Christmas is over and done with for another year and the tree has been taken down in the Bloomfield Household. It was a lovely Christmas seeing the children open their presents and get excited at all the lovely new toys they had received.
The shopping was predominantly done by me this year and to be honest, I could not tell you the exact figure of how much we spent on the kids, each other, family members, even though we did agree on a budget. Then you have to take into consideration the extra food we bought as well as extra Christmas decorations, gift wrap etc the list could go on! The fact that I didn’t know what I had spent scares me a little and this left me with one question,
What is/was the average amount spent for Christmas 2019?
I sat at the computer for a good half an hour asking Google this question and came up with some interesting statistics.
- According to the Deloitte Christmas Survey 2019, the estimated spend would be £567. This was an increase of £7 from last year. (This took into consideration gifts, food, socialising and travelling) I knew deep down that I had spent more than this!
- Politicshome.com stated that us Brits would spend on average £727 on Christmas festivities, which equated to on average two weeks’ pay!
- In an article published on the 7 December by the Independent one line grabbed my attention with the opening of ‘our debt hangover will last well into next summer. If we’re lucky.’
How Crazy!?!?
Was this true that repaying Christmas 2019 would take us until the middle of August 2020!
We see New Year as a fresh start although can this be true when we are still paying for Christmas 8 months later. The Independent article then goes on to state that only paying the minimum payments on credit cards will add further debt of £620 with the average credit card interest, however, this could be as high as £1,403 if you have the highest rate credit card on the market.
If you are interested in how long it will take you to repay credit card debt here is a link to The Money Advice Service where you can calculate how long it will take you to repay your credit card debt if you are only making minimum payments.
https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/tools/credit-card-calculator
I suppose what I am trying to say is when was the last time you reviewed your finances? Why not pop down for a cuppa with me to see if we can help.