Christmas Money Saving Advice

The Christmas period can get very expensive, almost without you realizing it. You start out by buying a box or two of cards to hand out to friends, family and colleagues and then commence with the chaos that is the present buying before proceeding onto the supermarket to get all the essentials that go towards many people’s highlight of the whole Christmas period, the dinner.

From here you go down to the local garden centre or specialist and purchase your real Christmas tree and get so into the spirit of this time of year that you end up coming home with new tinsel, lights baubles and other ornaments to decorate the home and garden. Then you sit down one evening and look around thinking “at least it’s all done, I can relax and enjoy Christmas now” only to realise just how much money you’ve spent when you open your latest bank statement. It can be truly staggering and it’s no wonder some people dread Christmas time coming around because they just can’t afford to buy their friends and loved ones everything they want.

It’s easy for kids, and big kids, to get over excited at this time of year asking for all kinds of extravagant gifts with price tags that make you question whether you’re buying one or five, but worry not – you can have an amazing Christmas without necessarily breaking the bank for the privilege. Here are just three tips, there are plenty more so feel free to add your own, that will keep costs down and spirits high!

Set a budget for presents – and stick to it! As touched upon already, it’s easy for Christmas lists to go onto two even three pages with the items totaling hundreds of pounds, which is just unrealistic. So rather than letting them lose to come up with a Christmas list off the top of their heads, set a limit on the number of items they can ask for or the total price, and stick to it. This way you know exactly how much you’re going to be spending on presents and if you can afford it with your existing bank balance or if you need to get a bank loan or visit a site like monkeydosh for a payday loan to cover it.

Recycle decorations. No I’m not talking about taking them down already and seeing your tinsel turned into paper, I mean using last year’s decorations in a new or different way. For example, you could combine two different colours of tinsel and twist them together to make a beautiful design as opposed to buying new pieces to do something different.

Shop around for deals. A lot of people will be doing their Christmas shopping online this year, but what they might not be doing is shopping around for the best deal. On the high street, you’d find an item you like and then go somewhere else to see if the same product is cheaper. Online, you get the opportunity to search for discount codes that can help to save a packet, maybe even getting buy-one-get-one-free offers or 15% off at the checkout; either way, it’s a real saving that can be put towards extra vegetables for Christmas dinner or new socks for Auntie Mildred

Leave a Reply