Have you budgeted for Christmas?
While the festive period may still be a few months away, more and more people in the UK are now looking to acquire gifts and presents over the coming weeks and months to reduce potentially enormous expenditure over the festive period. Despite the fact that the UK is currently in recession, although some will argue otherwise, there are very few festive shopping periods of recent times which have not proved to be better than initial forecasts. But will this year be the same?
Even though there are signs of recovery in the UK economy, there is no doubt that many people are still concerned about job security with UK unemployment set to top 3 million in the short to medium term. When you also consider that many people will have used up the vast majority of their savings to literally survive over the last few months, there may be very little left in the pot for Christmas.
Traditionally many people would have taken on more credit via their credit cards and loan agreements with their banks, but these particular avenues are proving very difficult to navigate due to the fact that banks have withdrawn a significant amount of credit from the market. So who will pay for Christmas this year?
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