Spreading the cost of the Festive Season
It might feel a touch painful to think about it this early, but Christmas is fast approaching, and with it all the planning, gift buying, turkey stuffing and credit card bills that come along with it! We all like to splash out a little at Christmas; indulging in food, wine and gift buying has become somewhat of a tradition. But it isn’t always fun to have the mounting credit card bills to deal with following the festive fun. You don’t have to accept this as standard, because by spreading the cost now, you can avoid this blue start to the New Year and keep your finances on track.
Write all your purchases down
The first thing you should do is write everything down that you expect to buy over Christmas. This includes gifts, food, decorations – all the items you want and an estimated price for these. Then, go back over your list. Keep it as a working list and ponder over some of the purchases for a few weeks, because you can easily change your mind. Remove items that you think are especially excessive or not needed. Do you really need a new Christmas tree this year, or can you re-use last year’s artificial tree?
Don’t be wasteful
This telegraph article reminds us not to be wasteful at Christmas. Don’t buy a traditional Christmas pudding if nobody eats it. Then again, perhaps everyone loves Christmas pudding – in that case, you might consider buying Christmas puddings in advance, a few months ahead (they keep well!) to help spread the cost of the Christmas food. Don’t waste the end of wine bottles. We don’t mean drink it! We mean freeze it and use it in your cooking.
Also, Wonga ZA suggests considering your repayments before making a big financial decision. You should always calculate the interest on what you’re buying. For instance, say you plan on buying an iPad for your partner. The total cost, including the interest, needs to be taken into consideration before you buy it. Does your partner really need it? What will happen if he/she doesn’t get it? Is the total cost (with interest) really worth it? If you want to buy it, consider purchasing it in a deal early online, before the Christmas months kick in. You can then spread the cost over the months leading up to Christmas, so that you aren’t lumbered with the debt in January!
Shop online
You can use Amazon to build up your Christmas shopping basket over time. You can find some great deals and use cashback websites to get some money back on each online purchase that you make. Don’t buy your basket straight away. Some retailers will see that items are sitting in your basket and email you an offer for a 10% off voucher or something similar, to encourage you to complete the purchase.