When so many people are struggling financially, the magic of Christmas can be overshadowed by the expense of it.
According to a recent survey by bobatoo.co.uk, 24% of people in the UK tend to leave their Christmas shopping until the last minute and do not buy anything before December. There is a savvy 9% of the UK that begin their shopping before July!
The same survey also shows that 48% of people in the UK have to buy gifts for 11-20 people.
It’s not surprising looking at the above figures that so many people ruin their budgets at Christmas buying gifts, decorating their homes, entertaining family plus the cost of meals to celebrate Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day – enough to make you feel slightly ill.
It is possible to enjoy Christmas on a budget. Here are some of our top tips.
- When it’s too cold to be outside with your children in the lead up to Christmas, do some festive crafts like making place mats and decorations for the Christmas table.
- Instead of buying all the adults in your family a gift, why not do secret Santa to make it more fun! You can set a spending limit and you can either draw names out of a hat to see who gets who or you can just put all the gifts in a sack on the day and each person can pick something out!
- The Portable North Pole website https://www.portablenorthpole.com/en/ helps you to create a free video message from Santa to show to your children… or send to your friends for fun.
- On Christmas Eve to entertain the kids, you can track Santa delivering his presents at http://www.noradsanta.org/ and see where he and the reindeer are in the World!
- Before you embark upon the supermarket Christmas shop, compare supermarket prices on line– for a turkey weighing 2.4-3kgs which would feed 6-8 people, you would pay between £15 and £19 in the main supermarkets. Also remember before you go to check if you have any vouchers or points you may have accrued up on your store loyalty cards – point can usually exchanged for store vouchers.
Remember, Christmas isn’t a competition!
Finally, if you do have debts worries over Christmas or afterwards, get in touch. There a range of solutions depending on whether you are salaried or self employed or you are a director or shareholder of a limited company. Our advisors can speak with you about all available debt solutions such as Debt Management, IVAs, Bankruptcy and Debt Consolidation. Should you enter into a debt solution with us, fees will apply. If you would like our team to call you, please use our contact form.
All debt solutions need to be carefully considered. IVA’s are formal solutions and failure to keep to the terms can result in your IVA failing and you could end up bankrupt.
There is also free debt help and advice available through a variety of debt charities. For more information, we recommend you visit www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk.
The Debt Advisor is Authorised and regulated by The Financial Conduct Authority (reg no: 606669).
