by Michelle Wilkinson

Created on: December 02, 2009

It is easy to go overboard at Christmas time when you're bombarded with advertisements showing you what the perfect Christmas is supposed to look like. In these ads there is always a happy family sitting around a dinner table with a massive turkey in front of them, while in the background there is always a Christmas tree with loads of presents underneath. This is the kind of Christmas you end up wanting to re-create, never mind the fact that most of your relatives don't even get along. Christmas is a time to put your differences aside, and you often end up spending more money than you'd planned to just because you want to make other people happy.

You therefore need to face up to the fact that spending huge sums of money won't necessarily make your gifts any more appreciated. It is all well and good buying expensive presents for a friend or relative you've neglected, but this hardly makes up for the fact you've been ignoring them for the rest of the year. Thus, it may be worth writing a list of all the people who you intend to buy a gift for and allocating a suitable amount to spend on each person, so that you have some idea of how much money you are going to spend altogether.

When it comes to buying gifts you might be better off asking your friends and relatives for suggestions, but if you'd prefer your gifts to remain a surprise you should try to avoid the trap of buying lots of tiny, little gifts, as all these little bits and bobs can soon add up without you even realising it. If you really want to buy a range of goodies it is possible to buy toiletry sets that are already made up so you don't have to create your own assortment of gifts. If not, you should try to stick with gifts that are appropriate to the person in question.

As well as gifts you should keep an eye on the amount of money you spend on Christmas food and drink because you usually find yourself buying much more than you actually need and thus wasting quite a substantial amount of money. Christmas cards, wrapping paper and decorations are other costs which are generally incurred during the festive season, and it may be worth buying these after Christmas, when they are at a reduced price, and using them next Christmas.

Cutting costs doesn't have to be too difficult, even at Christmas, but it does require you to formulate a budget - to work out how much money you have available to spend and deciding what is worth spending money on and what is not - so that you can stay on top of your finances.

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