While it may only be October, Christmas is about 10 weeks away , and with Christmas comes Christmas expenses.

To get ahead of the panic buying and overall stress of spending, ‘Mrs Money Smart’ Kel Galavan joined Lunchtime Live to give some saving advice.

“I am a big fan of sitting down before everything kicks off and do a one-hour Christmas audit,” she told Lunchtime Live.

“So, that’s literally grab a coffee, grab a pen, grab a notepad and sit down for about 60 minutes and list out all the things you think you need to buy.

“Maybe wrapping paper, decorations, whatever, but I want you to see, do you actually need to go ahead and buy them?”

Ms Galavan said it is also useful to list out the things you don’t need, particularly things that weren’t used last year.

Woman sitting at home on Christmas, Alamy.

“You probably may not need a new Christmas jumper if you’ve a load already, or if you’ve already stocking fillers from last year,” she said.

“Or even there’s a lot of food that comes onto our shelves this time of year that we don’t need.

“Most of us don’t need, or probably won’t even fully enjoy a vacuum-packed lobster - we don’t tend to want those things and they often go to waste.”

Alternatives to gifts

According to Ms Galavan, if the cost of gifts is getting too much, it might be worth looking at alternatives.

“Think of things that you could give somebody; an experience or a gift-free get-together,” she said.

“So, that could be, instead of buying gifts for all your siblings, say, ‘Look, can we just go to lunch?’

“Lunch is usually less busy, people may have more time to do it, and it’s less expensive than an evening.”

Ms Galavan said if people try to cut back on unnecessary subscriptions that they aren’t using, it could help to save money to be used instead for the big day.

Main image: Man with many bills or invoices and no money. Debt. Alamy 2024