How to Save During and After Christmas?

For those that are saving money, Christmas can sometimes be a bit of a challenge. Of course you need to spend lots of money on gifts for people which you wouldn’t normally buy, but on top of that you’ll also find there are many other expenses. You’ll have parties to attend (and perhaps to host) which involve lots of alcohol, travel and food. You’ll have time off of work which may or may not be entirely paid, and then after all that… that’s probably just when the boiler will break…

In short then, despite being a lot of fun and highly festive, Christmas can certainly be a setback when it comes to saving cash – which is why you need to be smart with the way you approach the occasion. Read on for some tips that can help you to save more money in the lead up to Christmas and to recuperate in the aftermath…

Set a Budget for Gifts

The danger when saving money around Christmas is that you can end up sounding like a bit of a Scrooge. We all know friends who tell us they want to skip giving presents this year, and we all know how disappointing it can be. And especially when they come round for Christmas morning and you sit opposite each other with nothing to open…

There’s no need to go that far luckily then, but what you can do is to make a pact that you will each only spend so much on gifts that year – that you will exchange gifts just for $10 or even five or two dollars. This way you won’t be spending much at all, but at least you’ll have a something to open and you’ll be entering into the spirit of things. And actually you can get some surprisingly good gifts on Amazon for a few dollars. Just make sure you mention the budget to everyone…

Ask for Money

Some people in your life however aren’t going to go for the two dollar budget. No matter what you say to your parents for instance, they will probably want to treat you to something a little nicer and/or help out financially. What you can do here then is to ask your parents for cash rather than gifts which will then help you towards your saving. It’s not terribly exciting to get money of course, but for this year it will be practical and that should be enough.

Don’t be tempted by Sales

Most of us will get some money for Christmas which does of course help with the expenditure beforehand. The problem though is that it’s all-too-easy to then want to spend that money as soon as you get it. Because the money is a gift you’ll feel as though you’re somewhat entitled to spend it on things you’ll enjoy (and of course you are), and then there are all those things on your Christmas list that you didn’t get and those horribly tempting January sales… It’s a recipe for spending too much money!

Thus if you want to save and recover from Christmas you need to make sure you are strict with yourself. Don’t make the error of convincing yourself that you’ll buy just one item – very quickly it will add up and you’ll have spent over 50% of your gift.

Dryathlon

You will eat and drink a lot over Christmas – that’s an inevitability – and you will spend a lot doing it. You don’t want to be the miserable person on Christmas day who doesn’t bring anything to the meal, so instead take the opportunity afterwards to save your stomach and your wallet. One way to do this is by getting involved in the Dryathlon – a movement that encourages people to pledge not to drink any alcohol in January. It’s a great way to detox, people will have heard of it making it easier to stick to, and you’ll save a large amount of cash doing so!

So there you go, there are plenty of ways you can make Christmas a little less painful on your wallet and that you can recover in its wake – and you don’t need to compromise on the fun to do so!

Author Bio:

Miley Brooke, the author of this post, works for Donnelly’s, home to the finest hospitality insurance. A passionate reader, she often writes articles on finance and reducing expenses. You can connect to her team on Google+ and have a look at their profile on LinkedIn.

 

Tags: Budget, Money

Category: Financial Planning, Saving Money