Christmas is a time for making great memories with your friends and family but, unfortunately, it’s also a time for spending a lot of money. There are so many things you need to buy like presents and food and if you aren’t careful, you could end up landing yourself in a sticky financial situation if you overspend. The key to keeping the Christmas budget down is preparation. If you start early and make sure that you plan ahead for those expenses, you can pay for them without too much trouble. But there are so many things to buy that you’ll inevitably forget some. These are the Christmas expenses that you probably didn’t plan for.
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Hosting Guests
Hopefully, your guests have given you some notice and they’re not going to just turn up on your doorstep unannounced. But that doesn’t mean you’ve considered the financial implications of having guests over for Christmas. There are all sorts of things you need to do to prepare your home. If the spare room is a bit of state then you might need to decorate it which is going to cost you. Even if the spare room doesn’t need decorating, you still need to provide extra food for them and your utility bills will be higher if you’ve got extra people in the house. It’s important to start setting the house up for guests ahead of time so you don’t end up spending loads of money last minute.
Christmas Lights
Most people that put Christmas lights up massively underestimate the cost of it. It’s a great way to bring some Christmas cheer to your neighbors but you’re going to have to spend a lot of money on it. There’s the cost of the lights themselves and if you’re putting them all over the outside of the house, you might have to pay for Christmas light installation. It’s dangerous to get up there on a ladder on your own and start messing around with the electrics so it’s best left to the experts. Once the lights are up, you’ve also got to consider the cost of the electricity bill which is probably going to be pretty substantial if you’ve got a lot of lights up.
Batteries
Batteries are probably the most forgotten Christmas item in the entire world. Toys never come with batteries and the kids are going to be disappointed if they can’t play with their new toys. That means you’re going to need to stock up on a load of batteries and that’ll cost you more than you think.
Extra Food
For some reason, everybody seems to have an endless appetite on Christmas day. No doubt you’ve planned out what you’re going to make for the Christmas dinner but that’s only the start. People are going to want cheese and biscuits and chocolates to snack on for the rest of the night. If you get all of those little extras last minute, the cost will really add up.
Make sure that you plan ahead for these Christmas expenses so you can afford everything easily.