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If you pay attention to how you spend your money, you can find some easy ways to trim the fat, especially during the holiday season, so you have money left over from each paycheck to invest for the things that matter to you, like retirement, education and travel. During the holidays, it is easy to get caught up in the glitter and advertising hype and end up spending more than you need to. Even during the holidays you can save money without compromising your enjoyment of life.

Consider something as simple as buying holiday greeting cards to send to your family and friends. This is a great way to keep in contact with people on your list that you hardly ever see, but there are several ways to reduce the cost of sending out cards each year.

First, you can purchase holiday greeting cards online at a significantly lower price than you can expect to find in stores at this time of the year. If you plan ahead and in the few days after Christmas shop for next year's cards you can take advantage of big discounts as retailers unload their leftover holiday inventory.

Another way to save money by not buying holiday cards and postage is to develop your own online holiday greeting card which you can email to all your friends who use computers. You can find free greeting cards online, or you can personalize the process and take the time to create your own card online that can include pictures of family, friends or even family pets. You can email the card to people on your list with email addresses, while also printing out your card to send it to those on your list who are not as computer savvy.

A simple way to save some money is by paying your bills online using your bank's online bill paying service. It can take a small investment of time to set the system up the first time around, but after that you save on postage, check printing and envelopes every time you pay a bill. If your bank charges for their online bill paying system, find another bank. By paying most of your recurring bills online, you will not have to write nearly as many checks every year. But, when you do run out of checks, reorder your personal and business checks online to save money over the cost of reordering retail.

During the colder winter months, you can save money by taking the time to pay a little attention to the energy use in your home. Reduce the temperature of your thermostat several degrees when you leave the house and at night when you are asleep. Open the shades on your south facing windows daily to let in the free solar energy.

These tips may seem like insignificant ways to save money, but if you act on them and similar ideas you will discover that you are saving much more than just pocket change. Over the course of a working lifetime, it might even make your retirement much more enjoyable than if you spend thirty or forty years not paying attention.

Tags: christmas cards, holiday greeting cards, personal and business checks, personal checks