When Do You Start Saving For Christmas? – Survey
While many consumers are busy preparing for Christmas and shops are full of people buying gifts it has been revealed that 25% of people have been saving for the holiday season since January.
In order to discover when people start saving for the holidays we conducted a survey of over 2600 people and asked them when they started to put money aside for Christmas. The answers indicated that people start saving for Christmas at different points throughout the year but it was also very clear that there are significant saving trends in the run up to the festivities that the holidays bring.
Although many people spend January attempting to keep to their New Year’s resolutions and are often busy buying fitness products and items that are reduced in the various post-Christmas sales, the survey indicated that a very organised 25% of people start saving for Christmas in January. There are clear benefits for consumers to saving from this point in the year as it enables them to accumulate money gradually as they have a significant amount of time within which to set aside money.
There were a significant amount of people who were the complete opposite to the January savers however, with 10% of those asked saying that they do not start saving until December. This means that these people do not start saving until at most 24 days before Christmas Day leaving only a short time to save money for presents, food, and decorations. However, it may be that their effective budgeting the rest of the year enables them to only require a small proportion of specific savings for Christmas. Equally some consumers may not need to save very much if they earn a large amount annually.
The three months preceding Christmas were particularly popular times for people to start saving. 14% of those asked said that they started saving in November, 13% started saving in October, and 12% of those asked started saving in September. This indicates that a significant amount of people decide to start saving within the final third of the year. By saving between September and November people give themselves quite a long time to build up a Christmas fund without setting aside money over the summer months.
Summertime was when 15% of people started saving with the votes for August, June, and July put together. This may be as a result of people spending some money recreationally during the summer months, however if people have booked a holiday or some summertime activities they have most likely normally done this earlier in the year. This may also explain why only 9% of people start saving in Spring with May, April, and March only have 3% of people saving in each month for Christmas. Consumers may be primarily saving for other things at this time of year.
In many ways it is never too early for consumers to start saving if that option is available. Being able to save a small amount on a regular basis over a long period of time soon accumulates and means that it is easy to end up with lots of money to spend in preparation for the holiday season. These saving habits indicate that people may be likely to assess their finances even during Christmas in order to start saving in the New Year. However, the survey did indicate that for many people it is not necessary to start saving this early. It is completely possible to start saving late in the year and still have the Christmas that they want.
These saving patterns indicate exactly when people think it is most important to save and just how varied people can be when it comes to their personal finances. This information is incredibly useful for any business as it demonstrates exactly when people may be feeling more financially comfortable if they have either already saved or are starting to save more than they normally would. With this knowledge not only can marketing strategies be successfully adjusted, but relationships with employees can be improved.
