Despite being a great season and reason to spend time with family and friends, the Thanksgiving holidays are a huge drain on personal finances and constantly stretch our budgets to the limit. But, you can save money on this year's Thanksgiving dinner.

Helping your children understand as much as they can about the economy, your job situation, the recession, and how your family is dealing with hard times is very important. Being honest and optimistic with your kids will help everyone survive together.

It is hard to save money, but I motivate myself to save money by actually forgetting about money altogether. It sounds counter intuitive, but you can save a lot of money by overpaying, collecting change, automatic deductions, and other simple tricks.

There are other options available to borrowers instead of accepting a high interest rate loan from a payday lender. Alternatives show that there is no reason to accept unfavorable loan terms.

Pawnbrokers and pawn shops can fill the need for capital and are still lending money to individuals and businesses during this economic crisis even when banks have long since stopped. From a consumer point of view, pawn shops can provide great deals too!