Parenting News: Budget-Conscious Families vow to Start Saving even Earlier this Year

31 January 2013

Some parents will start saving earlier for Christmas 2013

With the festive season now a distant memory; families are considering how they’ll manage their finances this year while trying to avoid the last minute panic that many were faced with last Christmas. 

New research from Asda Money has revealed that a fifth of parents had budgeting issues in the run up to Christmas and 27 per cent struggled to budget for other big occasions such as holidays and birthdays last years, as a result more than a third of parents are planning to start saving even earlier this year.

Next Christmas may feel like a long way off but it will come all too quickly, hopefully families will start saving earlier this year rather...

When it came to sticking to a budget, a third of parents spent way over during the last festive season to such an extent that 22 per cent of mums and dads were planning on putting money aside from January this year to make ends meet. 

This is even earlier than last year; a third of parents had started saving for Christmas in July according to Asda’s Mumdex panel. 

Kirsty Ward, Head of Asda Money, said: “We know that saving for big events such as Christmas and family holidays can be a stretch for many families and last year we found parents had to make serious cut backs to make ends meet during the festive season, with a third being forced to cut back on clothing for themselves and 14 per cent rationing fuel spend. 

“Next Christmas may feel like a long way off but it will come all too quickly, hopefully families will start saving earlier this year rather than scrimping and saving at the last minute.”  

Although for some families starting to save early just isn’t possible even with the best intentions, a third of parents are not planning on saving early this year and 11 per cent are not planning to save at all despite spending more than they planned. 

Amongst the parents starting to save now, the majority of clever savers are mums, with almost a third planning to put cash away in January.  

For those people looking to start saving early, Asda’s Christmas Savings Card is a quick and simple savings scheme that allows customers to put aside that little bit extra to help towards spending during the festive season.

Customers can save up to £144 on each card, for which Asda will pay a tiered bonus if the money remains on the card until the bonus day in November 2013.

This bumps the total savings figure up and will beat average interest rates as the maximum bonus works out at 5.21% of the initial amount saved.  It is possible to save money on more than one card and they are available all year round for customers to start saving as early as possible. 

Kirsty added: “For those customers who are feeling the pinch from the recent festive season and have vowed to start saving the pennies for next Christmas, this card couldn’t be simpler. 

“For those people that start saving now, saving just a pound a week will mean they qualify for the initial bonus and £3 a week will mean they reach the big bonus, last year we paid out more than £1 million in bonuses to our customers. 

"So for busy shoppers, simply popping their change onto their Christmas Savings Cards every time they shop could make all the difference in giving their families an extra special Christmas.”