The easiest way to stop Christmas overspending is to decide the total before you start shopping, then split it into categories. Here's a simple method that works for Australian households, plus the categories most people forget.
1. Pick one total for the whole season
Look at what you can genuinely afford from savings and the next pay packets, not on credit. Write that number down in Australian dollars (A$). Everything else comes out of it.
2. Split it into categories
Gifts are usually the biggest line, but they're rarely the only one. Typical categories for a Australian Christmas:
- Gifts
- Christmas lunch, BBQ and seafood
- Drinks
- Bon bons and the table
- Decorations and the tree
- Christmas cards and postage
- Wrapping paper and tags
- Kris Kringle / Secret Santa
- Outfits and swimwear
- Work and end-of-year parties
- Summer holiday travel
- Teacher gifts
- Boxing Day sales
3. Give every person on your list a budget
Make a gift list with a budget per person, then record what you actually spend. When one gift goes over, you'll see it straight away and can trim somewhere else, rather than finding out in January.
4. Track "bought" and "wrapped"
Two tick boxes per gift save a lot of last-minute panic: you'll know at a glance who's still missing a present.
5. Watch the costs people forget
- Seafood prices peak close to Christmas: order early.
- Teacher and end-of-year gifts.
- The summer holiday straight after Christmas.
- Postage: check Australia Post's Christmas delivery dates.
6. Check in weekly
Ten minutes a week in December to compare planned against actual is all it takes to finish on budget.
Plan it in minutes
Our Christmas Budget Planner Australia does all of this for you: one total budget, 13 Australian categories, a gift list with a budget per person, and totals that turn red when you go over. Works in Excel, Google Sheets and Numbers.