Birthdays, Christmas and the pressure to spend, spend, spend

One of daughter’s kindly told me this morning, whilst I was drinking my first coffee of the day, that there are 21 weeks until Christmas. Yikes! Queue all round panic. Every year I say I’m going to start saving for the following Christmas as soon as one is done, yet somehow it never happens {mainly because my budget is so tight}.

It’s easy to get to October time and panic about the impending expense that Christmas has become. I’m determined this year to really reign it in. Last year I didn’t go all out, the kids had the things they asked for, but whereas in the past I’ve gone crazy on buying extra things I see tahat I know they’ll love {which really mounts up the ££££}, last year I didn’t do that. I’m planning on doing the same again – buy the main presents that they have asked for, a few things for their stockings and that is enough – they all end up with a mountain of gifts from freinds and family as well and it easily gets out of hand.

Interestingly, https://swiftmoney.com/ have been looking at trends of spending around calendar holidays, and they found that 52% of women ‘Always’ or ‘Occasionally’ save money for gifts, whereas 63% of men will ‘Rarely’ or ‘Never’ save.

Whilst I’m not very organised at saving money for calendar events, one thing that I do is to buy gifts as Isee them. I’ll often pick items up if I see them on offer or sale, if I know that they’ll make a great birthday or Christmas gift. It really helps to spread the cost of these events, but also saves some of that last minute panic of trying to find the perfect gift.

In our family, we only buy for the kids not adults to help keep costs down, I think sometimes we feel pressurised to buy more than we would like to for Christmases and birthdays – it’s that element of ‘keeping up with the Jones’ – and 68% of people agreed with this! The only exception to this rule is Mothers and Fathers Day! Mothers Day I, like 40% of people, usually opt for flowers or a plant!

What about you? Do you feel the pressure to spend more than you would like? DO you save to spread the cost, or panic buy at the last minute?