A London Newspaper today revealed, according to a report, that 50% of Londoners expect to use credit cards to pay for their grocery shopping this month.
The figure raises concerns about attitudes to personal debt as the amount Britons owe rose to a record £1.5billion last month. The trend for putting everyday purchases on plastic emerged in the Post Office’s third annual Consumer Credit Report. Nationally more than 12 million adults intend to buy daily essentials with credit cards this month up 8% on last year the survey showed. One in five thought it would take them over a year to pay off last years’ card debts.
Every year reports like this show us the extent to which our overspending, especially during the christmas season, is ruining us financially but still no positive changes are seen. I wonder why.
You see if we change nothing, nothing will change and if we want to get a different result, we have to do things differently.
If we must “splash out” during Christmas, we might as well begin saving for it now. Calculate how much you spent last Christmas and use that as a “yard-stick” budget total for Chistmas 2010. Divide that amount by 11 to get how much you need to save monthly between January and November. Yes November!! Can you rmemeber the last time you saved any money in December?
If you can do the above, you will not only have a debt-free Christmas but you will begin the following year not having to buy grocery with credit cards.
Do you know of any other ways to escape the yearly financial-madness, please comment below.
Save Early For Christmas 
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Niyi Adeoshun
Money Management Coach
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Its good to read something like this on your blog. We all feel we are in control of our spending hoping next year will be better. We need to be reminded daily about cutting back where necessary and saving for the unavoidable necessary events. Your book is a blessing as well, especially for those planning to get married in future so they can avoid the bad habits early enough.
Thank you Nike for the encouragement. I had a lot of negative comments when i began talking about Emergency Fund but the credit crunch came seemed to have brought the message home that “emergencies happen”
Thank you for reading my book – i appreciate that.
I indeed agree that January ends up being a tough month financially.
And this advice really should be taken seriously!