December Finance Round-up: The cost of Christmas

Welcome to the first of the BritMums Finance round ups. I’m Ness and I blog over at JibberJabberUK. One of my many interests is personal finance as I spent several years working in pensions and I became a qualified independent financial adviser. I may not be a millionaire yet but I like to think I’m pretty savvy when it comes to managing what money I have and how it can be used to help protect my family and property if the worst happens.

Of course the first of the Finance round ups is at the most expensive time of year for many people – Christmas! With presents, extra food and drink plus increased gas and electric charges due to heating costs and all those Christmas lights on it can be very hard to make your cash stretch as far as it needs to.  Thankfully there are many tips and tricks which help you make the most of your money at this time of year.

For many retailers the big weekend of the year starts with Black Friday and their attempt to get us to buy more and more things we don’t really want or need with money we probably haven’t got. Lucy from The Parent Game tells us Why I Hate Black Friday and what we should be doing in the UK instead.

Many people now are realising the value of experiences over continually buying more things. With children it can be hard to live up to their expectations when they see adverts on TV with expensive toys or their friends boast of having the latest gadgets. What people are finding are that they remember the things they have done rather than what they have been given. Helen from Mummy To The Max has come up with 5 Thrifty Things To With Children This Christmas. Her tips include looking out for Santa’s sleigh (AKA the International Space Station) on Christmas Eve and getting a free phone call from Santa.

If you’re struggling with buying all the Christmas presents you have to buy take some tips from Stephanie at A Cornish Mum. Her advice on How to make Christmas cheaper this year includes the use of ‘promise vouchers’ and re-gifting. Just make sure you don’t give the gift back to the original sender!

If you need further inspiration have a look at Crystal from Castle View Academy and her 12 Tips How To Save Money At Christmas. Some of her advice will help you save money throughout the year too.

You may have seen recently about a mother who managed to buy nearly £1,200 of goods from a supermarket using just vouchers. Such extreme couponing does take weeks and weeks of effort in order to collect all the vouchers up but there are easier ways to use coupons to cut down your grocery bill. Cass from Diary of a Frugal Family has written  her guide to Couponing – The laid back way to do it. There’s simple ways in this post that anyone can use to make that big Christmas supermarket shop a little cheaper this year.

Many of us with children will know that the older they get the more they want money as a present for Christmas. Apparently being given something is not as good as going out to buy it yourself! One of my worries is letting them go out carrying bundles of cash with them and also they can’t order items online or buy music downloads. Two of our mums Tracey from One Frazzled Mum and Nadine from JuggleMum have been testing the new Osper card with their tweens and teens. It’s a debit card for children which can be used in chip and pin machines instore and also for online purchases. The parent tops it up ready for their child to use it. There’s no overdraft on it so once the money has been spent that’s it. Another valuable life lesson!

Once you have finally got Christmas out of the way it’s time to start thinking about next Christmas. Really? Oh yes and Jenni from Chilling with Lucas has given us her lowdown on Preparing for next Christmas. Remember to stock up on your wrapping paper and cards plus there’s ideas for cheap present ideas for birthdays and special days throughout the year.

How is your Christmas shaping up financially? Have you overspent or are you savvy with your spending? I’ll be back next month with our plans for our New Year finances.