twenty second Nov 2024
Studying Time: 3 minutes
How do you afford Christmas? MoneyMagpie performed a survey to search out out!
We not too long ago performed a survey of 2000 respondents about their Christmas spending habits, and it was revealed that 37% of fogeys depend on bank cards to afford the festive season’s presents, meals, and actions. Having youngsters considerably provides to the price of Christmas too: nearly 40% of fogeys spend over £500, whereas an enormous 81% of childfree individuals spend solely as much as £300 – with 17% spending beneath £100.
Spending tendencies revealed that oldsters are extra probably use bank cards but in addition that they’re extra more likely to take longer to pay them off, too. A big chunk of childfree individuals (73%) didn’t use credit score to pay for the season, whereas of people who did 63% paid them off instantly, in comparison with 37% of fogeys – which means they begin the brand new yr with debt that may take months to repay.
Vicky Parry, MoneyMagpie’s Editor and monetary knowledgeable, mentioned: “It’s not stunning that oldsters spend extra at Christmas, however counting on credit score to pay for the festivities can set households on the again foot for the brand new yr. At MoneyMagpie, we at all times advocate spending inside your means the place attainable – and whereas which may appear powerful for cash-strapped households, we’ve plenty of tricks to earn additional money and make vital financial savings too.
“We encourage households involved about the price of Christmas to set boundaries to make it extra inexpensive. This could be agreeing a spend restrict with household and mates, or forgoing presents for the adults altogether. There are additionally loads of methods to snap up grocery bargains right now of yr, so some savvy weekly purchasing might help save more money in time for Christmas.”
There are a great deal of issues you are able to do to ensure you’re not counting on credit score to fund Christmas – regardless that it’s now lower than a month away!
- Surrender one takeaway every week for the subsequent three weeks and also you’ll save round £150
- Reduce in your each day spending only for a couple of weeks – avoiding your takeaway espresso treats may prevent £50 should you often get one a couple of occasions every week.
- Pause your subscriptions: streaming, music, magazines, audiobooks and ebooks all add up. Pausing any you must keep away from the subsequent fee going out for December may prevent upwards of £50 in only a few weeks.
In the event you should use your bank card over Christmas, attempt to restrict your spending and repay in full by your December assertion that arrives in January. In the event you’re not going to have the ability to repay in full, look into opening a steadiness switch bank card with an introductory provide. This offers you some respiratory house, particularly should you discover one with a 0% switch price and 0% curiosity on steadiness switch gives (Natwest is presently the most effective for this). Switch your Christmas spending out of your standard bank card to the steadiness switch one earlier than your subsequent assertion to clear the debt throughout. Then make repayments as standard – however no less than you gained’t be paying curiosity. (Don’t make purchases on a steadiness switch card – the rate of interest could be very excessive. Use it just for transferring your present bank card debt).
