Can You Both Survive Christmas?

Christmas.  A festive time of giving, eating and celebrate time with family and the start of summer holidays for many in the Southern hemisphere.  Relaxing and enjoying time with the ones you love. 

Sound’s idyllic doesn’t it and for many families it is.  But for some couples it just adds more stress to what maybe an already strained relationship.

Christmas is over for another year.

Christmas is over for another year, and what a day it was!!

There was no shortage of gifts, food, family and plenty of laughter we all had a great time.

Now it’s Boxing Day and we have a mountain of packaging from the Xmas gifts to be disposed of.  The fridge is full of left over’s (at least I won’t have to cook for a couple of days) I think we overindulged in both gifts and food as usual.

The Boxing Day sales have started and the shopping malls are packed to capacity causing traffic jams and car park rage.

Going shopping is the last thing I want to do the day after Xmas.  So why do so many people do it?  Is it the lure of a bargain? Or just something to do to fill in the day.

Unless you have a plan and are looking for something specific the sales are just another enticement to overspend and buy more ‘stuff’ that you probably don’t need, and may not be able to afford.

10 elegant, inexpensive, homemade holiday gift ideas

See on Scoop.it – money management

Looking to make this holiday special without breaking the bank? Consider handmade gifts. Here are 10 ways to put a special glow into Christmas — or any other holiday that requires a gift.

See on www.mnn.com

It’s Christmas, let’s go shopping!!

Don’t you love this time of year, Christmas is coming, so it’s all about spend, spend, spend, shop, shop, shop and worry about paying for it next year.  I am sure it is not just us girls who feel like this. How do we survive this sensory overload that seems to compel us to spend more money than we have?

The pressure to purchase Christmas presents for everyone is huge at this time of year.  All our children or grandchildren need the latest toys; men need the latest gadget, and every girl regardless of age need jewellery, that’s what the advertisers tell us…

Here are a few tips to help you save money when you go Christmas shopping.

1. Spending is emotional. When it comes to money, typically our feelings rule our actions, thoughts come later. Neuro scientists say you make spending decisions up to 10 seconds before you are consciously aware of them.  So before opening your wallet count to 10 slowly!
2. Don’t use credit cards. Credit cards separate the pleasure of spending with the pain of paying; we are natural optimists and tell ourselves we can pay the whole credit card off when it falls due.  Then the boundaries slip a bit, one month becomes three, then six and in the meantime the interest cost is increasing.  Research shows that credit card users significantly underestimate how much they owe, one study showed cardholders admitting to $4 out of every $10 they owe, don’t fall into that trap.