Coffee and Conversations: Brewing Life Stories, One Post at a Time
Christmas is the most wonderful time of year for many people, but it’s also a
time of overindulgence, emotion, and over-spending. It’s easy for your cash to
rapidly dry up during the festive season, particularly if you’re the kind of
person who tends to get carried away with holiday meals and gift-giving. In
2018, around 7.9 million people said that they were probably going to fall
behind on their finances in January because of spending
too much in December.
The good news? You can reduce your chances of a serious financial problem in the year ahead, by planning your Christmas strategy now.
By far, one of the biggest expenses of the festive season is travel. If you’re going to be driving across the country or flying to a relative in some far-off place this year, you need a plan, and fast. While using all of your savings will leave you without anything to fall back on when you need some extra cash, a loan could spread the cost of your travel out over several months instead.
Alternatively, if loans and savings aren’t options for you, you could always try asking your family whether they would mind coming to you instead. Explain your current situation and see whether you can reduce your travel costs by playing host or finding a close by place you can all stay.
It’s so easy to get carried away at Christmas time, particularly when there’s love and magic in the air. However, if you allow yourself to buy too much, then you’re going to regret it later. A good way to keep costs low is to an agree on a cap price for presents for your family and friends. Have everyone keep track of spending each month. Let them know that you can only afford to pay a certain amount on their gifts, and that you only expect them to spend the same in return.
Giving everyone a buying limit helps to stop anyone from going too far over-the-top when it comes to purchasing gifts. You may be able to give your family members and friends a break this way too, by reducing the pressure on them to over-spend.
The chances are that you’ll receive a couple of new items as gifts during the festive season, so why not get rid of the things that you’ll no longer have room for? Take the cold winter months as an opportunity to sort through your belongings and find the things that you no longer want. Once you’ve tracked down a number of items that aren’t appealing to you anymore, you can sell them online, or give them away to charity.
Not only will selling your old stuff give you some much-needed extra spending money during the winter, it will also get rid of the clutter that could be causing you to feel extra-stressed too. You might even find some items that you can re-gift to people.
While it’s tempting to turn the heat up full when you’re sitting at home in winter – it’s also worth noting that your energy bills can often go through the roof at this time of year. While there’s nothing to stop you from turning the heating on from time to time when you really need to, try other solutions first. For instance, wear multiple layers to keep you warm, snuggle up under a blanket with your loved ones, and use curtains to block out the cold.
If you do decide that you need some extra help warming up, remember to stick to space heaters and other solutions that allow you to heat just one room at a time, rather than filling your entire house with heat.
Finally, if you’re the person that’s going to be responsible for Christmas dinner this year, make sure that you’re not buying everything on your own. Give everyone an item that they need to bring when they come and visit. For instance, grandma can bring the stuffing, while your sister can be responsible for potatoes. Giving everyone one item to bring to a meal will seriously reduce the amount of food that you have to buy, and probably waste during the festive season.
If you do have food left over after Christmas, don’t be afraid to freeze it so you can make the most of it later too. Turkey sandwiches are good after Christmas too!