Festive Fun Ideas for Christmas Holidays

by on December 9th, 2011

Stuck for activities that won’t break the bank this Christmas? I’ve put together some tips to help you find the best free and affordable events to keep you entertained this December.

Christmas is expensive enough with all the gift buying (read our Christmas Shopping tips here), but when you factor in activities and entertainment over the festive season; the costs just keep getting higher and higher. However, if you plan ahead and keep an eye out for special events, you could save yourself a lot of time and money! Here are my tips for seeking out the activities to suit your budget.

Start with your local council website

Your local council website should serve as a resource of useful information – including Christmas events. You will find links to local libraries and art galleries and be able to see what events they’re hosting over the Christmas period. If you’re not sure of the web address for your local council, you can do a search via this link on the direct.gov.uk website.

Shopping Centres aren’t all about shopping

The thought of visiting a shopping centre in the run up to Christmas might fill you with dread, but if you can find yourself a parking space and battle through all the shoppers you might find that there’s some free fun to be had! For example, local to me, Manchester’s Trafford Centre has some great free craft workshops on.
The best way to find out about any upcoming events is to sign up to the shopping centre’s email list or connect with them using social media by liking them on Facebook or following them on Twitter. This way you’ll be the first to know what’s happening and when.

Sign up for meal-deals direct to your inbox

As well as keeping your children entertained, you might also need to think about entertaining friends or family who have come to visit during the festive period. A great way to save on eating out is to sign up to discount websites such as Livingsocial and Groupon. These websites are free to join up to and will send you regular emails with restaurants offers so that your meals out don’t cost the earth.

You do need to be cautious though. Before buying a meal deal, check when the offer is valid from and which days of the week you can use it as most have restrictions on dates and times. It’s also worth checking the prices for any extra drinks or side orders as these can often make you meal suddenly seem not so reasonable.
Jacqueline Cohen, Marketing Manager at ClearDebt is a big fan of these sites, she explains,

After having a baby three years ago, we really cut back in my household and the need for nappies, childcare and more food in the house, far outweighed the opportunity to go out for dinner. With sites like Groupon, Living Social, Frugaloo and KGB, we now go out for dinner quite often – all for £25 or less – for the two of us! These sites are also great for Christmas and Birthday gifts so when the moneybox is running a little low in January, these sites will certainly lend a helping hand.

Plan a perfect night in

Celebrating the festive season doesn’t have to mean going out all the time. Personally when the winter weather kicks in I much prefer an evening in all snug and warm. This time of year there are always plenty of films to watch on TV, so pick one that you like and start planning a “movie night” around it. If movies on your TV at home just don’t compare to the cinema, there’s plenty of other fun you can have at home. Why not dig out your old board games and get some healthy competition going? Or if you’re more into video games set up a tournament between your friends.

What are your plans for the Christmas break?

We’d love to know how you’ll be spending the Christmas break, so tell us your plans and feel free to share any affordable events and activities you’ve come across.

Posted in Managing Your Money | 2 Comments »

Pay Day loans. A trap for the unwary – or an answer to big bank charges?

by on December 7th, 2011

There is lots of coverage around today about just how horrid payday loans are.

They can be. But it’s not the whole story. They can also be a useful tool for overcoming the horrendous costs associated with bank current account un-arranged overdraft fees and charges. Providing you stay in control.

The BBC published this story, which I thought was suprisingly partial. I added a comment, (it’s not published it yet) and thought I would share it here too:

This story is, I think, a little simplistic.

Payday loans and high cost credit does contribute to unmanageable debt. But there are a number of important “buts”.

First, payday loans and other sources of high cost credit are often the only sources of credit available to people at the bottom of the financial heap. Mainstream banks won’t lend to them at mainstream rates. It’s not uncommon for 30% of the loans in these categories to fail – so it’s not surprising the interest rates are high. Organisations like Joseph Rowntree Foundation have done research that shows non-commercial organisations (like credit unions) would not be able to charge less.

