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Typical UK household Christmas spending runs several hundred pounds to over a thousand with gifts, food and going out counted. A standing order into a separate pot the day after payday is the whole trick; supermarket saving stamps and Christmas club schemes work too but usually pay no interest and aren't FSCS-protected like a bank account.
What The Christmas Savings Calculator Works Out
- Time until Christmas: the days from today to 25 December, counted against the real calendar, and the whole weeks that fit in them. Once Christmas Day has passed it rolls on to next year's.
- Save per week: the amount still to find divided by the weeks left, with the monthly equivalent underneath. GBP 600 is an alarming January credit-card statement or an unremarkable GBP 12 a week from October and about GBP 5 a week from January.
- Left to find: the budget minus what is already saved. Typical UK household Christmas spending runs from several hundred pounds to over a thousand once gifts, the big shop, travel and the social calendar are honestly totted up.
- Finish saving early (advanced): sets a deadline a chosen number of weeks before Christmas, so the money is in hand for the big shop and last posting dates rather than arriving on Christmas Eve.
- Save per payday (advanced): the shortfall divided by the number of paydays left, whether you are paid monthly, four-weekly, fortnightly or weekly. A standing order the day after payday is the behavioural trick that makes the plan survive.
- Present list total (advanced): the number of people you buy for multiplied by the average spend per present, and how much of the budget that leaves for food, travel and going out. The gift audit (Secret Santa, a kids-only treaty among adult siblings) usually saves more than any savings rate.
- Interest earned on the pot (advanced): an approximation using the average balance (what is already saved plus half the amount still to add) at your account's AER for the days left. Bank and building society pots are FSCS-protected and pay interest; supermarket stamp schemes and retailer Christmas clubs usually pay nothing and have no FSCS cover, the Farepak collapse being the cautionary tale.