ONLINE GIFT BUDGET TOOL HELPS SANTA MAKE HIS LIST, CHECK IT TWICE |

An online holiday gift planner from Zions Bank helps Santa Claus make his gift list … and check it twice so that he sticks to a budget.

Free to the public, the Web resource at myholidaygiftplanner.com allows shoppers to organize their gift list, create a personal budget and stick to it. While they are at it, users can take advantage of the customizable planner to start their gift list and budget for next year.

After logging in to myholidaygiftplanner.com, users set up a free personalized planner that they can save and edit whenever they like. Shoppers create a gift list for each person on their shopping list and estimate the cost for each gift, which is added up into a total budget. The budgets can be adjusted as desired and updated with actual expenditures as gifts are purchased. Space is provided for people to make shopping notes, or to copy and paste Web site addresses or delivery confirmation numbers when shopping online.

“We developed this easy-to-use tool as a way to encourage people to manage their holiday finances wisely, before they overspend or get in trouble with debt they still carry months after the holidays,” said Carl Snyder, Director of Zions Internet Banking.

When it comes to purchasing gifts, people can be influenced by others around them, according to Dr. Theresa A. Martinez, University of Utah Assistant Vice President for Academic Outreach and Associate Professor of Sociology.

“Theories of contagion, fad behavior, and crowd behavior, are hallmarks of sociological research and speak to this sort of influence,” Martinez said. “Overspending during the holidays can be part of contagious or faddish behavior. We see others loading up their shopping carts, and we’re bombarded with marketing messages telling us to spend, so we allow ourselves to go a little overboard, justifying it because of the season. A specific product will become the craze or fad of the moment—some of us remember Tickle Me Elmo—and this becomes the must-have product. We should all remember to establish spending ground rules before going to the store, setting a holiday budget and sticking to it. We should also remember that the must-have product of the moment will be yesterday’s news very fast.”

*Artwork created by Amanda Woodward at Flickr.com.