Then, the Radio 4 “Today” report on this spoke to a person who’d got into trouble with payday loans. Why? because she could get ONLY payday loans because she had a bad credit history: I wonder whether Tim Harford would perceive a causal relationship in this?

The R3 research, I think, overlooks something rather obvious: That a payday loan, despite the outrageous interest rates, can be far, far cheaper than an un-arranged overdraft from a bank. If one avoids the other, then that can be a huge benefit to budgeting.

Of course if you are one of the relatively few who “shop until you drop” payday lending can feed the habit and make it horrendously expensive. And, if you are a zombie debtor, who is unable to deal with more than interest payments, then payday loans are a form of life-support you don’t need: You should be dealing with your debt instead.

Tags: payday loan, payday loans
Posted in Personal Debt | 2 Comments »

ClearDebt Christmas Giveaway – £600 Prize Draw

by on November 30th, 2011

We’re helping to lighten the load this Christmas by giving away £600 in our “12 days of Christmas” promotion.

ClearDebt's 12 days of Christmas Giveaway

As the cold, dark evenings begin to set in and the stores sprinkle their aisles with festive décor, it’s only natural that those watching the purse strings begin to twitch with worry about how much the next month is going to cost us.

The gift list can easily spiral out of control no matter how hard you try to cut back, and of course, there’s still Christmas Dinner to think of….and Boxing Day…and New Year’s Eve.

We know how hard it can be at this time of year and so, we have decided to lighten the load a little and try and help out with the costs during this festive time.

This December, we’re giving you, our clients the chance to win £50 a day for the first 12 working days of Christmas. Six IVA and six Debt Management Plan clients will be selected at random to receive a £50 gift voucher for any store of their choice making a total giveaway sum of £600!

This money can help buy the food for Christmas Day, presents for the family or even be used to treat yourself – relieving a great strain on anyone’s shoulders at this time of year.

Look out for counter updates on the ClearDebt homepage showing how much we’ve given away as the total rises between the 1-16 December.

In the meantime, we wish you all a Happy Holidays and a healthy New Year!

Posted in Inside ClearDebt | 1 Comment »

Q3 2011 insolvency figures – Is bankruptcy still an easy option?

by on November 4th, 2011

The latest personal insolvency figures for England and Wales, released today, 4 November 2011, show that around a third of bankrupts are now being forced to make sizeable payments towards their debts every month, for up to three years.

Bankruptcy – harsher for longer?

Earlier in the year we commented on the stealthy rise in the number of bankrupts that are being required to make payments under an Income Payments Order or Agreement (IPO/IPA).

Well, the rise is not so stealthy now. In the last three months, the proportion of bankrupts with an IPO or IPA has shot up from 19% to 33%.

Back in 2001, and for several years following, only one in ten bankrupts had to find a contribution for their creditors every month – now it’s a third; It may well be that the government has decided bankruptcy should be a less attractive option, and that efforts have to be made to ensure a better return for creditors.

Income Payment Orders and Bankruptcies

Creditors becoming more aggressive?

The proportion of bankruptcies that are started by creditors has shot up too, by 13% in the last quarter. So, more bankrupts are finding themselves pushed into the procedure, rather than choosing it as the best way to resolve their debts. Colleagues I’ve talked to have advanced a number of reasons why:

It could be that the rise in self-employed debtors is partly to blame (about one in five bankrupts are sole traders), but as this has been a slow rise, it can’t tell the full story.

Colleagues feel they’ve seen more petitions started by HMRC (which would indicate self-employed debtors) and by local councils seeking Council Tax arrears – that could be anybody’s problem.

Others think that creditors are seeing bankruptcy as a productive solution to recovering their debt, especially if the debtor has a house with substantial equity (rare these days, but it does happen).

Whatever the reason, it’s increasingly likely that for a small minority of debtors, if you fail to repay what you owe, you could find a creditor’s threat to make you bankrupt becomes reality.

