Pressure to buy lavish gifts combined with "too good to be true" credit offers often make the holidays a time for dangerous overspending.

"There’s never a more important time of year to budget your expenditures than the month before Christmas," said Stephen Brobeck, executive director of the Consumer Federation of America.

"It’s important for families with little discretionary in-come to set limits on their spending and to stay within those limits."

Just because the national economy is doing well doesn’t mean individual families can afford to overspend.

In fact, non-business bankruptcies in the District are on the rise, up 108 percent from 1,165 in 1993 to 2,430 in 1997, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute, a nonprofit education and research organization.

The growth of the stock market has largely benefited affluent families, Brobeck said, while average Americans are getting deeper in debt. The average American family has a financial cushion of less than $1,000, he said.

But those who start planning now can survive the holidays without racking up a lot of debt.

The National Foundation for Consumer Credit, a nationwide nonprofit credit counseling service headquartered in Silver Spring, Md., offers the following tips for smart shoppers:

• Start by making a holiday budget. Outline all holiday-related expenses: gifts, decorations, postage, charitable donations and travel.

• Make a gift list. Limit gift-giving to family and close friends. Then determine how much you want to spend on each person. Remember, the key to successful gift-giving is picking out something that will mean something to the recipient, not spending a lot of money. Some of the best gifts cost very little. Some can even be made at home.

• Start putting aside cash now. Start setting a sum aside each week from now until the holidays. That way you’ll have money on hand when you need it, reducing the need to charge purchases.

• Shop early. Leisurely shopping allows you to compare prices, pick out special gifts and resist the overspending that usually accompanies a last-minute rush.

• Don’t play credit games. Pay with cash, check or debit cards. If you must charge it, use credit cards with the lowest interest rates and commit to repaying the debt by 90 days after the holidays. But remember, if you can’t afford it with cash, check or debit, then you can’t afford it.

In the end, however, smart holiday shopping really depends on willpower.

"I don’t think there are any magic tips," said bankruptcy lawyer Mark Berman of Alexandria. "Anything you buy on credit in 1998 you are going to have to pay for in 1999."

Copyright 1998, The Common Denominator