Lu Ning was excited about welcoming the new year by attending a bell-ringing ceremony at the Pilu Monastery.

She was among the thousands who attended the ceremony in Nanjing, capital city of east China's Jiangsu Province. Other provinces like Henan and Shaanxi also held similar activities, attracting people from home and abroad.

"I enjoyed the celebrations very much and I did not spend a dime," she said.

With the nation's consumer price index (CPI) - the main gauge of inflation - soaring to a 28-month high of 5.1 percent in November 2010, many Chinese people tried not to spend too much on celebrating the new year.

At the Pilu Monastery, people could not only ring the bell and pray for their families, they could also "Shout the New Year" by standing on a platform yelling whatever they wanted into a decibel meter.

"Honey, I love you!" shouted a man surnamed Wang, bringing tears to the eyes of his wife, who was standing nearby.

"That was the New Year gift I prepared for my wife. I hope our love will last forever," Wang told Xinhua.

"Shouting" gifts are free but never cheap, and cheap gifts are never impossible to find. Home-made gifts and group purchasing are some of the ways Chinese saved some money this new year.

Xu Lin, a public servant, decided to take photographs with her boyfriend on New Year's Day. She plans to use the photos to make a album and a 2010 calendar.

"We only need 100 yuan (about 15 U.S. dollars) to make the album and calendar. A gift we make ourselves is more precious than something bought at a shop," Xu said.

At a downtown Carrefour Supermarket on New Year's eve, 25-year-old Chen Jieru told Xinhua she and her husband had bought steak, wine, fruit, vegetables and candles to celebrate the new year at home with a romantic candlelight dinner.

"I spent only 150 yuan for all the stuff. That was 250 yuan less than last year," said Chen, explaining that she and her husband dined at classy restaurant last year.

After seeing a sign for a pants sale - "One pair 20 percent off. Two pairs 30 percent off. Three pairs 40 percent off" - 21-year-old university-student Wang Yan dragged her two roommates along to buy pants at a fashionable store.

"Forty-percent off. Group purchasing is an effective way for students like us to save money," she said.

Sun Wenfeng, a student from Taiyuan University of Science and Technology in Shanxi Province gave up his idea of buying news clothes during the New Year holidays because they were too expensive for him even though they were on sale.

Instead, he turned on his computer and decided to buy things online.

"The price of clothing in shopping malls can be several hundred yuan. Online I can buy them for less than 50 yuan."

Emails and e-cards -- "low-carbon" and "zero-cost" -- were popular ways to send New Year greetings.

Wang Yang, a high school student in Linzhang County, Hebei Province, received nearly 100 New Year greetings over QQ, a popular Chinese instant-messaging service, and more than 10 e-cards.

Wang's father was happy with his son. "Every new year holiday in the past he has asked for 30 to 40 yuan to buy greeting cards for his teachers and classmates. This New Year he sent 'low-carbon' greetings cards. They did not cost me a dime."

Compared with students, retirees have leisure time, allowing them to keep a close eye on sales. They know when and where the best sales are and they often queue up early in the morning to buy the low-priced goods.

A man surnamed Meng from Tianjin Municipality is one of them. He and his wife rose early and waited for two hours to buy a microwave oven at the Gome electrical appliance store in their neighborhood. The appliance was originally priced at 400 yuan but because of the sale they paid only 199 yuan.

"By taking advantages of holiday promotions and sales, we can save a lot of money," he said with a smile beaming across his face.