It comes as a whisper at first, but one minute you’re sunning yourself on the beach with your family, and the next, it’s only four paychecks until Christmas and you haven’t even started planning anything yet. It may well be August and the children haven’t even gone back to school yet, but you are already late to the party when it comes to Christmas planning. It’s okay, stop hyperventilating, you have time to get it all sorted. You just have to get a little organised and start looking ahead, even as you enjoy the last vestiges of the summer sunshine.
The way that you handle your Christmas planning is going to directly affect your January. No one wants the January blues, right? Well, abusing your credit card in a festive panic is the best way to do that and the worst thing to do at the same time. So, let’s look at the facts. You’ve got x number of relatives to buy smelly candles and Christmas jigsaw puzzles for and only four months of salary to do it all in. It’s time to pop on your festive stockings and play Father Christmas, and here’s how you can do it.
Savings. The first thing that you can do is make little savings everywhere. Speak to the adults in your family and explain that this year, you’re not going to be gift-giving aside from the children. This can mean that you aren’t splurging out on gifts for every aunt, uncle and cousin that comes out of the woodwork. If you haven’t had a separate saving account set up for Christmas directly, then it’s time to start right now. Whatever you can squirrel away, start squirrelling!
Homemade Gifts. Saving money may need to happen, so you can start looking at the home-baked gifts and the homemade presents like salt dough prints. If you’re on your holiday right now, buy your Christmas bottles of wine at duty-free. It’s not quite homemade, but it’s bought lovingly and last minute by you, and that’s enough!
Sort. Divide how many relatives you have to buy for and look at your disposable income over the next four wage packs. Then do it little and often, so that you’re buying for one or two people each month and it’s not such a hit to your carefully earned dosh.
Host. In lieu of gifts this year, why not host Christmas dinner? Get some tables set up and cook a lavish Christmas lunch. You can save some cash on gifts by offering a service – they need Christmas dinner and you can put the festive panic to one side.
It’s not nice to have to think about Christmas when you’re still applying your sun lotion, but it’s got to be done if you hope to get to December serenely. You have time for the best deals and you have the money ahead to make good decisions. Have a good Christmas with no debt by planning, planning and planning some more.
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