I guess the holiday shopping season “officially” begins after Halloween, which seems early to me, but then I look down and realize November is already half over, Thanksgiving is a week away, and a post about shopping and spending smart for the holidays is overdue.

So here’s a look at what you need to know for making sure your good, gift-giving intentions have the best possible results.

Check out Your Charities

While donating money can be both in tune with the holiday season and a nice gift for folks who have it all, it’s important to make sure your donated dollars are making the largest impact possible. Here’s how.

• Check out the Charity Navigator. This site allows you to figure out how charitable organizations spend the money they collect.
• Enter the name of your favorite charity. You can search by name and learn various statistics about how an organization spends its money and what percentage of funds go to which operations.
• Browse for a charity to suit you. The other way to work the site is to browse charities by location, impact or concentration. This can allow you to target your charitable donations to causes you care about but may not have known how to connect with.

This site is wonderful for people who are happy to give but tired of worrying about getting duped by promoters of less-than-honorable causes.

Understand Gift Cards

While gift cards are generally viewed as a convenient and welcome gift by both givers and receivers, an article from the New York Times reminds us what to watch out for when buying or giving gift cards (even though they were made more consumer friendly with the introduction of new credit card rules).

• Know the expiration date: While the Credit CARD Act requires gift cards to display their expiration information, that particular provision won’t become effective until after the holiday season, so be sure to ask at the checkout how long the card will be good.
• Keep track of your cards: Sources note that most gift card issuers are not legally responsible for refunding money on lost or stolen gift cards, so set up a system for yourself (and recommend that any recipients do the same).
• Realize there might be fees: While inactivity fees can’t take effect for a year or more after the card was last used, they still exist and can eat into a card’s value (or deplete it altogether). So make sure those bits of plastic don’t get buried under all the wrappings, or else they will have been an expensive and useless gift indeed.

Avoid Holiday Debt

Finally, take a moment to read this post from WalletPop.com about avoiding holiday debt.

The holiday season can trick us into spending more than we can afford (and it’s always for a good cause, isn’t it?), but if we enter the season armed with the right tools, we can hopefully salvage the financial stability we work so hard for during the rest of the year.

Happy holidays, everyone!

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