Saving for Christmas
Almost everyone will say they wish they had saved a little before Christmas hit. It’s not only the gifts your buying but the entertaining, the going out, the holidays – it all adds up really quickly and leaves most of us paying it off until next Christmas. What can we do to make Christmas financially less stressful? The answer may seem obvious but it’s clearly something we don’t do enough of – saving.
Any amount you can save during the year is going to help you out at Christmas. You might think you don’t earn enough to save enough for it to actually make a difference. You’re wrong. One way is to join a Christmas club – there are hundreds on offer so ask family and friends if they have used one they can recommend or do some research online. These clubs focus a lot on food for Christmas time but now offer everything from food to presents to entertainment to holidays. The contributions can be as little as a couple of dollars and week or anything upwards from there. Why not get a couple of family members together to all pitch in – if you are going to be spending Christmas together anyway it would be great to have everyone help fund it. Not only do these clubs help with putting money aside throughout the year they are also helping you out at Christmas time by eliminating the need to shop for these items at the last minute. You don’t want to max out your credit cards, get behind in payments and then have to look at credit restoration services. So save ahead of time!
Some people will prefer to do the savings themselves. There are plenty of savings accounts out there that will help you to reach a Christmas savings goal in the short period of 12 months. Ask your bank if they have anything like a savings account bonus which could give you a cash injection once you’ve reached a certain goal or number of deposits. See if everyone in the family is able to chip in a few dollars a week – even the kids, what better time to teach them about the importance of saving and the reality of the cost of Christmas.
Decide what it is you’d like by the end of the year – and of course what is realistic. Maybe you could save enough money for presents or Christmas dinner or the family holiday. If you budget carefully you’ll hardly notice a little bit going away each week, but you’ll certainly notice the help it gives you come December.
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