For many families in Australia, Christmas is spent with Family, friends and handing out presents.
With everything like buying food, presents and entertainment, it can be very expensive for the average Australian.
How much do Australians spend on average during Christmas?
The average amount used across Australia for Christmas is around $593 per person.
So what can you do to reduce that? Here are some tips on how to do that.
1. Plan out Christmas presents in advance
An important aspect of saving money during the holidays is to plan ahead when buying presents for Christmas.
The best part about buying Christmas is that you can shop for them almost all year round, but the best time to buy is during the big holiday sales roughly around the end of November – the start of December.
If you do plan on starting early, make sure you keep a list of people you have to buy for/already bought for.
2. Secret Santa
One way to save on Christmas presents is to do Secret Santa. It makes it easier to shop for presents when you only have to buy for one person.
Doing Secret Santa, people often end up with a nicer gift that is useful and you end up spending a quarter of what you usually spend on presents.
3. Buy from overseas
Buying from overseas, especially from the US, can save you hundreds if you know what you are doing.
Australia Post has a service called Shopmate. You can now buy from places like Amazon US for almost half the price(even after converting price from $US to $AUD) and then have it shipped to Australia for a small fee(depending on the size of the parcel).
4. Compare prices
Shopping online makes it easier to compare prices and find better deals. Sometimes signing up to the newsletters can help you find the big deals and also give you vouchers that you could use for Christmas gifts.
