Here are some easy ways to save up money or make gifts this year:

Set a budget. You have to get a dollar figure in mind. Remember the holidays also create non-gift expenses—parties, postage and pageants; travel costs, extra food for entertaining and all kinds of other expenses.

Log on to OrganizedChristmas.com and look for free printable forms. Print them using your computer. 

Buy 1 Gift Per Week. What part of your plan could you accomplish in the months to come? At the very least you can begin saving to cover the costs. Get serious now so you can relax later.

Divide your gift list by 10 to get an idea how many gifts to purchase each week between now and Christmas. Doable? If not, start paring and be grateful that for once, time is on your side.

Decide. Get off the couch and get busy. Do what you can as soon as you can. That may be shopping, creating or simply saving systematically. Or creating your own handmade gifts.

Learn to knit, bake, cook, can, carve, quilt, bead, paint, scrapbook or any other number of easily learned skills. I have 700+ easy and fun gifts that you can make on our Pinterest board, take a look!

Better Deals By Planning Ahead.  Anything you can do ahead of time to prepare for Christmas will pay off twice. Time allows you to save cash, wait for sales and opt for cheaper (slower) shipping. When you aren’t in a shopping rush, you can score better deals. Starting now also gives you time to score some great deals on the clearance shelves at your favorite store. I noticed that Target drastically reduces the amount of clearance around Nov.1st, in favor of loading up the endcaps with full-price merchandise. So now is the time to look for those deals!