3 not-so-festive financial challenges

What does festive planning look like in your organisation? Are you winding down projects and arranging Christmas parties? Or ramping up activities for the busiest time of the year?

Amid the festive fun and chaos, we want to highlight some of the financial pressures that can make this season stressful and overwhelming for many employees, and share resources that may help to ease the burden.

Cutting back on essentials

Last Christmas, Fair4All Finance found that 56% of financially vulnerable adults would be cutting back on essentials to have enough money for Christmas. Balancing the joy of the season with practical financial priorities often means making tough sacrifices, such as turning off the heating, skipping meals or missing bill payments, to buy gifts and host gatherings.

• Help for Households, on Government website, shares lots of tips for reducing energy use over winter

• Citizens Advice shares grants and benefits to help people pay their energy bills

• The Money Helper bill prioritiser will help people to prioritise bills if they are struggling to cover them all in the coming months

Increased borrowing

In 2023, the Money and Pensions Service found that about a quarter of people relied on borrowing to cover the cost of Christmas. Many turned to credit cards, buy-now-pay-later schemes, overdrafts, or even loans from friends and family.

• Debt advice is available through StepChange, for free, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

• When informal borrowing goes wrong, people can report a loan shark, or seek help if they are a victim of one, via Stop Loan Sharks charity

• Money Helper has this debt prioritiser for people dealing with multiple debts

Overspending online

New research from Experian and Reward this month, found that online spending is set to exceed £1.1billion this Christmas. We all know how easy it is to succumb to the convenience, targeted advertising and instant gratification of e-commerce.

• Which? provides an online shopping guide that covers tips for better prices and avoiding scams

• Citizens Advice summarises consumer rights for a list of purchases we make online

And here are three quick tips from our Co-Founder, Stacey, to reduce shopping online:

• make a good old shopping list, on paper, for Christmas gifts. If it's not on your list, take 24 hours to consider your decision

• go for a walk or take four deep breaths before clicking to purchase

• find an accountability buddy to check-in with before buying online