Now that I've self-identified with the "frugalista," it's already time to buckle down and start budgeting for the rest of the holiday season. Frugalistas are known for spending little on typical consumer goods (think expensive decorations, electronics and clothing) but maybe a little more on good food (that they cook themselves, natch) and what I like to call "vital luxuries"; maybe a couple of hand-made wooden toys for their children, or a top-of-the-line food processor (the easier to make great dinners at home instead of going out).

So: what is in the frugalista's budget this year? Here's how my Christmas spending plan breaks down:

• Christmas tree: Purchased from a local charity I believe in, $40
• Food: Extra organic cream, some direct-trade shade-grown chocolate, and a heritage turkey from a local farm, plus a couple of splurges on cheeses and cured meats from my favorite farmer's market vendors, an extra pound of coffee for my dad, about $200
• Toys: One or two hand-made wooden toys for each of my three little boys, $120
• Crafty: Four skeins of yarn to complete knitted Christmas gifts, $60
• Stockings: A trip to REI to get socks and new bike lights for my boys' stockings, $50
• Husband: New fenders for his bike, $30

It adds up to $500 all told (and my husband has already earned the money working more than usual in November); I'll make gifts out of materials I already have for my sisters and nieces, and each of my boys will get a new handmade stuffed toy. I'll wrap my gifts in recycled paper from years past, or newsprint that the boys paint for me; we'll make holiday cards out of one of a million different Martha Stewart-inspired recycle-y ideas. That's how this frugalista plans to spend her holiday money; how about you? What does your holiday budget look like?

Beyond giving birth, moms make sacrifices for their children. Maybe they do without the regular trip to the hair stylist so their kids can go to the right preschool. Or they stop watching soap operas in favor of cartoons or a trip to the park.

This Christmas season, more moms are sacrificing for their children by not buying things for themselves and instead spending the money on toys for the kids, according to a New York Times story.

The Times reports that in September and October, sales of women's apparel fell dramatically compared with the same months the year before. They were down 18.2% in October, compared with an 8.3% drop for men's apparel, according to the SpendingPulse, a report by MasterCard Advisors.

Gift or charitable donation? I don't know which one to favor but I am going to try to fund both for the holidays.

Looks like I'm not alone. An Associated Press story found that charitable giving will most likely be recession-proof this year. The Center of Philanthropy at Indiana University states that the stock market has a small impact on charitable donations nationwide. During the recession of 2001-2002, 70% of Americans still gave an average of $2,000.

Will that still be the case this year? Probably not in New York, where charities get much of their money from Wall Street, but the trend is still positive for charities in the rest of the country. The American Heart Association says donations are up for the year, while the American Red Cross's campaign to raise $100 million passed the $60 million mark after just two months. And a Harris Interactive phone survey found that this holiday season may be better than usual. The late-October survey that found while seven in 10 adults would spend less on gifts, half of the people said they would be more likely to give a donation as a gift over toys or clothes.

Of course, the U.S. has been through a lot of economic turmoil in the past month. I don't know if I'll have enough to gift my favorite charities, while family pressure requires gifts for certain relatives. But because I know I'll have a warm home, a few gifts and eggnog for the holidays, while many other people don't, I'll do what I can to help them feel some cheer. And I'm just one of millions in this country who will. Seems that's just the American way.

My wife and I have differing philosophies when it comes to Christmas cards; she likes to choose beautiful cards and send them to everyone we know, whereas I look for cards in bulk and try to shave the list down each year. Because of my Christmas card habits and the fact that I am constantly turning off the tree to save electricity, I've been dubbed "The Grinch" in our household. But this year my "heart grew 3 times larger" when my wife shared her new idea to save money on sending out cards!

Amber had a great idea, to write out all of our cards before we go to Thanksgiving celebrations this week so that we can hand them out when we see our families on Thursday. Since my parent's families are large enough that they could each field their own football team, we'll save quite a bit on postage. We'll also be handing out cards to friends as we get together over the next month, rather than having the mailman deliver them.

The Post Office will still be delivering cards to people who live far away, but we'll be hand delivering close to 80% of our cards. On top of saving over $20 in postage, hand delivering the cards is another great excuse to catch up with friends and family. If you plan to save postage this year, you only have a few days left so you better get writing!

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!"

I wish everyone I sent Christmas presents to celebrated Boxing Day or Kwanzaa instead. That's because most of the time my presents truly do arrive a day too late, on December 26.

But now deadlines keep rolling in on when packages need to be mailed in order to get to their destinations on time. The latest one is the U.S. Postal Services deadline for mailing packages to troops overseas, which is Thursday, Nov. 13.

