The holidays are coming, which means excessive holiday spending for most people. However, you don’t have to be in this boat (especially if you don’t even want a boat!). Besides wasting a lot of time, holiday shopping can get really expensive really fast. How can you get out of exhorbitant credit card bills and an empty checkbook come January? Read on for these handy holiday "unshopping" tips:

1. Maintain a spending budget. No one wants to be a complete Scrooge and give nothing for the holidays, but we can all agree that it’s more about the thought than the actual gift, right? In light of that, you can certainly set aside a certain monetary amount per gift recipient and go with that limit. So, instead of buying a $50 bath set for your favorite aunt, you can cut down the amount to $25, for example. Or, if you simply cannot find something that someone likes for under a certain amount of money, try splitting the gift buying process with another person.

2. Give the gift of time. Many folks already have every purse, bath salt, and cookie cutter invented on the market- yet are struggling to plow the snow from their driveways or find affordable baby-sitting. Instead of throwing yet another useless knickknack at them, give them your time. Volunteer to mow their lawn this summer. Bring over a ready-made casserole. You can still make your volunteerism into a gift by wrapping up a homemade gift certificate for x amount of baby-sittings, lawn mowings, etc., and then giving it to them as a gift.

3. Give homemade gifts. It’s not hard, or expensive, to bake some cookies, knit a scarf or socks, or compile some dry soup mixes in jars. All it takes is some imagination and time. And most people will appreciate a gift that comes with a personal touch compared with an impersonal, mass-produced item from the sweatshops of China.

4. Do a Secret Santa gift giving. Instead of shopping for all 34 individuals on your holiday shopping list, have a Secret Santa gift giving. Before the holiday season begins, have everyone put their own names into a hat. Then, have everyone pick one name out of that hat (not their own, of course). For the entire holiday season, each person will be in charge of the picked person’s gifts. That may entail buying 1-2 bigger gifts or a series of smaller gifts for the selected person. However, even several gifts for one person will still come out cheaper than buying gifts for everyone. Just make sure to stick to a spending budget for your Secret Santa designee.

5. Make gift wish lists. Have people compile gift wish lists of several differently priced items. Then, pass those lists around to all the people who might wish to buy some gifts. This ensures that the gifts that are given are wanted. Also, a gift buyer can select from several differently priced items, depending on his or her alotted holiday shopping budget.

Following just these 5 simple tips will drastically reduce your overall holiday spending. Also, thanks to budgeting, you’ll know exactly how much is owed on your upcoming January credit card statement. There’s no need to wallow in debt just because you did a little Christmas shopping. So, help celebrate the holiday season with some sensible holiday shopping!