If you’re worried about money, then saving for Christmas should be a priority. If you haven’t already started saving money for Christmas, then now is the time to do so. Christmas can be one of the biggest expenses of the year. You can often spend much more money than you plan to. Let’s take into consideration some of the things you might be spending money on at Christmas:
- Christmas presents
- Christmas dinner
- drink for Christmas
- Secret Santa gift for work
- Christmas tree and decorations
- Christmas jumper
- a Christmas Day outfit
- a dress for the Christmas party
- New years eve outfit
- New years eve drinks
- chocolate, sweets and treats
- Christmas pantomime
- Christmas crafts
- meals out over Christmas
- fancy dress
As you can see, what you spend at Christmas can be much more than just buying a Christmas present and a turkey. When you consider all money spend throughout the festive period, then it’s clear that we probably spend more than we think. Have you ever trakced what you’ve spent over Christmas? It’s a scary thought!
If you haven’t put money aside for Christmas, you could find yourself in a situation where you end up spending money on a credit card and start the new year in debt. This is what we want to avoid, so that’s why we need to save and be aware of our spending instead.
Even if you don’t have to use a credit card, you could still be spending more than you need to if you’re not in control of your spending. That money could be invested elsewhere, like overpay your mortgage or put towards a summer holiday!
Let’s look into how to start saving for Christmas.
How to start saving money for Christmas
What can you realistically afford?
We are currently 17 weeks away from Christmas. That means if you want to get saving money, you need to start now. The first thing to do is look at what you can realistically afford to save each week for Christmas.
Look at how much money you have going into your bank each month and what money is coming out. There will be some things that you can’t avoid paying – but look at the spending that you could cut back on, such as takeaways, food shopping, entertainment and clothes.
Then set yourself a target of how much to save per month.
Set a budget for your Christmas spending
Give yourself a budget for what you plan on spending. Start by taking into account everything you need and then set a budget for it. For example:
Christmas jumper – £20
Kids gifts – £300
Christmas food shop – £120
New Christmas tree – £50
This will give you a good idea of the amount you have committed to saving is going to cover your costs. If not, then you need to reassess your spending or see if you can save a bit more money for Christmas.
Set the money aside
So, you’ve decided to save money for Christmas. But how are you going to separate your money for Christmas? Some people use money envelopes and put physical cash inside. You could put money into a savings account. What I do is move the money to a ‘pot’ on Monzo.
This is one of my favourite features of Monzo – you can add many different money pots to keep your cash earmarked for certain things. I have one for Christmas, one for my car insurance, and even one for my chiropractor costs.
If you haven’t got a Monzo account, then get one. It’s great! It enables you to move money from your bank account into your Monzo account and track your spending. You get a card that you can use in shops and to buy things online and it’s great for budgeting.
I love how I can put money in it each month and that’s my ‘spending money, then I won’t touch my current account! I have about £800 saved in various pots at the moment, which is money I don’t even see as mine. I’m sure if I didn’t have these pods with my future spending in, I’d have already spent that money on something else by now.
Can you make some extra money for Christmas?
Think about ways you can make a bit of extra money if you need to. I’ve put together a blog post on my Christmas blog about how to earn extra money for Christmas.
So get working on those side hustles!
Start saving in January
The next thing to do is commit to saving earlier next year! Give yourself 52 weeks to save for the Christmas period! If you saved £100 a month, you would have £1200 extra.
So what are you waiting for? Start saving money for Christmas today
If you want to earn extra money over Christmas, check out this post about the top Cashback sites in the UK.
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I am someone that always overspends when Christmas comes, but these are all amazing ideas! I think I will try to budget more and start saving from now. I really love the pots on Monzo, they are such an easy way to divide your money! x
Christmas must be a tough time for those who have kids and need to make sure they budget, so these are a few great tips thank you š
Hi Corinne,
Christmas is a major annual expense for many of us these days – so big that, as you say, it can easily push us into debt if we don’t plan ahead. I like the idea of a separate account set-up for Christmas saving – use a Direct Debit and its all done automatically, no temptation to spend it!
It’s so important to plan ahead. It really is a stress-reducer. We all need that around the holidays! Great post.
I’m guilty of maybe treating myself a tad too much in the Christmas period! Great tips, I’m saving all my survey earnings for Christmas presents š xx