July 25

For those of us inclined to celebrate Christmas, today is an important day. We have five months until Santa's arrival.

The holiday season shouldn't be a stressful time. And the best way to reduce the stress is to plan ahead!

For instance, many of us get paid twice monthly. That means many of us have essentially 10 paychecks until Christmas. Now figure out an approximate dollar amount you plan to spend on gifts. Next step is to budget. Planning on a $100 gift for your honey? Well, that's just $10 a paycheck. Planning on spending $600 total for everyone on your list? Well, that's $60 a paycheck.

Even better, make out your holiday gift list and start buying gifts now. Get all that shopping done over the next three or four months so that December is spent doing nothing but going to parties, visiting with friends, celebrating the season and reading "Wild Life." :)