard to buy for, she's a bit ungrateful to boot. She told my sister yesterday not to get her a gift for Mother's Day because she was probably going to have to return it anyway. Nonetheless, I can't show up at her house empty-handed, so I began to look though my emails for ideas for last minute Mother's Day gifts that might pass muster. Here's a roundup of what I found:

Flowers: I recommend 1800flowers, where you can opt for fresh flowers or plants. I'm considering the gardenia (mom's favorite flower) in a green planter for $29.99. If you order-and have them delivered today-there's free shipping although some products are not eligible. Also, you can save money by ordering bouquets without a vase, which most moms have plenty of.

In the wake of record high gold prices, stalled employment figures, reduced retail profits and the worst holiday retail figures since 2002, jewelers nation wide are holding little hope that cupid shall send some love their way this coming Valentine's day 2008.

Gold prices have crested the $900 per ounce mark which has sent jewelers scurrying to find viable options for their potential customers. Given the fact that silver and platinum prices tend to mirror the performance of gold, alternate precious metals aren't giving jewelers much hope.

You can walk into almost any thrift store and buy many of the following thrifty gifts. Acquiring a small collection of some of these items "in your travels" usually works out much better.

6. An Easter basket of pastel bunnies - or a birthday basket of teddy bears. You can easily find stuffed animals that have had about twelve seconds of the original recipient's attention and then sat on a shelf. A second grade teacher told me that she buys the smallest size stuffed animals, runs them through her washing machine and puts fresh ribbons around their necks. Then she gives them as prizes to her students. Many teenagers also love stuffed animals.

7. Prizes for children's parties - both for games and as party favors. Consider action figures, MacDonald's giveaways, matchbox cars. All those annoying little plastic (i.e. dishwasher safe) toys that someone's child just had to have and our now in a box marked .10 cents. Loose leaf notebooks keep turning up new. Collect a bunch, insert a few plastic card savers, spring for a pack of baseball cards for each child, and between setting up and trading you won't know you have all those little boys in the house.

There does seem to be something sleazy about the idea of buying someone a "thrift gift." How cheap can you be? Here's a different spin and all it takes is a bit of thought and creativity.

Like any kind of gift buying, gift shopping at thrift stores is easier and more fun for people you know well. This is particularly true for people who have passions of their own - the friend who loves sailing, dogs, cooking or art, for example - is the person to have at the back of your mind as you travel the thrift shop circuit. There are also occasions that readily lend themselves to thrifty gift shopping.

Here are a smattering of ideas:

• If you are visiting a friend in the hospital, you don't need to drop $20 at the hospital gift shop. You can find a great vase for $1 or less and fill it with twice as many beautiful flowers for half the price you'll otherwise pay.
• Look for small covered boxes. You can frequently find nice ones for $1 or $2. Add a piece of jewelry and give it to your favorite teenager.
• Buy a pretty basket - watch especially for the ones designed to hold letters. Decorate it with ribbon, fill it with stationary and add a nice pen.
• For a friend starting a new job or opening an office: art, a dictionary, thesaurus or desk encyclopedia, a covered glass candy jar (which you'll sanitize in the dishwasher and fill).
• For the new mother: books on babies and children. These can often be picked up mint - either because the mother already had it, received three copies, or didn't have time to read.

Come back tomorrow for five more thrifty gift ideas!

If you're one of the handful of people who has any money left after the holiday festivities, it may be a good time to head back to the store to do shopping for any toys you might be buying for next year's gifts.

That's because, according to Kiplinger, toys are likely to rise in price by 5-10% in the coming year as manufacturers pass on increasing quality control expenses in the wake of a slew of recall fiascos.

Another possibility is to stick with high-quality classic toys that are less likely to require extensive changes. As my mother recently wrote on WalletPop, the ones with the fewest bells and whistles are often the best for kids anyway.

For more ideas, check out Kiplinger's list of 15 Can't-miss Classic Toys. Among the favorites are board games, Play Doh, Nerf balls and, heaven forbid, books.

But for classic simplicity and low price, my favorite gift for young children will always be the coloring book.

Bad news if you're unhappy with the blender your aunt got you for Christmas: You might have a tough time returning it. In an effort to crack down on fraud (The National Retail Federation estimates that 1 in 10 returns are bogus), stores are getting tough on returns. Even with a receipt, you might have to settle for store credit, and the store also might need to see some ID. If you return multiple items to the same store over a short period, you may be flagged as suspicious.

There are a few common forms of return fraud. One common strategy is to buy an article of clothing for a special occasion, wear it once, and then return it. Some people consider this a form of thrift but make no mistake: Purchasing an item with the intent of using it and then returning it is fraud.

Another strategy that people use is to steal an item from one store and then "return" it to another for a "refund". Some criminals even purchase an item, keep the receipt, then stroll back to the store, pick an identical item off the shelf, and head to the customer service desk for a "refund".