Festive Finance Tips

Now I'm a sucker for seasonal traditions and annoying Christmas songs but when the time comes to take down the tree and recycle the Christmas cards, my New Year's hangover is always heightened by the sheer dread of looking at the damage done to my bank account during the giddy days of December.

To help people start the year on a more positive note, here are a few festive finance tips to keep the seasonal spending under control.

1. Set a budget for different spending areas before you start your Christmas shopping. Allocate a limit to the amount you spend on each person on your list and be strict with yourself, think about how many of last year's Christmas presents become this year's recycling.
   
2. Add up how much you have allocated to each person and to the food shopping and make sure it's a manageable amount. Be honest with yourself, denial leads to more debt!
   
3. When it comes to the dreaded supermarket shop, try and buy as much as you can in the weeks leading up to Christmas (providing you have a good hiding place from the hungry hoards). By breaking the bill up over several weeks, there will be less of a shock when you do the 'big shop'.
   
4. When you get your December salary, transfer part of it to a seperate account in anticipation for the long month of January. Many people get an early salary in December and then nothing until the end of January, with the joy of overstretched credit card bills to pay off along the way.
   
5. Take care when buying gifts from outside of Europe. While the prices quoted on the internet may seem remarkably cheap and the weakness of the US Dollar very favourable, there is the unmentioned matter of customs and excise duty and import VAT to be considered. For specific details on duty charges, check out the rules on HMR&Cs website.
   
6. When buying gifts, make sure you keep the receipts in case there is a problem with the goods and they need to be returned. Check that goods are in working order as soon as possible as there may be a restricted return period.

On that note, I need to do some wrapping, so I'd like to take this opportunity to wish all our bloggers a very HAPPY CHRISTMAS and a prosperous New Year.........