I was shocked to see the entrance of Debenhams chock-a-block with Christmas decorations last week. Christmas decorations!? It’s only October for crying out loud.

Then I realised that there’s actually only two more pay cheques until Christmas, so it actually is time to start thinking about this again. I know. Already.

Here are a few thoughts about keeping the cost of Christmas down with a bit of planning and organisation.

• If you are going away for Christmas and need to book car hire, flights or accommodation, start looking around for early-bird deals now. The longer you leave it the more expensive it will get, so book now and you might bag yourself a bargain.

• Put a little bit of your paycheque aside each week / fortnight / month as a little reserve cash for the festive period. If there is any time of year where little extra expenses creep in and really add up, it’s Christmas. Having a little bit extra put away will help you avoid digging into savings or hitting up the credit card.  Even if you only start now, every little bit will help.

• If you haven’t been putting money aside for gifts and expenses throughout the year and will be relying on credit cards to fund the holidays, make sure you take advantage of a card that offers 0% interest for new purchases for a set period. That way you will have a few months after Christmas to pay off the damage without being hit by huge interest charges.

• Whenever you are in the supermarket between now and December, spend an extra few quid stocking up on any good deals on alcohol, sweets, preserves, etc, because that last trip to the shops on Christmas Eve is always shockingly expensive, so you will save yourself a bit of cash if you look out for good deals now.

• Keep a look out for good prices on frozen turkeys. In the few weeks before christmas the price of turkey can make your eyes bleed; so if you’ve got room in the deep freeze, grab one now to avoid the massive rip-off later on when the supermarkets know you have no choice but to pay top dollar.

(Photo by ShawnXian.)