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.

"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 the year to November, 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 the make the album and calendar. A gift we make ourselves is more precious than something bought at a shop," she 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," she said. "Group purchasing is an effective way for students like us to save money."