It is the second week of November, so it is officially the (Christmas) holiday season (or at least that is what my wife keeps telling me)! Christmas can be a hard time to keep tight on your finances, but there are 7 ways to save this Christmas.
7. Watch unnecessary Christmas gift spending
It’s something we all do, you probably have an aunt or an uncle that you haven’t seen in years, but you still send them a Christmas gift every year. You need to stop this sooner rather than later!
We’re in a culture where Christmas is a retail festival, we have mostly lost sight of the meaning of Christmas. We end up thinking that we need to send gifts to people, that we wouldn’t otherwise.
Gift-giving gives the impression that you need to give back, even if you can’t afford, or even if you don’t want to pay for it. I personally had this problem, when I stopped it, I didn’t spend $500!
We don’t mean that you shouldn’t get your close friends, parents, grandparents, siblings etc. gifts.
6. Buy early
When it comes up to the holiday season, retailers, the world over, raise prices to cope with the increase in demand (that’s just basic economics). Do not be one of those people who are still purchasing gifts on the 24th of December- you get the worst deal!
Not only do you have to contend with other angry and flustered customers, but also the high prices and mile-long traffic jams that come as a result. You also worry about the fact that you may not be able to get the gift for Great Aunt Gertrude wrapped and sent in the post before most people have the 25th and 26th off.
When you buy early, you not only get the added benefit of cheaper prices, but not massively long traffic jams (unless you live in a place where that is common. Nor will you have to worry that you wouldn’t be able to wrap, package and send Great Aunt Gertrude, her Christmas present.
5. Buy second hand
In the summer, most people do a bit of spring cleaning, they tend to find Christmas presents from previous years, that they didn’t need. In they turn to eBay to get rid of them, and get some extra money in the Xmas fund.
Normally, these people can’t sell at retail price, because people assume there is something wrong with it. This means that you can get a $45 item for sometimes up to half-price!
This means that you can buy almost double the amount of gifts for the same amount as you would buying retail. My wife and I do this with our kids, we use eBay to get the best deals.
My wife recently purchased a Nerf gun for our 9 year old son, it retails at $50, she found it on eBay for $30. With the remaining $20, we were able to invest the money into my company’s investment fund.
4. Resist the urge to splurge out on a huge meal
For many years, I used to go to my mother’s house for Christmas, she always cooks enough food to feed a small army. All of my family gathers at my mother’s house for Xmas, there are only 15 of us.
My mother normally cooks enough food to feed a small army of 25 people- there is so much waste! This is not just a bad idea in general, but it is costly! My mother is wasting food for 10 people, that she does not need to do!
This is costly as my mother is spending more money on parsnips, turkey, vegetables etc. I know of similar cases where the bill has been over $250 for a meal for 10 people!
3. Save on the decorations
It may be tempting to light up your 1 million different Xmas lights, but don’t. It may be tempting to have your lights on for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but don’t.
Why do I say this? I know that it is tempting, trust me, my wife has tried to get me to allow her to do this. It is just a waste of electricity, all for something that a dog-walker is going to go “Ooh!” for all of thirty seconds before doing it again to your neighbor’s house.
If you are worried about having the same, boring-old decorations, year-on-year, wait until after Christmas has happened. If you do, you’ll find that all the decorations are stupidly cheap.
My wife and I found this last year, when we were going round a local store, and LED lights, previously $3 had been reduced to 99ยข! The same can be said for trees, ball-balls, wreaths and more! All this, for waiting a matter of days!
2. Set aside money for an Xmas fund
It is likely that unless you are a super-saver, you are probably too late for this Xmas, but it’s never too early to start for next year! Setting up an Xmas fund is actually quite easy, you only need to ask a few crucial questions:
- How much money do I normally spend on Xmas gifts for friends and family?
- How much do I/my spouse and I, make each year/month?
- How much can I save each month, specially for Xmas?
With the answers you give to those questions, you can easily come up with a methodology:
- Divide the amount you normally spend by 12, this gives the amount you will need to save each month
- Work out how you will save it, what will you cut down on? Where will the money come from etc.?
- Make a plan, and get saving!
1.Don’t listen to everyone else
This links in with the first point that we made, people, especially your family, will expect you to hold an extravagant meal. This is why so many people over-spend so much on their credit cards, each, and every festive season!
According to research done by Money Advice Service, 30% of British people feel obliged to over-spend on their credit cards over the festive season! Don’t be one of those people- it will help to destroy your financial future if you don’t!
Remember, you need to be the one to say “No!” you can’t expect that anyone else will look out for you!
Have you got any other ways to save this Christmas? Tell me in the comments!
