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More than 30 Days of Night - Top Tips for Avoiding the Debt Vampires this Christmas
By Polly | December 4, 2007
By: Andrew Leatherland
For some Christmas can be more of a horror story than a celebration of light. It can bring a nightmare where every day seems darker than the next. This is because the only way to pay for seems to involve going to the banks cap in hand to find the extravagant amounts of cash.
The problem is that the nightmare can be never ending. Like a nightmare that has more than 30
days of night, debt can be like a vampire, drinking every last drop of money you have, especially when you don’t have much to begin with. Loans or credit cards have to be paid and so often the payment for one Christmas extends well beyond the next one.
With a little thought and some work the debt could be avoided or at least brought to a more acceptable level. Try some of these tips to help you avoid the darkness that is the Christmas debt nightmare.
1) Know what you’re getting into - too many people walk blindly into Christmas debt. They assume they’ll just go out and get a loan. Strange though it sounds, it’s almost like they forget it has to be paid back. Don’t make this mistake this year. Go into Christmas with your eyes wide open. It’s best to avoid them but if you’re insistent that you’ll get a loan, find a comparison website and shop hard for the best deal. Shop harder for the best deal than you would for any other gift this Christmas. Believe me your happiness depends on it. Better still…..
2) Don’t Get a Loan - Get a Business Opportunity. There are many internet / home based business opportunities out there. They can be the nearest thing to an interest free loan. It’s just a way of turning the debt on its head. By working to bring in extra money, you’re not trying to fund Christmas from you existing resources, plus you’re avoid a loan and therefore avoid interest. Internet based opportunities can be great because once they’re set up and promoted, they can be working for you even when you’re not focusing on them.
3) Agree Your Budget - Have a plan this Christmas to save your spending. Too many people head out to the shops with no clear idea in mind. They drift from shop to shop and buy randomly. This lack of focus takes so many people into higher levels of spending than they can afford. You need to decide your budget for Christmas before you go shopping.
4) Talk to your friends and family - Christmas is so stale it’s untrue. People buy presents without real thought. Pretty much everyone does it. Worse still, so many people buy gifts for others, only because the other person buys a present for them. Trouble is the other person only does it because you bought for them. My advice is to bring Christmas up and talk about presents in your conversation. Done right, you’ll often find you can come to an agreement not to have buy presents for each other this year. Think about how much money you’ll save! Do the same for family and younger children. You’ll be amazed how many people are just waiting for the other person to say something. These conversations can also be used to agree a limit for children. Don’t just barge in though by saying your cutting back. See how the conversation goes so you can avoid arguments.
5) Have a plan. Plan your food, plan your gifts, and plan your card list. Once you have it stick to it as tightly as you can. The stores, toymakers and banks have planned to squeeze as much cash out of you as possible. You need to plan just as hard as them to hang onto as much as possible.
6) Cut Your Christmas Card List. Think about it? You send yours to a huge list of people including co-workers and they send you a load back. Shortly after Christmas, they’re all in the trash. Ever thought about being the first at work to send an e-mail suggesting that rather than sending each other cards you agree to put the money into a charity instead. Set a limit below what you would normally spend on cards and put it to a not for profit organisation instead. Now that’s real giving!
7) Shop Hard! - No I don’t mean to spend vast amounts. Shopping hard involves looking for the best bargains. Use the internet. Price comparison websites are everywhere. Use them to drive the hardest bargain you can for a gift.
8 Start Early - The earlier you start gathering what you need for Christmas, the more paychecks you can spread the burden over, therefore reducing your need for credit.
9) Plan your menu. Virtually everyone buys more food than they need for Christmas. So much of it goes to waste. Imagine what it would look like if it were pure cash in the waste - because that’s what it is really. Plan a careful menu and remember it’s not the amount of food, it’s the time you have at the table that’s the real joy of Christmas dinner.
10) Remember why it’s Christmas. You don’t have to spend vast amounts of money to show how much you love your friends and family. You can save so much cash by tuning in to the meaning of Christmas. One thing my grandmother always tells me is that if you do the good things for people all year round, you don’t need to splash vast amounts of cash on them. That’s about showing people and telling them - not splashing your (or the banks cash).
Andrew Leatherland is passionate about people having the best life possible and wants this Christmas to be their first step to a whole new debt free life. If you’re looking to have a Christmas free of money worries visit his blog at http://worryfreechristmas.blogspot.com
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Topics: Christmas, Conquering the Chaos, Family Finances |