Get organised. I love the Christmas season. Being organised and making lists stops me going overboard. I always mark December 1 on my calendar. It's the day to go up into the loft and bring down the Christmas supplies.
The children are then enlisted to decorate the house, while I peruse the present box to see what I've accumulated over the year. When we finish, and only then, do I make lists of what we need. When I'm disorganised I forget that I've had a present tucked away all year for someone, and buy a second one. Every year I also complete one home-made project. We do the same for Halloween and this year I made a life-sized mummy called Fred from recycled materials wrapped in torn up old sheets. Families congregated outside our house taking pictures of their children with Fred. You can't beat cheap creativity when it comes to seasonal decorating.
Comparison shop: Don't buy the turkey at the supermarket just because it's your usual shopping week. At Christmas with all those extra expenses it's worth either shopping around or biding your time to pick up individual items you need the week they're on sale.
Whole turkeys are already in the shops and they keep in the freezer. Do the same for Christmas presents.
You don't have to buy that cricket bat today. If you bide your time over a few weeks you might get it cheaper during a weekly sale or even online. Once upon a time there were no sales in December. Retail is more cut-throat than that today.
It's the thought that counts. Don't let Christmas giving get out of hand. It really is the thought that counts. Anyone who doesn't think that isn't worth the moniker "friend".
I know I'd much rather be taken out for a yuletide glass of wine or a coffee than be given something I didn't need.
Anyone who gives me a labour-saving "voucher" such as for house or car cleaning is going to be in my good books for a long time. I must tell my children that now that they're big enough to do an acceptable job.
Splurge a bit: Christmas celebrations, if you can afford it, are about letting go a bit. It is the time to spoil yourself - within reason - which means within your budget. If you're a splurging kind of person then you're likely to do more spending than you should. So both the misers and the big spenders should plan for what they want to splurge on.
Teach the kids money values: As soon as the kids give up believing in Santa Claus, make sure they're part of the budgeting exercise. Or give them each a budget to buy for the others. Christmas has lots of money lessons for children. On holiday my kids get a small daily spending allowance. This year they'll have to ration it between icecreams and WiFi usage, which costs where we're going to stay. It will be interesting to see if the urge to stay online while away will be greater than the appetite for unhealthy treats.
Consider gifts that keep on giving: I've written in previous years about Oxfam Unwrapped and other similar schemes that allow you to donate to a good cause instead of giving unwanted gifts. For $15 you can buy safe water for 25 people in under-developed countries and for $150 you can buy a donkey for a family affected by disaster. You get a gift card to send to your relative, friend or workmate and the donation goes to someone who needs it.
Transfer that balance: I've never been able to understand why Kiwis think credit card debt is the norm. Credit cards were invented to tide people over financially when emergencies arise. Credit cards mean the high life is available to people whether they can afford it or not. But if you really must have a Christmas on credit, then transfer the balance. Christmas is payback month for credit card providers and they're dangling some pretty good transfer deal carrots to snare spenders from other banks. I thought I "should have gone to Specsavers" when I read this week that the ANZ is offering zero per cent for six months on balance transfers. But I read that correct. It's followed close behind by BNZ at 1 per cent and Kiwibank at 1.99 per cent. Be careful, however: new spending on the card is charged at the full rate immediately.
Beware of buy-now, pay-later deals. There will be 36 months interest-free deals over the next few weeks. Pay nothing until such and such a date. Christmas on hire purchase comes with a nasty hangover, whether it's this January or next when the ghosts of Christmas past catch up with you. In fact, by the time that stuff is paid off, it will be obsolete or worn out. HP is bad. Even worse are payday loans that some people use to cover Christmas.
Be wise to retailers: Much of the money we spend doesn't really make us happier.
Retailers use all sorts of tricks to persuade us to part with our Christmas cash. Carols blasted from the shops' sound systems get us in the mood and we upsize with things like dubious gift sets, when one of the items in the pack would do. The malls bring out Santa to drag parents in.
Watch out for being sold fries with your purchase. The "fries" in question are add-ons such as HDMI cables, screen protectors, necklaces and so on.
Fight back. Shop with a list. Ask a sales assistant for the product you're looking for to avoid making spur-of-the-moment purchases.
The longer you are in the shop or mall the more money you'll spend. I know. I've been abstaining from visiting shops in recent weeks and you really do spend an awful lot less when you don't set foot in the mall.
Be good to the planet. I've said it before. Santa is a bad man.
He doesn't just steal all your money. He's really bad for the planet. Just look at the stuff that gets dumped outside op shops in January. Who hasn't bought something that they know would not be needed or wanted?
According to the website recycle.co.nz, the waste every household generates almost doubles the week after Christmas. That amounts to 50,000 tonnes of rubbish. Loaded into stacked shipping containers, this would be many times taller than Auckland's Sky Tower.
If you don't want to add to that rubbish mountain, buy quality, buy fair trade, buy second-hand stuff on Trade Me, make a hamper of home-made foods, regift last year's unwanted presents, buy less, or simply don't buy at all. I know I don't need more stuff in my house.
