The Christmas period is, for most families, one of the absolute highlights of the year. It can feel well worth it to splurge on giving fantastic presents, decorating your home beautifully, and treating everyone to the very best Christmas food. Christmas also tends to be the most active social period of the winter season, so you may find yourself needing to buy outfits for parties, going out for meals and drinks more often, or paying for family day trips to Christmassy things like seeing Santa or going to a Christmas market or fair.

The January Struggle

All of this means Christmas can be a hugely expensive time, and with many people who are paid monthly getting their pay earlier than usual as workplaces close for Christmas, sometimes you can feel like you are broke before January has even properly begun.

If you are feeling the panic of a long January stretching ahead of you and most of your available money already spent on a merry Christmas, then here are some ways to survive until things ‘normalise’ in February!

Short Term Loans

One simple answer can be to get a short term loan. It can be possible to arrange this kind of loan very quickly, and repay it when your January pay day arrives. Providers like themoneyhub.co.uk can help you discover how much you can feasibly borrow and what it will cost you, and you can often get access to the money you have agreed to borrow virtually instantly.

Of course, these types of loan do need to be repaid as soon as your pay arrives so can mean stretching out your frugal period into February too, however they are an easy and stress free way to make January survivable!

Sell Things

With Christmas out of the way, you may find you now have replacements for some older things you own, or some new things that were given as gifts but you don’t really want or need. This makes January a great time to have a clear out, and you can use doing this to help make the month better financially too if you sell some of the stuff you are getting rid of. Whether you go with online auction sites like eBay, sell to second hand shops or go to a car boot sale, getting rid of things you no longer need can free up space for your new things and also put more cash in your wallet.

Take On Extra Work

If you are really struggling but don’t want to take out a loan, then a good idea can be to try and find some extra work. You may be able to make some side money working from home doing online jobs like writing or data entry, or use other skills you have to hire yourself out as a cleaner, babysitter or dog walker in your local area!

Working, selling your unwanted possessions or taking out a short term loan are all ways you can compensate for overspending at Christmas and have a more relaxed January financially.