January Finance Round-up: New Year Finances

A very Happy New Year to all of you. For me the start of a new year is a good excuse to get many things sorted and a good place to start is with your finances. Christmas is a costly experience for most people.  I recently heard that many people will still be paying off the cost of Christmas 2015 when Christmas comes around again this year. So how are people dealing with this? Is it a time to cut back and save what you can? For the very organised some trips to the sales can be a worthwhile investment in order to cover birthday presents and even next year’s Christmas presents.  

January can be a tough time for many money wise so Cass over at Diary of a Frugal Family has put together her guide to Surviving January. As well as making money by selling on old things you don’t use around the house Cass also asks the question Is it OK to sell your unwanted Christmas gifts? 

For more ways of Surviving January take a look at Emma’s over at Emma and 3 Saves. She gives us  her tips to both save and make money from selling old mobile phones to ditching the gym. 

If you are looking to declutter and to make some money at the same time Becky over at Family Budgeting advises us to look for any old toys in good condition. If you’re just storing them in your loft or under your bed it may be time to get them out and have them valued.

Kerry at Oh So Amelia shared the 365 Day Money Saving Challenge with a free printable. It’s a well-known but easy way to build up your savings throughout the year. The idea is you save 1p on day one and then 2p on day two and so on. Therefore by day 365 you need to add the final payment of £3.65. Alternatively you can start backwards with the higher amounts so it gets progressively easier to save. Another way to complete it is in the form of ‘savings bingo’. You save any loose change you have each day and cross that amount off wherever it features in the 365 days. Of course 2016 is a leap year so that’s another £3.66 that can be added.

After Christmas it’s very easy to run out straight away and buy a whole load more stuff just because it is reduced. Kara from Chelsea Mamma shared with us her tips for How to Win at Sales Shopping. This year she got bargain bike for her daughter’s January birthday plus her elder daughter found the boots she was after reduced by 70%.

Someone else thinking about sales bargains to be used as presents is Hannah from CupcakeMumma. She shared with us her haul of Recent Freebies, Bargains and Wins! Her collection of goodies are going towards hampers and future birthday presents (the M&Ms may not make it though!)

One way to save on your January bills is to cut the cost of your food shopping. There are many things we can do without but we all need to eat! As well as running her monthly food blogging linky, Credit Crunch Munch, Camilla at Fab Food 4 All has listed 10 Money Saving Shopping Tips to get us all back on the right financial track.

Another way to save money on food is through meal planning as advised by Becky at Baby Budgeting. It’s thought that the average family in the UK wastes around £60 of food each month. By planning out your meal each week you can save money and reduce the vast amount of food that is wasted in the UK.

With the days still short and dark plus plenty of cold and wet weather around it’s inevitable that our thoughts can turn to sunnier climes. For many of us a holiday aboard is a luxury and therefore needs serious planning. Samantha over at North East Family Fun has devised a family savings scheme for their first family holiday aboard in three years. Tips include no birthday or Christmas presents to each other and well as not booking any other mini breaks.

If you are in need of spending some quality time with your family but your January budget doesn’t stretch that far then Rachel Jess has some suggestions. She gives us some ideas for both staying in and getting outside which won’t break the bank.

So that’s it for January. I hope you have a financially sound month and take on board some of the advice from our bloggers. If you write about family finances and would like your posts to be included in future round-ups then please contact me on Twitter or at my Facebook page.