‘THE AVERAGE FAMILY SPEND £2,831 ON CHRISTMAS!’
‘FAMILIES ACCUMULATE £1,298 OF DEBT OVER CHRISTMAS!’
These are the kind of jolly headlines you can look forward to over the next eight weeks – it’s so festive isn’t it? Just what you need to get you into a Christmassy mood. I mean seriously, you’d need a pint or two of mulled wine after reading things like that. (My excuse.)
The truth is though that YOU are not an average family. You are just you, and you don’t need to spend £2,831 or accumulate £1,298 of debt to make all of your Christmas dreams come true.
My Christmas dreams. In a box. In chocolate form.
How much do you spend on Christmas?
So how much DO you spend? Do you think about it beforehand and set yourself a budget, or do you wing it and worry about it later? Aspire Money have put together a handy tool that you might like to have a play with – a Christmas Budget Planner.
The Aspire Money Budget Planner asks you to consider all of your Christmas costs, including those you might not think to factor in, like advent calendars, travel to visit friends and family, and Christmas stockings. (I’m not sure why it includes this though, as obviously Father Christmas takes care of those.)
It then works out your total budget for Christmas and equates that to a weekly savings amount in case you haven’t started saving already. (Obviously I severally underestimated my spend on gifts in the above example, as I spend WAY TOO MUCH and I don’t want anyone to judge me.)
If your Christmas budget comes out larger than you expected, you have the option then to play around with the figures to think about where you might be able to make savings.
Who is Aspire Money?
Aspire Money is a loan broker, not a lender. They are driven by an ethos of responsible lending and work by comparing loan offers from various different lenders to find customers the best deals. They specialise in bad credit loans, finding the best deals for the people who are too often ripped off by the loans market. If you need to borrow a little extra this Christmas then they could be worth a look.
How else can I save some extra cash this Christmas?
As well as the cool budget calculator, Aspire Money also has a brilliant list of 17 useful ideas for ways to help bring the cost of Christmas down even further. Check them out here. What I love about their suggestions is that they are really specific things that you can actually DO, rather than wishy washy things like ‘shop around’.
Essentially what I’m saying is don’t be scared of the headlines.
Yes, Christmas can be an expensive time of the year, but it doesn’t need to be. Christmas is about way more than a massive turkey and fancy tree. It’s about family, friends and spending time together. Home made gifts, staying in instead of going out – it’s all good, so long as you can spend the time with the people you love.
Happy Christmas!
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Being organized and having a budget is so important, otherwise, more often than not, you’ll just be living paycheck to paycheck! Great share!