Jasmine Birtles
Your money-making expert. Financial journalist, TV and radio personality.
MoneyMagpie Research Reveals How Much Parents Spend at Christmas
Annie
22nd Nov 2024
How do you afford Christmas? MoneyMagpie conducted a survey with Opinion Exchange to find out!
We recently conducted a survey of 2000 respondents about their Christmas spending habits, and it was revealed that 37% of parents rely on credit cards to afford the festive season’s gifts, food, and activities. Having children significantly adds to the cost of Christmas too: almost 40% of parents spend over £500, while a huge 81% of childfree people spend only up to £300 – with 17% spending under £100.
Spending trends revealed that parents are more likely use credit cards but also that they’re more likely to take longer to pay them off, too. A large chunk of childfree people (73%) didn’t use credit to pay for the season, while of those that did 63% paid them off immediately, compared to 37% of parents – meaning they start the new year with debt that can take months to pay off.
Vicky Parry, MoneyMagpie’s Editor and financial expert, said: “It’s not surprising that parents spend more at Christmas, but relying on credit to pay for the festivities can set families on the back foot for the new year. At MoneyMagpie, we always advocate spending within your means where possible – and while that might seem tough for cash-strapped families, we have lots of tips to earn extra cash and make significant savings too.
“We encourage families concerned about the cost of Christmas to set boundaries to make it more affordable. This might be agreeing a spend limit with family and friends, or forgoing gifts for the adults altogether. There are also plenty of ways to snap up grocery bargains at this time of year, so some savvy weekly shopping can help save more cash in time for Christmas.”
There are loads of things you can do to make sure you’re not relying on credit to fund Christmas – even though it’s now less than a month away!
- Give up one takeaway a week for the next three weeks and you’ll save around £150
- Cut back on your daily spending just for a few weeks – avoiding your takeaway coffee treats could save you £50 if you usually get one a few times a week.
- Pause your subscriptions: streaming, music, magazines, audiobooks and ebooks all add up. Pausing any you have to avoid the next payment going out for December could save you upwards of £50 in just a few weeks.
If you must use your credit card over Christmas, try to limit your spending and repay in full by your December statement that arrives in January. If you’re not going to be able to repay in full, look into opening a balance transfer credit card with an introductory offer. This will give you some breathing space, especially if you find one with a 0% transfer fee and 0% interest on balance transfer offers (Natwest is currently one of the best for this). Transfer your Christmas spending from your usual credit card to the balance transfer one before your next statement to clear the debt across. Then make repayments as usual – but at least you won’t be paying interest. (Don’t make purchases on a balance transfer card – the interest rate is very high. Use it only for transferring your existing credit card debt).
Rather than having a full takeaway, we have a half one! We buy the fish from the supermarket and get the chips from the chippy which saves about two thirds of what the takeaway would have cost!