For shipments to folks in the U.S., the deadlines are a little bit more in the future. That helps me, because I usually I go online to order in mid-December, see that the standard delivery deadline has passed, then have to spend more bucks for the expedited or fastest delivery route. And you know how it is with the Postal Service -- two-day delivery service means jack during the holidays.

Procrastinating shoppers like me have no excuse this year for shipping late. Dealhack has released a list of 130 Internet retailers and their online-purchase shipping deadlines, from Amazon to Wine.com. Each retailer has announced their Standard delivery service deadline, and Dealhack has guesstimated the Expedited and Fastest order-by dates.

I learned long ago that gift giving doesn't have to cost a fortune, especially when you are the family computer support guru. In fact, Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations in my family normally end with me fixing someone's computer. I learned long ago that a USB thumb drive with copies of my favorite applications was a holiday must have, particularly for my relatives still on dial up.

Since I don't get to spend as much time at home as I used too, I end up with fewer house calls in the days following Christmas, making PC repair gift certificates less practical. Not to be dissuaded, this year I plan to revive my role as the tech support Santa and give friends and family a collection of free software that should make their lives easier. Shh, don't tell them, I want it to be a surprise.

The software categories include:

• Office package
• Photo editing
• Instant messenger
• Anti virus
• Spyware removal
• Web browsing

The following collection of software is all free and fills the holes left by the trial software installed on so many new computers. That's not to say this software is any less useful or valuable, the collection of programs below include some of my personal favorites which provide a rich user experience and in many cases let users grow into their features.

If you're in a quandary because you're short on gift money for Christmas this year, I have a suggestion for you. Why don't you pick up those tools of yours which are gathering dust, and build something with your own hands? There are tons of ideas out there for things you can make for gifts. If you have more time than money, consider what fine things your own hands might build.

You could create a fine doll house for your little girl, utilizing free doll house plans and recovered scrap materials. Shop the thrift stores for old book cases or cabinets which can be converted into cheap building materials. Then, simply apply your own imagination. There are tons of free building plans available for toys and games which would thrill either boys or girls. You could even try building a small storage cabinet for that PS3 or Xbox 360.

There's a great website called Instructables, which is loaded with an expansive variety of do-it-yourself projects which you can build as gifts. The Instructables user community will show you how to build a clock from an Altoids tin, or from a bicycle chain and gears. You can make really cool clocks from all kinds of stuff, including old vinyl records or junk car hubcaps!

All you need to do is decide how involved you want to get, and make a realistic assessment of your talents. You can build something small with free wood working plans, or you could build a greenhouse from scrap materials. When money is in short supply, all we need to do is become more ingenious and inventive. Come to think of it, that's pretty much how this country was built!

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!

The Toys R Us Big Toy Book, whose arrival ranked right up there with Santa and the Easter Bunny when I was a kid, is set to arrive at homes across the country this weekend.

WalletPop had a chance to get a sneak peak at some of the hottest deals in the book (and Toys R Us's own break-down of the hottest toys and trends) and narrowed it down to what we think will be the best bang for your buck. Overall, the Big Toy Book offers more than $5,000 in savings on toys of all prices and categories.

Some highlights:

• $10 gift card with any $75 purchase
• $25 iTunes Gift card with purchase of an Apple iPod Touch
  
• Free life-size Barbie Dress with $40 Barbie purchase
  
• High School Musical 3 Cheerleader outfit with $40 High School Musical purchase
• $20 off Circus Ring from Playmobil or HOT WHEELS Trick Tracks Ultimate Stunt World
• 25% off of Select Pink board games from Hasbro and select Hannah Montana games
• Over 25% off of ALL Tag Reading Books from LeapFrog
  

In a move that's sure to help parents of indecisive children, Toys R Us has just released its five toy trends for the holidays. The list is culled from data which Toys R Us collects from its stores throughout the world in order to determine what toys kids will want this holiday season.

Toys R Us doesn't just look at sales figures to determine these trends, the list also includes influences from the adult world. Bob Giampietro, the Senior Vice President of Trend and Innovation for Toys R Us, provided the following commentary on how some of the categories and toys made the list: "Children continually emulate and adapt based on what they see and hear in real life, and this is reflected in the trends we've recognized this year.".

