Harrisburg, Pa. - Most people have a household budget to use through out the year. CPA's think you need the same game plan around the holidays.

Over spending during all those holiday sales is easy to do. We all want to give our family and friends a lot.

"My husband is the worst one," said Kathy Weber of Harrisburg. "He'll tell me, oh yeah, don't spend a lot and then he's the one that goes to the store and says our son needs this or this or whatever."

But how do you keep holiday spending under control? Members of the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants, like John Steffee of Pfister and Rompalo, CPA's, said having a written gift budget before you go shopping is important. And leave the credit cards at home.

"If you stick $200 in your wallet and it's gone, you know that it's gone," said Steffee. "But if you use your credit card and pay $200 for stuff, it really doesn't feel as if you've just spent that money until mid-January when the credit card bills come due."

Some shoppers we talked with, said that saving before the holidays makes more sense than charging now and paying more later.

"We actually do that Christmas savings club every year," said Amy Demay of Linglestown. "So we know we've got this amount of money coming in for buying presents. We make a plan, find out what the kids want, what family members want. We write it all down and try our best to stick to it."

Sam Scharadin of Colonial Park told us his plan is the simplest. Most of his gifts are cash. That makes budgeting even easier.

"All the grand kids, I give them money," said Scharadin.

The Federal Trade Commission has more about holiday budgeting on its website. Go to www.ftc.gov.

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