MONEY FIX: HOW TO CREATE AND STICK TO A BUDGET

With Christmas come and gone, it's all easy to forget about the trauma of buying your loved ones so many presents, as well as prepping for the dinner- until you realise how much you have spent and realise how much you gone into your overdraft/credit card limit and spend the rest of the year paying it all back. I have been guilty of that in the past myself, and for the new year, why not break the vicious money cycle and become more organised and realistic with how much you can afford to spend- you can save a lot of headache later on.

1) Create a savings account, especially for Christmas and Special Occasions
Start up a standing order to come out of your income every week/fortnight/month and by the end of the year you have a nice mountain of money to spend and NOT feel guilty. For example, I try to save £20 a month, and by November I have a decent amount to spend.

2) Create a budget, a realistic one
If there's any time to start streamlining your finances, now would be a good start. Take a look at say, 3 months worth of bank/credit card statements and see where you can make the necessary cutbacks. All those "little treats" you've been having do add up in costs, so if you can, make that treat once a month, or once a week at most.

3) List the names of people who you are buying for and how much money you would spend
This way, you are only buying for those people, and no one else, and you maintain your focus to stay on budget,

4) Buy 3 meaningful gifts for each loved ones and then no more.
You don't need to buy loads of presents- you really don't. One Christmas I spent about £500 on my family members and I don't think they really used all the gifts I got, and I just made myself more broke for no good reason! Just by getting the things they need as opposed to buying in bulk would be better appreciated. If you do have to buy in bulk, at least do it the smart way and buy these things on sale as opposed to buying at the full retail price.

I hope you do find these tips helpful!

Lots of Love,

Ify Katherine