Operating Instructions: Do not read this column Thanksgiving morning.

For greatest effect, it should be read after an enormous meal and a day of sloth — at the moment you resolve to avoid all excess henceforth.

We’ve arrived at the season for finger-wagging about holiday overindulgence of the financial type. I don’t promise to practice what I preach. Nor do I really expect you to. I write this for myself, to keep my conscience clear.

I’d like to start by revisiting a column I wrote a number of years ago, when I argued that every dollar is really $5.

I meant that a dollar saved today could grow to $5 in 20 years, if invested at typical market returns. If you thought that every one-buck can of Coke was really depriving you of $5 in retirement, I bet you’d pass up a few cans. The savings would add up.

That column was written in the high-flying ’90s, while recent returns may make a dollar grow to only $3 in 20 years. Still, is a “one-dollar” soda or bag of chips really worth three? No.

In other words, try not to spend so much this holiday season.

With that in mind, here are some basic holiday-saving tips. They’re pretty obvious — but the soaring rates of credit-card debt show that the average American hasn’t gotten the message. Obviously, I’m not writing this for you; it’s for other readers. Here they are:

• Make a budget and keep a list. Decide how much you want to spend and keep a running tally. You don’t need a spreadsheet or fancy financial software. A sheet of paper in your wallet will do.
• Use debit cards. These are like using cash, since they draw from your checking or savings account. If your account runs dry, the card won’t work. Debit cards, thus, don’t accrue balances, the way credit cards do, so you won’t stick yourself with high interest charges.
• Set a payment schedule. If you must borrow by using credit cards, set a strict schedule for paying the debt off. Start with the cards carrying the highest interest rates. Be wary of offers for home equity loans to pay off card debts. While equity loans carry lower interest rates, they tempt borrowers to spread repayment over many years, increasing interest costs over the long term.
• Shop early — or late. Early shoppers have time to compare deals; last-minute ones get the best sales — if they find what they want.
• Go online. Even if you don’t buy from an online seller, the Internet is a great place to study prices. With any online purchase, check the shipping and handling charges, as well as the policy on returns.
• Watch those incidentals. Lots of us budget for the big-ticket items, only to let the small stuff nickel and dime us to death.
• Take the Christmas tree. At our house, we used to buy enormous trees for our vaulted family room. Now we buy the cheapest, scraggliest tree we can find, feeling we should take in the spurned and unfortunate.
• It’s the thought that counts. Corny but true. Last year, I hit a home run making family photo albums for my mother and sister. It meant a lot more than the more expensive stuff I sent.

Last year, my wife and I agreed that we’d stop giving each other wish lists, since there wasn’t much fun in knowing just what we would get.

The new “surprise me” policy was a great success, bringing skiing into our lives and keeping the holidays going into summer with a bunch of Trenton Thunder baseball tickets. I’d never have thought to ask for either.

Dont worry, be happy.

No one wants to live in a self-imposed police state. It’s the holidays, for goodness sake; it’s a time for being generous and loosening up.

All I’m suggesting is that you keep track of the finances so that, come January, thinking about the holidays still makes you jolly.