.webp?w=3840)
Christmas may be just less than 100 days away, so thinking about it now might feel like overkill - but that's exactly the point.
Spreading the cost of Christmas over the next 14 weeks instead of the final two, can help the silly season stop feeling quite so silly.
Here's how to use this stretch of the year to shop smarter, save harder and take the sting out of December.
Make the list, then do the maths
Write down everything you need to buy. Canstar’s research shows the average Australian spends $650 on presents at Christmas – and that's before you factor in food, drinks, decorations, travel and cards.
Set a budget for each category, then add it up. That total is what you actually need to save between now and Christmas Day – not just for presents, but for the whole event.
Put your savings on autopilot
Once you've recovered from the shock of the total, it's time to start saving.
If you're paid fortnightly, you've likely got around 7 more paydays before Christmas. So if your overall household budget is $2,000, that's roughly $286 to put aside each payday.
Don't leave it to chance. Set up a direct debit into a dedicated savings account so there's no “oops, I forgot to transfer it” moment come November.
Give that money a good home
You want somewhere safe, productive and accessible – so under the mattress is out.
However, if you have a mortgage:
- An offset account is hard to beat. Plenty of banks let you open more than one offset account, so you can label one CHRISTMAS MONEY – DON'T TOUCH and effectively earn your mortgage rate – currently around 6% – on it while it waits to be spent.
- No offset account? Ask whether you can park the money straight into your home loan and redraw it later. Just check for redraw fees first – they're not common, but they do exist.
No mortgage?
- A high-interest savings account is the go-to. Look for one with no strings attached (no minimum monthly deposit or withdrawal-count rules), and you should be able to find one paying 5% or more right now.
- An account with a honeymoon rate – a short-term introductory rate – can also be a great fit for this specific job, even though they're usually best avoided for everyday savings.
One account to steer clear of: Christmas club accounts. Some of the rates on offer are so low they'd give Ebenezer Scrooge a run for his money.
Highest introductory rate savings accounts on Canstar | |
|---|---|
Account | Rate |
Rabobank High Interest Savings Account | 5.90% for 4 months, then 4% |
Bankwest Easy Saver | 5.75% for 4 months, then 5% |
MyState Hello Saver | 5.40% for 4 months, then 5% |
Source: Canstar, at 16 September. Excludes young adult accounts.
Shop now, or hold out for Black Friday?
Buying during a big sales event could offer a genuine chance to buy presents at a discount without blowing the Christmas delivery deadline.
Last year, retailers started ramping up discounts back in October – which, this year, is only 15 days away. However, if you want to get ahead of the crowd, it doesn't hurt to ask in-store whether they'll bring their Black Friday price forward for you.
Upcoming key sales dates this year:
- Click Frenzy: Tuesday 27 – Friday 30 October
- Black Friday: From 27 November
- Cyber Monday: 30 November
You can also let technology do the price-tracking for you:
- Google Chrome: Bookmark items to your shopping list and turn on price-drop email alerts.
- PayPal's Honey or Zyft: Browser extensions that flag price drops on items in your 'droplist'.
- Camel Camel Camel: Tracks Amazon price history.
- Go old school: Screenshot the price so you have something to compare against later. Most phones let you search for text within saved images, so they're easy to find again.
Get ahead at the supermarket
With supermarket costs already stretched, there's still 14 more weeks – and 14 more rotations of half-price specials at Coles and Woolworths – to start stacking the pantry with non-perishables: nuts, crackers, napkins, soft drinks and the like.
Buying one or two extra items on special during your weekly shop spreads the food bill out, so the Christmas Eve run for seafood and cherries doesn't hurt quite as much.
You can also stockpile supermarket rewards points now and redeem them in lots of up to $400 in a single transaction closer to Christmas (though that does require around 80,000 points).
Just remember to cash them in – Woolworths says any unredeemed balance simply rolls over to next Christmas, although you can change your Rewards choice at any time.
Coles – Collect for Christmas | Woolworths – Bank for Christmas | |
|---|---|---|
What |
|
|
How | Opt in through the app or email invite by 27 September | Switch your points option to ‘Bank for Christmas’ in the app or online |
Myer also runs a Myer Christmas Club: deposit money into an account up until 18 October and you're paid out in Myer gift cards in November.
For every $100 you put in, you get an extra $10 gift card – effectively a 10% return, though it does lock you into shopping at Myer, or gifting Myer gift cards.
It's set up via direct debit, so read the fine print and remember to cancel it once you're done – otherwise you could end up locking away money for next Christmas far too early.
On a tight budget? Get creative
- Set boundaries: Consider Secret Santa. Suggest it to the family early: everyone buys one bigger, more meaningful gift for one person, with an agreed spend limit, instead of a pile of smaller, forgettable ones.
- Start crafting now: Handmade gifts often carry the most value, but they take time. Starting early means you're not pulling five back-to-back all-nighters with the hot glue gun in December.
- Buy essentials: Even an IOU counts – think car registration or a new pair of reading glasses. It's still a genuine gift, just with a lot less waste.
- Pause non-essential subscriptions for 90 days: Turn Spotify, Netflix, Kayo and Audible back on on 16 December, and you've freed up roughly $228 for the Christmas budget – or about 23 kilos of ham.
