Christmas seems like old news already, or if we look at it from the other end, there’s almost a year until the next Christmas. However, it might be a good time to start thinking about it already now. Not Christmas per se but the budgeting part of it. Whether you’re used to heavy gift bags or no gifts at all, there are always extra expenses involved during that time of the year.
My Voucher Codes has put together a video to help you with this task, and help you turn your next Christmas to a no-hassle zone when it comes to money, and maybe even have the most affordable Christmas ever for you. You can see the video in the end of this post.
There are different ways you can make next Christmas cheaper, I’d say three main ways:
1. Forget presents
That’s my own advice. Christmas is the time for family, and unless small children are involved, it’s often a better idea to agree not to make presents to each other. Just have a lunch, dinner, linner, enjoy the time together with your friends and family. It helps to avoid headaches of what to buy for someone, headaches of how to say thank you for the presents you got but have no idea what to do with, and of course, it also helps to save quite a bit of money. But I’m aware that while I’m not alone in thinking this way, most people still like the whole presents thing, either because of traditions, or for any other reason, so the next two ways might help you more.
2. Go for bargains
That’s one of the main reasons why you should start thinking of next Christmas already now. There are loads of bargains between now and next Christmas, and it avoids the trouble of finding the bargains just before Christmas. It depends, but you might end up saving 50% of what you’d pay if you started thinking about the gifts in November.
3. Start saving
Whether you plan to start buying the gifts already now or just before the holidays, it’s definitely a good idea to start saving already today. Create a separate savings account (or get a piggy bank) and start setting aside a specific amount every month. I personally would even suggest doing it daily, especially if you are using the piggy bank option, as then you can just toss in all the coins from the day, or a fiver, and that might be pretty satisfying all by itself, especially after you finally open the piggy up. I know it from my own experience.
See the video below for more.
