The big question around the holidays is how on Earth you're going to keep yourself within your budget during a shopping frenzy. It's a tough question to deal with all year ‘round, especially if you live from paycheck to paycheck.

So how do you keep track of everything? The answer is pretty simple: your laptop and smartphone can become super-powered financial tools to help you keep yourself on track. Better yet, you can do it from virtually anywhere, especially with nifty tools like Mint's mobile app.

If bank accounts are too much of a hassle, consider ditching the bank for prepaid debit cards like our Green Dot reloadable Visa^® cards. You wouldn't be the only one—more than $35.7 billion was loaded onto prepaid cards in 2011.