Now that all of the Christmas festivities are over, you might be examining your finances in horror. Perhaps you spent too much on the kids, you went on a holiday that turned out to be a bit more extravagant than intended, or you did too much partying over the festive period. No matter what the problem is, you are probably wishing that in January 2011 you had started planning. Now is the time to reverse this scenario so that when 2013 begins you will not be feeling exactly the same next year.
In order to begin saving for next Christmas, you need to try and work out how you are going to survive over the next few months. One way of obtaining a short term cash flow is to compare payday loans using a site such as Money Supermarket. If you are desperate for something to ease your immediate troubles this could be a temporary solution, as long as you do your research.
After you have completed this step it is worth making a plan of incomings and outgoings. Try to be as thorough as possible when doing this so for example think about how much you pay each month for things such as rent, childcare and general expenses on food and drink. Once you’ve done this you might realise that it’s time to kiss goodbye to those small weekly luxuries such as purchasing lunch every day – why not make lunch at home instead? Or instead of going to the cinema on a Friday night, invite friends round to your home and watch a DVD. Small savings can make a big difference in the long run.
You will soon start to see an improvement and instead of having an empty bank account at the end of each month, or venturing into that dangerous overdraft zone, you will create a growing stockpile of cash.
It is worth setting up a savings account to transfer this cash into so that you are not tempted to start slipping back into bad habits – instead you will have enough to enjoy Christmas this year, proud that you have managed to sort out your finances with cash to spare.
