Christmas spending o’clock – here’s how you avoid breaking the bank
Worried about spending too much on presents this Christmas? Apparently, more than half of Britain’s parents admitted to overspending during Christmas last year. Some even dipped into retirement savings and emergency funds. Uh-oh. Not great.
Why do people overspend? We reckon it might be because it’s so easy to get blinded by the lights (pun very much intended!), and so easy to forget that there’s a life post-Christmas.
Our intern Francis had a chat with some of the Osper staff around the office and asked them about their top Christmas savings tips. Turns out the Osper staffers have a couple of good tips and tricks (though we decided to leave out the one that suggested for us to scrap Christmas pudding – let’s not turn into the Grinch shall we!).
Set up a Christmas presents budget
“Growing up, my parents always used to ask me and my siblings for Christmas lists to give to Father Christmas. They’ve since told us that they’d decide on a specific amount to spend on each of us, and then stick to that. It also meant that they could spread the cost out evenly across all three of us. Oh, and they also used to ask us if we wanted to help make the Christmas budget. I always thought it was loads of fun to get to help planning Christmas – it became part of Christmas itself.”
Siadhal, Product team
Save money on food and decorations
“The main saving we do in our family is on ornaments and festive treats – we just make it all at home instead! We get all the kids involved in baking buns and building baubles – they love it and it saves us a fair bit of cash, too.”
Adam, Operations team
Be brave – does everyone need a gift?
“Two years ago I decided to stop giving gifts outside my immediate family. It wasn’t just because of the money, but also because I didn’t have the time to sort it all out – it’s too stressful! People don’t seem to mind – in fact I’ve had several people commenting how nice it’s been that I’ve set a precedent where I don’t expect a gift from them, either.”
Sandy, Marketing team
