PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The holiday shopping season is here, and as you are buying gifts for the ones you love, there is no doubt you are thinking back to what you received last year. For some, it’s not a happy memory and that brings up an uncomfortable topic, how do you tell your relatives you’d rather have cash instead!

Author of “The Power of Positive Confrontation” and president of Pachter and Associates Barbara Pachter says there is a nice way to get your point across without insulting the loved one who bought you the scratchy sweater for Christmas or Hanukkah last year:

“There is a polite way to ask for money. Especially in today’s economy. You take people aside and you say, “you know we are talking about exchanging gifts, but I’m having a difficult time with the economy and my job and I know that you wanted to give me a present and I would really just appreciate if you just gave me a gift card or the equivalent in cash because that is what I really could use this season.”

Pachter says it actually benefits the gift giver because now they don’t have to struggle to figure out what to get you! The only problem is if you want cash, what are you going to do when it’s your turn to buy the gift?

Reported by Michelle Durham, KYW Newsradio