Cure Your Christmas Hangover With Smart Budgeting Solutions

Cure your Christmas hangover with smart budgeting solutions

Just like a bad hangover, recovering from excessive spending during the festive season can be both painful and prolonged. Thankfully, the right budgeting tips and products can not only help you bounce back from your financial dilemma, but can also give you a head start for the next Christmas season.

Getting out of a financial slump isn't easy. Most of us can relate to going beyond our financial means during the Christmas period then feeling the crunch later on, or a credit debt that was looking manageable before the festivities but looks somewhat worse for wear in the New Year.

While there is no instant cure to a Christmas spending hangover, the following tips and products can not only help you get over your financial hurdles but also make them more manageable, helping you get back on track with your financial goals

Easy budgeting:

The first step to better money management is planning a budget. A simple way to do this is to add up your earnings each week and subtract fixed expenses such as rent, mortgage and credit card repayments, utilities and travel expenses. Next subtract variable expenses such as groceries, personal grooming and entertainment. Seeing where you spend your money on paper can help you cut back on the variable expenses equating into less debt and more savings.

Curb unnecessary spending:

Next time you are about to buy something, think about if you really need it, when you will use it and if you will like it as much tomorrow, next month or next year. In this day and age credit is a reality in many households, and if it is a credit card that you are shopping around for in the New Year, Heritage, Australia's largest building society can help you curb unnecessary spending with one of the lowest credit card rates on the market. Winner of Money Magazine's "Best of the Best" 2009 Cheapest Credit Card, Heritage's Visa Gold No Frills Credit Card offers members a 12 month introductory discounted rate of 8.75% for the first 12 months and also features no annual fees*.

Budget wisely for this year's festive season:

Pace yourself throughout the year by starting a Heritage Christmas Club account - a savings account that encourages you to save ahead for Christmas^. The Heritage Christmas Club account only stays open if you avoid making any withdrawals between January and November, encouraging you not to dip into your savings early. Planning for your financial goals can also make it easier to achieve them. For example if your goal is to save $2,000 to spend at Christmas, weekly deposits into your Christmas Club account of $40 can make this happen.

For more information, visit your local Heritage branch,
call 13 14 22 or access
www.heritageonline.com.au.

Heritage putting People first in many ways.

*Available on new Visa Gold No Frills cards only. After 12 months the interest rate reverts to the standard rate (10.75% as at 07/1/2010). Offer ends 28 February 2010. Subject to application and approval. Fees, charges and conditions apply. ^Please consider the Guide to Heritage Deposit Products (available in branch, by phoning 13 14 22 or at www.heritageonline.com.au) before you decide whether this product is right for you.

For more information please contact:
Klara Vida
Public Relations Officer
0428920266

For further Heritage information go to www.heritageonline.com.au

SOURCE: Heritage Building Society