Christmas can become a extremely expensive, very quickly – with catchy deals and impluse buying due to increase pressure of the countdown to christmas – and it’s all real, but it doesn’t have to be that way. If you look more closely to how much of this pressure is coming from within yourself? How much is tied to what you think you should be spending on each person? Or certain times of the year [birthdays + christmas] can trigger habits where you feel you need to please others.
Even though many of us have been fortunate enough to receive our fair share of unforgettable christmas gifts over the years, if you are really about the best meaningful gifts that you will keep and remember for years to come and never want to lose, compared to having a mountain of gifts that won’t be remembered and may even get lost in the moment.
Continue reading this blog, and have a little read on how to budget better during the christmas shopping period. Hopefully, it helps you to feel less pressure into spending more than you want or feel like you need to, in order to show others how much . Here’s a little christmas budgeting guide…
1. Be mindful when spending
Write up a christmas list for each person that you want to buy for and make sure to stick to it. And when you are mindful when searching for gifts that your loved ones will appreciate. This can be where gift giving can become its own.
During the christmas period, you can feel a little bombarded with emails – often filling up your inbox- with discount codes, prompting you not to miss their good deals. Especially over the christmas shopping period, so be prepared for this and be extra mindful.
2. Create a budget and make sure to stick to it
Set yourself a budget that is realistic and safely ring-fenced, and allows you to stick to it. If you set aside money specifically for christmas presents, it can make budgeting a lot easier. And if you start putting money aside little, by little throughout the year, it can be a lot easier to stay on budget and also you need to squeeze one payday for all the present shopping.
But if you don’t have any money set aside for christmas yet, then you might need to create one payday to go where you can create one.
3. Be truly honest with yourself and create boundaries that are realistic
Don’t worry we have all been there, where you start looking at the ever-growing list of people that are buying a present for christmas – great aunties, old neighbours, second or third cousins – the list can be endless.
Many families with young children often decide that christmas should be about the children and only buying for the children – relieving the pressure off the adult, as they won’t have to buy every adult in the family a gift. A lot of the time, people tend to find themselves pulling their hair out when they are deciding what to buy different family members, and feeling resentful of the situation wishing that somebody would have spoken up and called out the madness that buying christmas gifts bring.
Have a goo d long look at your list, think about who you are buying for – are you really wanting to buy or are you buying because you feel like you have to buy? Are you ready to swallow your pride and start the conversation rolling about gift giving?
Whether you already have a christmas strategy already in place or not – just remember that the buying season might be upon us, and being prepared can be good, but what does the festive period truly is about – loved ones?!
4. Get yourself ahead and prepare for next year…
If you are wanting to prepare for christmas ahead of time, January is probably the perfect time to set up a christmas nest egg.
A nest egg is where you put money aside for an expected expense, eg. if you were to put away £1500 for christmas 2023 [food, activities and presents] at the start of January you’ll set aside £100 each month [£25 aweek].
