60 more sleeps (and two paydays) to go until Christmas: How to stretch your salary for the festive period
It's hard to believe that there's only around sixty sleeps to go until Christmas! That means only two paydays until then as well - Alice Beer is a savvy shopper filled to the brim with good advice for making your salary stretch until the big festive period.
Transcript
00:00 I think it's fair to say people will be starting now to just about panic. I think what will
00:08 tip people over the edge is the realisation that there are two paychecks, two paydays
00:13 until Christmas. And I think that's really important, not because I think people should
00:17 panic, on the contrary, I think people should actually think, okay, so two paydays till
00:23 Christmas, we need to make this payday pay for Christmas, we need to think about how
00:28 we're going to approach Christmas, how we're not going to get in a panic, how we're not
00:31 going to overspend.
00:33 The run up to Christmas has well and truly begun. Where's the year gone? In fact, results
00:37 from a recent study found up to 70% of shoppers are in the festive buying mood as early as
00:43 September nowadays, and you won't find a shortage of Christmassy items in the shops to get your
00:48 hands on that early in the year. While we might have started getting a few decorations
00:53 or even a mince pie or two, most of us haven't got any presents yet, so there's still a long
00:58 way to go.
00:59 It's all about planning and a list, the list of people you need to buy for, and then probably
01:06 lopping about half of them off, because they are going to be as anxious as you are. We're
01:12 all anxious about cost of living at the moment. And if you ring people and say, sure, I'd
01:17 love to meet you for a drink, I'd love to meet you for a catch up, but let's not do
01:21 the whole present thing. And you just meet up for a lovely lunch or just a drink in the
01:25 pub, and you don't panic about buying them a present, and they don't have to buy you
01:29 a present. You just see them and your presence is your present. And that's enough. And also,
01:34 you know, if you're going to see family, you don't really need to be gifting for every
01:39 member of the family.
01:41 While the festive season might seem like a long way off yet, you're not wrong. It does
01:45 mean for most there's only two paydays in the year to go. With the cost of living continuing
01:50 to stretch budgets, the most expensive time of the year can be an even bigger squeeze.
01:55 And working out what are your expenses between now and the big day and don't leave anything
02:00 off, but absolutely everything down. Crackers, you're not going to do Christmas without crackers.
02:06 Put them down, put them in your plan, budget for them, and see how many of those things
02:12 you can buy with this October paycheck, because you don't want to be buying them with the
02:17 next one, because that's probably going on heating bills, I'm afraid to say.
02:21 Consumer expert Alice Beater is on hand to give top spending tips and advice in the run
02:26 up to Christmas to allow you to stretch those last two pay packets with some savvy spending.
02:31 So I think don't get carried away. Write everyone's name down, what you're planning on getting
02:36 them, what you're planning on spending on them. And don't go over because they won't
02:41 thank you because they will feel embarrassed that they haven't spent that much money on
02:45 you. So I think shop online, don't get swept up by Black Friday or Cyber Monday or anything
02:53 else. Shop online and do it in advance and slowly and carefully and stick to your plan.