(03) 9020 2905Christmas is all about overeating, overdrinking, oversleeping, overspending and … ham-off-the-bone-and-gruyere buttered toasted sandwiches made with banged-together leftovers and a hangover on Boxing Day. Sure, the price tag reads 657,000 calories. Don’t care. Put me down for two!
Budgeting? I budget all year, saving up points, scrimping here and there, pushing back haircuts, eating salads and saying no to pizza (okay, that last one’s a lie) exactly so I can blow all the points, all the weight loss, all the money and all the rules at Christmas.
My biggest problem with “Christmas”? My first Christmas party this year was November 17. From then on, it’s about three catchups/parties a week. That’s a lot of fatty finger food, taxi fares, babysitters and, of course, a swag of hangovers.
So some sort of budgeting is (grrrr!) required. Dammit.
The best way of doing it, of course, is to have budgeted all year for Christmas. But, given it’s now December … the message is fairly simple.
Be sensible. How much more junk do the kids need? Does your partner really expect gold or an expensive new gadget for Christmas? Do you need a 57kg smoked and honeyed slab of ham?
Half of us will end up overspending on Christmas and paying it back until March. Only you can really control the spending this Christmas.
And stuff the calories, have the Boxing Day toasted sandwich. It’s awesome.
Bruce Brammall is the author of Debt Man Walking (www.debtman.com.au) and principal adviser with Castellan Financial Consulting.