Martin Lewis warns 'average' UK household will lose £800 before Christmas
Martin Lewis has issued an £800 warning to UK households over the "average" cost of Christmas. With 99 days to go until the big day, Mr Lewis - the BBC Radio Five Live star - had a warning for people saving up for the festive season.
He said: "This is all about your worst financial mistakes...one of the big mistakes many people make at Christmas is they, in their mind, come up with a lust list - what is the perfect Christmas. And if you come up with a lust list, for most people, that will either lead to one of two things: debt or disappointment, because you won't get it.
"Now, forgive me for being all bah humbug about this but Christmas is a huge proportion of the year's annual expenditure. The average person spends £800 on it, the average family... 800 quid a year: it's getting up there with a family holiday.
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"Most people can't afford that out of December's income. You need to do some pre-planning and if I may just take a bit of an advantage for the moment to say this is a public service announcement to everybody...Christmas this year will be on the 25th of December, note that down, it's not unexpected...
"But when I come into January, January is the biggest time for all the debt counselling agencies and when you talk to people about why they've gone then, they say Christmas of course." He said: "But Christmas is not unexpected, which is why we're doing it now because you need to plan for it now.."
In his weekly Money Saving Expert newsletter, ITV star Mr Lewis said: "There's still time to spread the cost to ease the pain. Some reports have a typical family's Christmas spend at over £800. For most, that's totally unsustainable from just December's income.
"If you haven't put it aside yet, there's still time - you could try to squeeze a quarter of what's needed from your Sept, Oct and Nov income. Put it in a top savings account and you'll earn a little interest too."