We usually start feeling spending fatigue in January after using our credit cards to pay for holiday gifts, travel, and celebrating the New Year.

If you're looking for signs that 2012 will be a better year for consumers, there aren't very many right now. The New York Times reports that a weak economy will continue to get American consumers to worry about how they'll pay off their credit cards, and how they'll save and pay for all of their upcoming plans this year — weddings, vacations, graduations, birthdays, backyard barbecues, and all the other things that pop up every year as life takes its toll.

Here's how one woman plans on cutting corners this year, according to The Times:

She uses the app GasBuddy to check prices at nearby stations before she buys gas for her car. She buys seasonal food on sale and freezes it — for Valentine’s Day, she plans to prepare crab legs she bought and froze last summer — and she is stocking up on holiday hams. She has switched from buying milk in gallon containers to buying it for less in plastic bags from the local gas station.

For big purchases, like the laptop she bought last summer, Ms. Manley still relies on credit, but is careful. She opens credit card accounts offering an introductory rate of no interest, then closes them just before the annual percentage rate kicks in.

Not a lot of people will be planning far enough in advance to buy crab legs in the summer that they can use for a romantic dinner in the dead of winter, but that just part of the struggle Americans have with saving (save money now in the winter, and you will have vacation money later for the summer).

But just like the feelings of spending fatigue, a lot of savers will experience frugal fatigue, and get right back to spending again. Just wait until the retail numbers come in after the next holiday.

Related Links:

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