The Christmas debt trap, lets do something about it.

In a few weeks time, it will be Christmas. It’s a joyous time of year. Very few parents want to deny their children presents.

However, for many, it can be financially devastating.

This is the cycle.

From November- January 2nd people spend a lot of money that they don’t have on the festive season. Then it kicks in.

The bank statements and the credit card bills arrive.

People literally have no money in January and its a case for many of counting down the days until payday at the end of the month. However, think of this, what happens if your employer goes bust.

Many small businesses go bust in January for three reasons.

In summary.

1. No customers coming in.
2. They still have to pay their wage bill at the end of the month.
3. In the UK they have to pay their tax bill on 31st January.

See (1.)

It is inevitable that many people will not be able to pay off that credit card bill at the end of the month- especially if the employer goes bust. In which case that person will incur interest and the levels of interest rates that credit cards charge can be very high. Some can charge compound interest. I know I used to sort out debt management programmes for people.

In many cases, people either have to take on a 2nd job and that compromises your family life to pay off the debt.

However, in many cases the debt is paid off around September when the cycle starts again. However, there is the problem of the summer holiday between July-August.

So what can we do?

PLENTY.

Somewhere in your local community, there is a supermarket that does a Christmas savings club. Let me be very biased. Let’s take my local supermarket-the Co-op. You can buy £1 stamps at any time of year. However, if you fill a card with £48 of stamps and redeem it in December you get £50 of shopping. Interest rates are 1% at the moment so it works out at 4%.

There are Christmas savings clubs. For example, I am a member of one Christmas savings programme and I pay some £10 per week. I started around April. Around October I’ll get some £350 of vouchers and I have some £300 in savings stamps at my local supermarket. You could do this with a bank account however there is the temptation to withdraw your money.

Now my friends and family always laugh at me for doing this. However, consider the amount of interest I save myself. I always put some of my vouchers aside for the January sales and it’s so easy to get a bargain in January!

What you can do

Find out if your supermarket has a Christmas savings programme and get started on it. Go online and look for Christmas savings clubs-find one that suits you.

Mine runs from October to October. For some reason, I get my vouchers around Black Friday when there are loads of bargains to be bought. Last year I did all my Christmas present shopping on black Friday knowing it had been paid for.

Let’s all do this and put an end to the Christmas debt trap. Also get on multiple sources of income which I detail below.

(1.) Why the UK government needs to change the tax deadline

Why the UK government needs to change the tax deadline

Resources

Multiple sources of income-

Full Time Mother