Well another New Year has snuck up on us. 2015 promises to be another busy one for my family and me but one I intend to embrace with everything I have. 2014 got away from me in the latter half of the year and I have been rather remiss in updating this blog and intend to remedy that this year with consistent posts about budgeting problems and solutions. I really would like to hear from people what they would like to hear about.
Image courtesy of noppasinw/freedigitalphotos.net
I’m hoping that you had an enjoyable break over Christmas and New Year with your families. I, unfortunately, had to work over the break including weekends and some of the public holidays but that is the joy of shiftwork! If you’re like me, you are probably spending some time in January taking stock of your current financial situation with the excesses of Christmas behind us and a whole new year ahead of us. Parents will also be worrying about the back to school expenses that hit at this time of year.
Image courtesy of renjith krishnan/freedigitalphotos.net
I would imagine that a number of people reading this blog will have spent up big on credit cards over the festive period and starting to wonder how they can repay the money. People are probably also wondering if there is a better way to do Christmas each year than the credit card with the heavy interest. I firmly believe that planning for Christmas should start in January. Why you may ask? Well the credit card hangover that hits in January is stressful and lasts for months, if not years. Since I started planning for Christmas in January I have not suffered a Christmas hangover.
So do you have a Christmas hangover? Do you want to have a Christmas where you don’t suffer with a hangover for the next year? Well here are my suggestions for a hangover free January.
- Open up a separate savings account with your bank that you put money into directly from your pay. Most banks now have a Christmas Club account – these often only pay a very small amount of interest but you can’t access the money without closing down the account – a good idea if you aren’t disciplined to leave the account alone until required in December. Work out how much you require for Christmas – presents, food, entertainment etc and divide that by the number of fortnights left before December and start putting this in the account straight away. If you put just $10 per week into this account from this week until the end of November you’d have $470 to spend on Christmas!
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles/freedigitalimages.net
- Every time you do your grocery shopping put a $20 gift card in your trolley. You won’t really notice it on your weekly shop but do this fortnightly until December and you will have $460 in gift cards to use on groceries. If you get a Coles/Myer or Wish card you have a range of other stores that you can use these cards in which you can use for presents.
Image courtesy of digitalart/freedigitalphotos.net
- Utilise lay-by services in store. Most stores offer an 8 week lay-by system where you pay a nominal fee for them to keep the items put away until you’ve paid for them. The toy sales in the middle of the year are a great opportunity to put the kids presents away for an even longer period of time with a pick up date just prior to Christmas.
- Purchase things on sale throughout the year. This is a great option if you have people who are easy to buy for as you can have things sitting aside ready for Christmas. Just don’t forget you’ve purchased items! I recall finding some clothes last year I’d bought on special for my son a few years ago that I forgot about and found them after he had grown 3 sizes above them! I must regift them 😉 A good way to remember what you have put away is do a spreadsheet with the people you need to buy presents for and what you intend to buy and then make a note when you have purchased them so you don’t double up.
I really hope these tips help you to start to prepare for Christmas 2015 even though Christmas 2014 is such a recent memory.