Whether You’ve Taken Out Online Payday Loans in Canada, or Gone Overboard on Your Credit Card Spending this Festive Season, here are Our Top Tips on How to Pay Off Your Christmas Debt
It’s the most wonderful time of the year – and for the vast majority, it’s the most expensive too.
Given than Christmas is the well known season of overindulgence, it goes without saying that people are under pressure to eat more, drink more and above all, spend more too. This is the case, so much so, that a lot of people will turn to taking out online short term loans, and overspending on their credit cards over the festive season. Because of this, come January, they find themselves in a fair amount of debt, which they may struggle to pay off.
It doesn’t matter how you’ve overspent this festive season – all hope is not lost! We’re here to help you with our top tips on how to pay off the Christmas debt once next month begins.
Plan a Budget in Advance
If you’ve overdone it with online payday loans in Canada with Friendly Lender this yuletide, then the first step you’ll want to take in order to repay what you owe and get your finances back on track, is planning your budget in advance.
The best way of planning a budget, is by sitting down and figuring where you’re at financially at present. Figure out what your income is, your necessary outgoings are and where you can cut back. Likewise, you’ll want to factor in the money that you owe out in debt, in order to ensure you can afford to pay it back in time.
Of course, when it comes to outgoings, there are necessities. However, you’ll want to figure out what unnecessary outgoings you have at current. It might be that you’re still paying for a gym membership you don’t use, or you signed up to direct debit money to an organisation in the past that you no longer support. Assess all of these, figure out where you can save, and you’ll find yourself in a far better financial position because of it.
Plan Your Meals in Advance
A great way of saving on your meals, is by planning them in advance, BEFORE you do the food shop.
Remember that when you owe money, every little helps in paying off debt. Therefore you should be looking for areas you can save in. One of the biggest places we overspend is in the supermarket, so eliminate this by planning all of your meals in advance.
Say for example that you do your food shop on a Friday morning. Sit down on a Thursday afternoon or evening with the people you co-habit with, and plan your meals for the next week – including snacks.
Once you’ve done this, make a list of everything you need in order to make the meals you’ve planned. When planning, try going for meals you can make in bulk – like curries and chilli con carne. Not only is it lovely, warming Winter food, but if you have some left over it’s easy to freeze and have at a later date.
You’ll be surprised at how much you can save each week on your food shop by only buying the things you really need – and you’re likely to produce a lot less waste too. All of these costs can go towards paying the money off that you owe.
Be Resourceful
Last of all, try being more resourceful with your money.
Are you getting a bonus this Christmas, or perhaps getting a big tax return in the new year? It can be incredibly tempting to feel as if you’ve hit the jackpot, and to blow this cash on treats and gifts – particularly at this time of year. However, if you know you’ve already overdone it, save this money and use it to pay off your debts.
Likewise, do you have some old clothes, furniture or belongings in the cupboard that you’re likely to replace with new stuff this Christmas? Make space for it, and acquire some extra cash, by selling it on and saving the money.
The more resourceful you are with your cash, and the sooner you start, the easier it’ll be to pay off your debts in the new year. Start planning now, and you’ll have no reason to panic when January comes around.