Top 10 Ways to Save for Christmas

Kate McCaffery

Filed under: Budgeting & Planning, Debt, Family Finances, Shopping, Holidays

Stop for a minute and think hard about the post-holiday debt hangover you always hear about in January. Rather than sticking your head in the sand about it, or thinking that paying off those additional balances well into the new year is just something that needs to be done, start now and you may well avoid that fate altogether.

"Truth be told," says Jeffrey Schwartz, executive director of Consolidated Credit Counseling Services of Canada, a lot of the strategies people can use to get to the holiday finish line without going into hock, are actually quite simple. "They're easy things," he says. "A lot of them are common sense things that people forget about – they just need to be reminded."

The non-profit credit counseling service launched an online campaign in September to help with that effort. Dubbed 100 Days, 100 Ways to Save for Christmas, Schwartz says the tips compiled will hopefully help people stay grounded, without getting sucked up into the buying, shopping, and material side of the holiday.

The following is a list of his top 10, the best tips pulled from the list, to help you stay on track as well. (You can see the complete list by checking out Consolidated Credit's Twitter feed: @Debt_Free_2Day, #100Days100Ways.)