Christmas budgeting tips
Moneymagpie.com's Jasmine Birtles recently stopped by on our Christmas Corner message board to share her seasonal budgeting tips
Cl-raechebaby: I'm one of those people who is on a really tight budget permanently. Can you recommend ways I could get Christmas sorted, or a way to save money that would still permit some quality of life?
Jasmine Birtles: The best thing to do is to boost your income where you can. Personally, I think that if you have a computer you can make money, even just doing online surveys can bring in a bit of pocket money here and there.
- What skills do you have that could make you some cash?
- Could you bake great cakes and sell them at car boot sales?
- Do you have secretarial skills? If you do, you could be a Virtual Assistant and help small businesses from your own home.
- Do you have a bit of spare time where you could do some babysitting or dog-walking?
- The Post office is looking for Christmas posties at the moment and the big stores like M&S, Debenhams and the like are also looking for Christmas help.
- Do you have anything you could sell or rent out?
As far as gifts go, there are a lot of presents you can make, often involving giving the gift of time. Get creative and you could end up doing Christmas for a fiver!
Ancarra: I think many folk have way too much food at Christmas. Food is quite a large part of many Christmas budgets. I know that we used to be given a large turkey and I was eating it for weeks in various guises (now I buy a smaller one). Any tips on this particular problem?
Jasmine Birtles:
- Go for one big meal a day and just small amounts for the other two meals (small but special with a few 'treat' items like smoked salmon or trifle or whatever you can afford).
- Remember that the shops are only closed for a couple of days so you don't have to 'stock up for winter' in the way that our mothers used to do.
- Shop at markets rather than supermarkets where possible as they are generally 30 per cent cheaper and at Christmas (particularly Christmas Eve) they often sell things off for pennies just to get rid of them.
- Do a meal plan for the days around Christmas so that you only actually buy what you need and no more.
It sounds like you've already started on the right road. As you say, why buy a huge turkey when you're going to have to keep eating it for days after? Just get a smaller one.
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