((tap the heading to open the post)). Christmas is an expensive time for most of us and is particularly hard for those on a low income.
If a monthly budget doesn’t have spare money, any extra expenditure can cause people to accrue debt. We often find that Christmas is a time when catalogue and credit card debts mount up.
When we do Money Coaching with clients, we suggest that they estimate how much they spend on Christmas each year and then divide that amount by 12. This amount can then be put aside each month, so that when Christmas comes, the money is there in a separate account, and does not have to be found out of December’s budget.
Even if clients have managed to do this, Christmas is still an expensive and often worrying time.
We try to support those that we work with by delivering Christmas hampers to each debt client and sending a Tesco voucher to other service users that we have worked with over the past year.
Laura Knight
Manager, Suffolk Coastal Poverty Action
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