Picture by krisdecurtis
Christmas is going to be a financial strain for everyone this year, so how can we help ourselves to ease that strain? Well, there are no magic wands to wave or brilliant easy one-shot solutions out there (sorry!). The Christmas fairy can't sprinkle fairy dust, she'll only stay on top of your tree with her wand in the air and the odds of winning the lottery stay stubbornly at 14 million to one so don't pin any hopes on that one either. We have to resort to the small, the sensible or the obvious.
Here are a few simple thoughts and possibilities:
- Talk to friends and relations now and agree that your best Christmas present to each other will be not to buy presents this year, or maybe agree an upper spending limit. You'll know your family well enough to know who is likely to take this well, but even with someone tricky don't be completely put off. You might be surprised how grateful they are. It's a real 2 for 1 deal - you save the money and hassle of choosing for them, and you save them the money and hassle too.
- Someone else may be up for an interesting challenge. How about best charity shop bargain for £10? A bit of imagination can spark something very different and refreshing to the usual offerings.
- Many people advocate hand made or crafted items, sewn or crimped by you. This can work well, but with a couple of caveats. 1, you really have to be good at making things otherwise there's no point even thinking of this - you're not going to become an expert in 5 weeks. And unless you can get your kids involved the rough edges might not look so sweet and cute. 2, unless you have all or most of the tools and materials to hand already this can end up being much more expensive.
- Do you build up loyalty card points and forget to spend them? Now's the time to crack out the card and buy one or two gifts 'for free'.
- Start planning for next year:
- This can be a tough one. Either you buy bargains in the sales and then either forget about them altogether or remember you bought them but not where you stored them. Some people like to buy a gift a month. The difficulty is things can go out of fashion by the time Christmas comes round or the person buys the book/cd/scarf between you buying in the January sales and next Christmas.
- Putting a small amount aside each month in a specific savings account (name it 'Christmas fund' - its a lot harder to spend it before its time), can at least ease some of the pain even if it won't cover the whole cost. And I know that this seems like the last thing you want to do if you are struggling to pay off this year still but even £10 a month will make £120, and that's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick (well, ok most things are better than that but you know what I mean). Next year you might be in a position to put more aside ... and so on.
- If you don't have a loyalty card, think about getting one, at least for the store where you regularly buy your groceries. More caveats - only spend what you would spend anyway. Don't buy things you wouldn't just to build up points, that really isn't worth it. And don't fall prey to tempting offers to get 5,000 points - just look at what you can buy from them for 5,000 points and then it probably won't look quite such a steal.
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