5 Ways to Stretch Christmas Cash and Still Hit Everyone on Your List

The economy appears to be getting worse and worse but holiday gift giving season is still here. How can you hit everyone on your list without going broke? Here are my ideas for stretching your holiday dollars:

1.Bake your way through your holiday gift list. Why not give the gift of shortbread cookies? Checkout this green version of a holiday favoritae.

2.Skip the paper Christmas cards this year. They can be costly and they waste tons of trees in addition to the fossil fuel it takes for delivery. Save dough and time by sending out your Christmas cards via e-mail. According to the Greeting Card Association, 90 percent of all U.S. households buy greeting cards, with American consumers purchasing approximately 7 billion greeting cards each year. In the UK, a typical year sees over 2 billion cards sold. Between just those two countries, if the purchased cards were aligned end-to-end, they would stretch around the world 54 times. Ouch. That just seems like a huge waste to me! There are lots of sites offering Christmas e-cards. Hallmark and Blue Mountain both have good selections.

3.With the economy the way it is you can bet that someone else is suffering more than you. Instead of gifts, why not make donations to all your favorite eco-organizations or whatever cause you fill the strongest about? Charity is really one of the best ways to celebrate the holiday season.

4.Cut the consumption in your family. Have your kids pick their top five or fewer gifts. It's a lesson in saving dough and cutting the consumption in your family. Cutting back is even better than buying green gifts because no energy is expended to produce nothing.

5.Don't over feed your family and friends this holiday season. Timothy W. Jones, an anthropologist at the University of Arizona, Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, has spent the last 10 years measuring food loss. His research found that households dump $43 billion worth of food a year, or about 14 percent of what we buy. That doesn?t include plate scrapings. Fifteen percent of that waste includes products still within their expiration date but never opened. Five percent of American?s leftovers could feed 4 million people for one day and disposing of food waste costs the United States $1 billion a year. So save money by cutting back on the amount of dishes that you serve and use recipes that don't include a laundry list of ingredients. Make enough for the upcoming meal and not so much that you have leftovers for a week.

Interested in hearing what celebrities have to say about green? Eavesdrop on their dinner conversations on Planet Green TV's Supper Club.