Much as we don’t want to think about it, we have just 10 weeks until Christmas Day. So much to buy and, for a lot of us, so little money.
There’s always credit but credit costs. Spend £500 on a credit card today and it will take almost eight years and £444 in interest to repay by minimum repayments at 19.8 per cent APR.
My challenge for you is ‘Christmas without credit’. Difficult, but not impossible and we can start today by making a few changes to our spending week.
How to save £500 between now and Christmas Day…
1. Shop every eight days, or 36 days for monthly shoppers.
2. Ditch the daily takeaway coffee.
3. Park out of town for free.
4. Cook instead of takeaways.
5. Ease off on the accelerator.
6. Walk/cycle instead of using the car.
7. Don’t take the kids with you when you go shopping.
8. Go meat free on one day of the week.
9. Party at home instead of out on the town.
10. Check out oxfamonline.org.uk and eBay etc for party clothes and presents.
READ MORE: Dodging the cost of a holiday disaster
The maths…
Over the next ten weeks you can save:
Eight/36 day shopping £75
Daily coffee £100
Daily parking £150
Weekly takeaway £200
Fuel savings £50
Walking/cycling £50
Child-free shopping £50
Meat free meals £100
A night out at home £50
Online bargain hunting £100
Grand total £925
£925! That’s a lot of money and, seriously, will you miss any of the above? It’s just until Christmas, not for ever. Naturally, my list won’t apply to everyone, but if we take on just half of the above we could be £500 better off, which will go a long way towards our Christmas expenses.
Go on, you know you want to.
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