by Serina Bird
Since early September, stores have started to stock up their Christmas wares to remind us that the festive season will be here soon – just in case you may have forgotten. It’s less than 12 weeks until the big-spending splurge known as Christmas.
It is important to start saving early for Christmas. Even October early. That’s because even with the best of intentions, most of us (even frugalistas like me), end up spending much more than we plan to. It’s a giddy retail time, and even for those who don’t like the shops, with so many end of year parties, work functions and gifts for family, it is easy to go through cash.
A survey by comparison website finder.com.au found that although 2018 was a conservative year for retail, total spending was forecast to hit $25 billion. On average, each Australian would spend $1,325.
Further, 40 per cent of the total Christmas spend in 2017 was on credit cards, according to Money Smart. That’s fine if (like me) you are savvy with your money and good at earning points without racking up a large credit card bill. But if you’re paying now and praying to be able to pay it later, you’re in for a shock in February.
The best thing you can do is to start to squirrel away money now. Summerland has a handy Holiday Bonus Saver Account, which you can use to park additional cash for Christmas.
So how to get more cash? My favourite tried, and true technique is to reduce the amount I spend on groceries.
In September 2016, I stood in front of my fridge, opened my freezer, my pantry and other cupboards where I had food stored. I realised I had a lot of food. I decided to limit myself to a budget of only $50 a week for a little bit to use it up. I kept going on with that challenge for a few weeks, and then at the end of the month, was surprised to find that I still had quite a lot.
Then I had a lightbulb moment: if I kept up the $50 a week challenge until Christmas, I would save $100 a week (compared with the average grocery spend for a family my size). That meant I could save around the same amount that most people spend at Christmas just from reducing my grocery spend.
I followed a $50 a week budget for a year. Then I stopped in 2017 when I started dating my (now) husband, in part because he started coming over with groceries. I was not going to say no to a man who voluntarily did the grocery shopping. Since April, we are back on the $50 challenge again. This time it is harder as there are four of us. But it is not impossible; we’ve been doing it for five months and we’re still going strong.
And there are big financial rewards for limiting your grocery spend. As the average grocery bill for a family consisting of two adults and two children is $336 per week, we save around $286 a week just by shopping smarter and eating at home. Hubby and I are about to go on a short cruise to celebrate our first wedding anniversary; all paid for courtesy of our reduced grocery spend.
Before I share some of my tips for reducing my grocery spend, let me say that I was not starving (nor was my family). If anything a bit of calorie reduction would probably do my BMI a bit of good. Rather, I find we needn’t buy so much because we don’t need all that food in the first place. Did you know that one in five bags of shopping is wasted? For the average household in New South Wales, this amounts to $1,036 of food that is thrown in the bin each year. Instead save your money by buying what you need.
How do we survive on $50 a week?
- We try to use up what we already have, which includes using leftovers in creative ways;
- I menu plan each week;
- We have a shopping list in the kitchen – we write down what we need and then take the list with us when we go shopping;
- We grow herbs on our small apartment balcony, and receive with gratitude gifts of homegrown fruit and vegetables from friends and family;
- My in-laws give us eggs from their chooks;
- We reduce the amount of meat we eat and buy cheaper cuts;
- We stock up on things we need when they are on special;
- We have a cash kitty that we use for grocery purchases;
- We make washing powder, wool mix and dishwashing powder;
- I mix up a bread mix and bake fresh bread (in the bread maker) for school lunches;
- I bake a batch of muffins, biscuits or other treats each week for school lunch boxes;
- We take leftovers to work for lunch;
- We drink tea rather than coffee (and share a tea bag where possible, or even better, use leaf tea);
- We reduce our consumption of processed food and limit impulse buys of sugary treats (guilty secret: we sneak in chocolate and ice-cream occasionally);
- We try to avoid using the supermarket trolley for smaller purchases;
- We only drink alcohol on weekends or when out to dinner with friends as a treat; and
- We rejoice in home-cooked meals and have a spirit of gratitude.
I love cooking, and so I see living within a reduced food budget as a challenge and a way to express gratitude for what we have. But I understand it might not be as easy for everyone, especially if you have never done it before. Start slowly. Even if you only reduce $50 (or even $25) a week from your grocery shop, then that is money you can use to save to avoid a Christmas blow out.
Serina Bird is a single mother of two children, now remarried, who writes about saving money and living abundantly in her book The Joyful Frugalista: hundreds of secrets from a single mum turned millionaire.
