Streamline holiday shopping

Consumer stress levels tend to rise when the holiday shopping season hits.

So any advantage a shopper can get before embarking on a shopping foray, from payment options and budgeting considerations to shopping time management, can help take the edge off the experience.

Several Web sites offer a variety of useful holiday shopping and purchasing advice.

Here are a few that are worthwhile:

—Consumers Union: Contains useful holiday shopping insights on catalog and online buying, and payment options.

—Everything Christmas: Article offers 10 tips to avoid holiday shopping line-up.

—National Foundation for Credit Counseling: Features guidelines to help keep holiday shopping stress free.

—Federal Trade Commission: Offers quick tips on wise budget shopping during the holiday season.

—Kiplinger.com: Features 10 topics that focus on holiday spending, budgeting and planning ahead, with additional links to related shopping insights.

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