The Toys R Us Toy Trends for Holiday 2008 include:

• $avvy Savers
• Adorable Animatronics
• Curious Kids
• Earth-Friendly Fun
• Music: My Way

While all of the categories should prove helpful to gift givers this season, the $avvy Savers category caught my eye, especially after Bob Giampietro linked the trends to current events. The $avvy Savers category focuses on toys that help kids save their allowance as well as budget for a big ticket item that they didn't get to unwrap on Christmas morning. I know I would have loved to get one of the items, a laser protected safe, back when I was saving up for a Super Nintendo!

Keep reading for 3 toys that aren't only fun but can educate your children about money. And also see the best discounts in the toy book catalog.

While winding down a busy day of riding roller coasters with some of our friends, one of them who regularly traveled the route home noticed that many of the big homes we were passing no longer had bright lights casting a luxurious glow on them; a change she attributes to owners cutting back on electricity costs. After discussing areas that we had cut back we wondered how tightening budgets will affect people's decision to decorate for the holidays.

The average cost of lighting up a tree for a month is close to $30 when done using traditional lights, a significant amount when money is already tight. Concerned consumers can switch to LED Christmas lights which run for the same period for less than a dollar in electricity. Switching to LED bulbs however comes with a high price tag of its own: A 50-light string can cost upwards of $20 which adds up quick on a tree with 500 to 600 lights!

While I wouldn't be surprised to see malls and other businesses also cutting back on any decorations that use lights this year fans of the massive tree in Rockefeller center shouldn't have to worry. The 600,000 light tree is still scheduled to be lighted on December 3rd this year and since the tree uses LED lights it will only cost a fraction of what it did 2 years ago before the switch was made.

I know our tree will still be lit up like a supernova come late November. My wife loves to decorate for Christmas and her tag line has become, "More Lights", much like Christopher Walken clamored for, "More Cowbell". Last year's tree had well over 1,000 lights on it and put off enough of a glow that you didn't want to look directly at it without a welders mask. Thankfully any increase in electric usage was made up for by the heat the tree put off, letting us stay bright and on budget through the holidays.

I consider myself to be a good daughter, spouse and friend, but apparently there is plenty of room for improvement. For example, my mom always complains that I never call her and when I do, it's only for five minutes before I have to rush out the door. My husband wonders what it will take to get me to go to a hockey game with him. My grandfather asks when I'll have time to help him set up online banking on his newfangled computer. So this Christmas, I've decided to make all their wishes come true with the use of some personalized coupons.

Instead of buying items, I'm giving a set of six personalized "I Promise To..." coupons each to my parents, husband and good friends. My mom will get the "....make a 60-minute call this weekend at your convenience" package. My husband will get an assortment pack with promises like "....attend a social event of your choice," "....do a chore that you usually do," and "....give a 30-minute back rub after a hard day at work." Friends will get coupons for a round of drinks at the bar, and promises to be a companion to that art event or concert no on else wants to go. And yes, Grandpa can cash in his coupon for online banking services and any other tech support he needs.

I designed simple coupons on Microsoft Word, but placed them in shiny envelopes, the only cash I'll spend on the gifts, for a glitzy touch. You can print out already-formatted coupons -- and get some more "I Promise To..." ideas -- on the web, like at GiveCoupons.com. I decided not to put an expiration date on mine, although I hope my recipients decide not to cash them in all at once. Still, I'm thinking these types of coupons are more meaningful and valuable than a gift card to Borders or BestBuy. And it's a great way to ease both my guilt and the hit on my credit card over the holidays.

In the midst of an ugly recession that has businesses worrying about Christmas spending, Halloween is turning into an unlikely strong spot in the economy. According to the National Retail Federation we'll spend nearly $6 billion on Halloween this year. And a growing part of that is in pet costumes.

More of us are planning to celebrate Halloween this year (64.5%, up from 58.7% last year). And we're collectively going to spend a little more each. The average person will spend $66.54, up from $64.82 a year ago. The typical budget is $24 for costumes (including pet costumes), $20 on candy, $4 on greeting cards and $18 on decorations. Halloween greeting cards? No, thanks--I'd like more candy.

PetSmart surveyed owners this year and found 16 million of us plan to dress up our pets. A survey from Dogster.com found 40% of dog owners had definite plans to dress up their dog, and an additional 25% will include their dog in festivities of some kind.

While Toys R Us hasn't shown its Black Friday hand just yet, if the promotion launched today is an example of things to come it looks like our Black Friday predictions will be spot-on. Toys R Us is kicking off its holiday advertising with the "lowest prices of the season," what it claims is the largest selection of Fisher-Price toys and items for every budget. While the new ad campaign focuses primarily on cost and selection it also looks to lure young parents back to the store by beginning the ads with the easily recognizable, "I'm a Toys R Us Kid" jingle, which many of us know by heart.