Money At Christmas – Surviving The Festive Period Without A New Year Financial Hangover

Money always seems to be tight. Every year at Christmas the
financial situation always seems to get worse. Increased
electricity and heating bills to pay, expensive party food to
purchase, presents to buy, travel costs to visit relatives, the
list seems to be endless, while finances are certainly not. It
is the season to be jolly, whilst trying to forget the
long-term costs which will emerge in the New Year.
 
What can be done to reduce the New Year financial hangover?
 
Firstly, ensure your incoming finances are being maximised.
 
If you are in work, is there any part time or freelance work
that you can do? Often jobs such as supermarket shelf stacking
can be made to fit in around other commitments, while websites
such as Dobiz ( http://www.dobiz.net ) have started springing
up to get freelancers and businesses together. Selling on eBay
or simply returning unwanted gifts can help recover some of
your own expenditure.
 
If you are not working, then obtaining a job is the most
important thing to do. Use the facilities that are available.
The Jobcentre can provide some help, but it is frequently
better to sign up with several agencies who specialise in your
own area of expertise. A quick geographically based Google
search will normally locate appropriate organisation in your
area. As well as using specialist agencies, it is always a good
idea to sign up to a couple of general agencies in order to get
some form of temporary work, as these can often provide short
or long term contracts to keep your finances above water, and
they can be given up without much of a period of notice and
they look better on a CV than a period without any work at all.
If you need help with CV’s or interviews, then internet searches
can provide many sites that will be able to help, like Capita (
http://www.capitapd.co.uk ) or Jobseekersadvice (
http://www.jobseekersadvice.com ). 
 
Regardless of your employment situation, you also need to
maximise the money you have already. If you are using store
cards to make your purchases, don’t. Unless you always pay off
the entire balance every month, you will be paying more than
you have to. Store cards usually have a very high rate of
interest, and you should be able to get a much better rate if
you use a credit card. If you are using a credit card to make
most of your purchases, what is the APR of that card, and could
you get a better rate? Many credit cards currently offer
introductory 0% transfer rates, and the increased competition
to handle your finances is leading to lower APRs all round. If
you have a loan, could you get a better deal? Are you getting
the best return on your investments? Comparison websites like
Moneynet ( http:www.//moneynet.co.uk ) or Fool (
http://www.fool.co.uk ) are there to enable you to check these
details for free, quickly and easily, in order to make your
money work for you.
 
The next thing to do is to try to reduce your outgoings.
Budgeting is a good way to reduce costs. By highlighting how
much your regular incoming and outgoings are, it is often easy
to spot areas that can make huge differences. Most people find
that instead of having very little money to spend each month,
they are actually frittering away small amounts all the time.
This pattern of small spending rapidly mounts up, and can leave
little left over to spend on the things that you feel are really
worthwhile. Keeping a daily record of your spending is a simple
step to take but it can also show where important cuts can be
made. 
 
Other ways to reduce costs at Christmas include recycling last
year’s decorations, only buying food that will be eaten, rather
than obtaining large quantities that will end up being thrown
away. Do most of your shopping online to save money on
presents. Due to the lower costs of running a shop online, the
price of goods can be considerably lower than in the High
Street. Sites such as Kelkoo ( http://www.Kelkoo.co.uk ) and
Pricerunner ( http://www.pricerunner.co.uk ) enable you to
compare prices from various suppliers and find the cheapest.
Even if you prefer to buy on the High Street it can still be
worth going armed with prices from these sites as many High
Street shops will discount if they know they are beaten on
price.
 
If you don’t win the lottery in the New Year and still feel
that things have got out of control then you need to seek
advice from one of the free advice organisations that are set
up to help. The National Debtline (
http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk ) and the Foundation for
Credit Counselling ( http://www.cccs.co.uk ) are two non-profit
making charities that can help with guides and free personal
advice. 
 
Regardless of whether you are trying not to shed those few
extra pounds, or recover from debt problems, a few small
actions like this can make a large difference to your New Year.

 
Disclaimer:
All information contained in this article, is for general
information purposes only and should not be construed as advice
under the Financial Services Act 1986. 
 
You are strongly advised to take appropriate professional and
legal advice before entering into any binding contracts.

About The Author: Richard lives in Edinburgh, occasionally
writing for the personal finance blog
http://cashzilla.blogspot.com, and listens to music no one else
likes.