Today’s money-saving tip: Crap out on a holiday.

Go nuclear. Pick a holiday that is kind of exhausting, yet not too heavily sentimental, and limit it to your household. Maybe Thanksgiving, maybe Hanukkah, maybe a birthday, just pick one and rein that mofo in.

People will squawk. Maybe the first year, someone will have to volunteer to come down with something contagious. Then, the next year you can say, “We had a very special X day last year when it was just the X of us at home. We’ve decided to make it a tradition for our household.”

It’s all about getting over the hump. It gets much easier after the first shock. People survive. If they still want to have some sort of connection with you, tell them to drop something by the house. Don’t be home. At Easter, maybe a basket for the kids. At New Year’s Day, aspirin and tomato juice for you.

It is doable. People do it all the time. If you lived in Europe, you’d do it. If you had intermittant outbreaks of ebola, you’d do it. You don’t have to do it every holiday, but it can also work for baby showers and weddings.

Take back your day. Spend it baking, reading, wrapping, rapping — whatever. Save a buck. And have a happy.

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