One in five plan Christmas splurge

03/11/2009

Despite the UK still being mired in recession, a fifth of people plan to spend big and enjoy Christmas.

According to research by Mintel, 20 per cent of people plan to push the boat out over the festive period, with retail sales set to grow by as much as two per cent.

However, there has been a two per cent rise in the number of people pledging to stick to a budget and minimise the risk of slipping into further debt, with 34 per cent saying they will tightly limit their spending this year.

Mintel claims that a rise in VAT on January 1st is likely to encourage many people to purchase big ticket items for Christmas.

Debt solutions firm EuroDebt points out that according to Nielsen and the British Retail Consortium (BRC), consumer confidence has reached an 18 month high, reflecting improving sentiment on job prospects and personal finance. Is this a false dawn?

It seems it is only the minority that plan to splash out and the statistics suggest that the majority are sticking to monthly budgets or have saved for special events like Christmas.

Many economists seem to be predicting worse to come and VAT increases in January will obviously have an impact on our spending power.

EuroDebt recommend that people budget carefully for events like Christmas and establish contingency funds for annual expenditure items like car servicing or the MOT.

Winter bills can come as a shock as well, especially as energy consumption goes up.

We see a number of people after Christmas that haven’t planned for the credit card bills and need debt advice, whether this means starting a Debt Management Plan'>Debt Management Plan, an IVA or simply knuckling down and negotiating repayment arrangements with you creditors.

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