Bankruptcy has always been the toughest debt solution. But some have seen it as a way of walking away from their debts and putting it all behind them. For many, that is no longer true.

Posted in Bankruptcy | 2 Comments »

Christmas shopping on a budget and your chance to win £100 in vouchers

by on October 31st, 2011

It’s difficult not to get sucked into the commercial element of Christmas; the shops transform into winter wonderlands and seemingly ordinary items that you wouldn’t consider buying suddenly have an appeal thanks to the Christmas packaging. Here are some of our tips to help you enjoy the holiday season without hurting the bank balance.


Saving up for Christmas

At the start of January I blogged about a campaign the Office of Fair Trading launched to encourage people to save up for Christmas all throughout the year. I’m not sure how successful the campaign was, but I think we can all agree that saving is a great idea and if you didn’t manage to save this year then you might want to consider it for Christmas/New Year 2012/2013.

Okay, so it’s October now and if you haven’t managed to save up a sizeable amount of Christmas funds, then you can still be smart about your Christmas shopping with a little bit of planning and research.

Research your Christmas gift list online first

Online shopping can be a great way to make savings.  Lots of online stores can afford to sell items cheaper than on the high street because their overheads are lower. Having said that, there are still many of you who prefer to buy in person but that doesn’t mean online shopping sites can’t help you! Most high street stores have websites so you can compare the prices from one store to another and remember – price comparison websites aren’t just about insurance, some of them can also compare electrical items and other gifts.

Quick tip: type the name of the product you want to buy into Google and view “shopping results”.

Example: I typed in “Moshi Monsters Toy” and I was shown the following:

Make a shopping list

This might sound like an obvious tip but after you’ve done your research online you should then make a list of all the items you want to buy and where has the best price. Christmas is one of those times of the year when it’s easy to let your spending get out of control because you’re buying gifts for lots of different people and it can be hard to keep track of where you’re up to. Having a list will help you keep your focus and steer you in the right direction. In theory, a list should also stop you from buying things that you don’t need.

Look out for special offers and deals

Retailers are all competing to get you to spend in their stores and sometimes you can use this to your advantage. However not all “special offers” are great value. As I’ve mentioned above, make a list and stick to it but if you have something on your list which is available from a number of different retailers, then it’s worth looking out for “free gift” offers or bundles. Many of the big name make-up counter brands offer free gifts if you buy two items so if you’re stocking up on your favourite lipstick you could pick up a beauty gift absolutely free.

Another trend I’ve seen recently is video game bundles. I recently ordered a copy of the latest Batman video game and I managed to find a package that included the video game plus two DVDs of the recent Batman films – all for the same price as some other retailers were selling the game alone for!

Is a gift set better value for money?

This tip relates to the research element. A festively-packaged gift set can be very alluring and sometimes they can be great value for money. If you’re looking at a perfume gift set, check the price of the perfume on its own to make sure you’re not being ripped off. It’s also worth remembering that festive gift sets are often the first thing to be reduced in the sales. So if you don’t mind waiting until after Christmas Day, you could save even more.

Christmas and IVAs: Can I take a payment break in my IVA for Christmas?

Unfortunately for people in IVAs it is not usually permitted to grant payment breaks for Christmas. This is because by the terms of the IVA you cannot miss more than two payments without putting yourself in breach of the terms.  If you were to take a payment break each Christmas in your IVA this would total five months. Additionally if you were granted a payment break then you could be forced to increase your payments to make up any arrears, which in the longterm doesn’t seem quite worth it.  Remember, although you may like a payment break over Christmas, there may be a time in the future duration of your IVA where you need it more.

Share your Christmas Shopping Tips and win £100 vouchers

Do you have any Christmas shopping tips to share? Leave a comment below and we’ll be picking one lucky commenter to win an £100 shopping voucher to add to their Christmas shopping funds!

Update – A big thank you to all who left their Christmas shopping tips. We have chosen a winner at random and they have been notified.

Posted in Managing Your Money | 19 Comments »

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