Kate's Closet: Saving money this Christmas

Saving money this Christmas

Christmas is supposed to be fun, spending time with your nearest and dearest, eating to many mince pies, having one to many glasses of wine, watching Christmas TV or playing games, but for many of us it's a stressful, and expensive time of the year.

Since watching Martin Lewis the money saving expert on TV Tuesday, where he talked about taking the stress out of Christmas, by cutting out unnecessary present buying. ( if you haven't seen it, google Martin Lewis Christmas and give it a watch) It really has got me thinking about just how much money we waste buying a gift for someone, because we feel guilty! they bought one for us, so now we have to spend money getting one for them. I’m talking a neighbour, work colleague, family friend, someone who unannounced buys you a gift, so now of course in order to stop us feeling guilty we buy them something, even though we haven’t budgeted for that present. This causes so much stress, especially when money is tight. Or maybe you have a large extended family and have been buying for your cousins, Aunts, Uncles, and their kids. DON’T, draw a line, maybe buy for your immediate family, or possibly just buy for the children, BUT please do not feel obliged to buy for everyone.

Tit for tatt gift buying

Is such a waste, not only of money, but we end up buying and receiving gifts we don’t want or need, actual tatt just so we don’t look bad for not buying that person a gift. Everyone of us has an obligation to cut down on the amount of unnecessary things we throw away, including all that packaging. So buy less, the less we buy the less we are throwing out, and that's not just packaging but those novelty gifts that if we are honest, end up in the bin.

So what do we do?

We need to be having those conversations, talking about not buying for each other, asking people not to buy us a gift. Often someone’s generosity can cause undue stress on someone who doesn’t have the cash to be quite so frivolous. Maybe suggest only exchanging cards, or if you still want to exchange gifts, set a budget or maybe organise a secret Santa.

Speak up

Often other people feel the same, it just takes one person to speak up, and everyone can have a more enjoyable, less expensive and ultimately less stressful Christmas.