Shop early. Spacing your purchases over a few paychecks will help you watch your budget and reduce amount you charge.

Purchase and send gifts that need to be mailed early to avoid expensive one or two-day shipping rates.

Consider sending holiday postcards instead of letters. You can make cards yourself and save on postage.

Make a point of checking your receipts to avoid any faulty charges. During frenzy of holiday shopping, you can easily be overcharged for a purchase.

Take advantage of free gift-wrapping services. Every little bit counts!

Visit ATM before your shopping trip and withdraw budgeted amount. Paying with cash will keep you on track.

Avoid "buy now, pay later" philosophy. Before you pull out your credit cards, gently remind yourself, "If I can't afford to pay for it with cash, I really can't afford it."

If you really want to give, but don't have money, try creating less expensive homemade gifts such as jam, cookies or a creative gift basket.

Low Interest Credit Cards

Itna Yeknom is an independent author for core industry related websites and blogs.

Looking further back, we need to find evidence of Earnings Stability, with no deficit in last five years, i.e. no evidence of an annual loss. Additionally, evidence of earnings growth over a five-year period is a must. This can simply be consideration, for example, that 2004 earnings were greater than 2000 earnings.

There should be some current dividend payout. Finally, current price of stock should be less than 120% of NCAV per share or Graham's Number. Where to find this number? From balance sheet, subtract Total Liabilities from Current Assets, and divide result by number of shares outstanding. Assuming you have a positive number that is greater than zero, stock's price should not be greater than 120% of this number.

At grahaminvestor.com, we list stocks that are trading within 120% of NCAV per share. Since this was an important measure for Graham, you can start there and work your way backwards through other criteria.

Graham did not set any lower limit on market capitalization. "Small companies may afford enough safety if bought carefully and on a group basis." He meant that a well diversified portfolio with a fair number of such companies stock would protect enterprising investor from bankruptcy of one or two companies.

(c) 2005 The Graham Investor - Intelligent Value Investing You may use this article, as-is, provided this copyright notice is kept intact.