With the New Year here and holiday bills starting to show up, panic is starting to set in over how we're all going to pay for Christmas.

Author of the book, "Dollar Code," Jason Hastie says job one is to settle those bills, and make sure they don't sneak up on you again is setting and sticking to a budget.

"If you can kind of get your budget under control at the start of the year, and you learn how to budget properly. It just becomes so much easier the rest of the year. And then it also becomes a habit."

Hastie says in the world of "swipe" cards has made us immune to the money we're spending.

He instead suggests using cash, which makes very purchase more "real."