Money matters with Effie

The festive season is fast approaching, and while it's a wonderful time of the year, it can also be very expensive. Between gifts, travel and those “must-do” sales, it’s easy for “ho-ho-ho” to turn into “Oh-no-no-no!”. But instead of starting the New Year deep in hock, let’s make Christmas 2025 a little different. Because with some planning, you can enjoy the celebrations without budget worries.

- EFFIE ZAHOS

1. Don't just draft your holiday plan, cost it!

Every winning team has a playbook, and so should you. Map out your holiday season and include spending on gifts, food, travel, entertainment - everything. Add a dollar figure to each. For example: $300 for gifts, $400 for food, $300 for entertainment, $1200 for travel = $2200 total.

Work out how many paydays you have before the end of your festive season and spread your spending across them. Make sure the additional spending fits within your existing budget. Aim to avoid creating new debt to cover the summer fun.

2. Make the most of budgeting and saving apps

It’s amazing how expensive something as simple as a cheese platter can be. Yet it’s easy to slash the cost if you know where to shop. That’s exactly what a bunch of clever apps do.

Take a look at the likes of Grocerize, which shows price differences on products across Coles and Woolies – so handy! Or try Zyft to compare prices in real-time across more than 50,000 Aussie retailers. Pretty sure Santa is using these apps to save, and they can be super handy if the festive season sees you grocery shopping in areas that aren’t local.

Speaking of hitting the road, there’s a wide variety of fuel apps such as FuelCheck and Petrol Spy which pinpoint the cheapest servos near you to fill up.

For great deals on flights, hotels and holiday packages, sites like Lastminute. com.au can be worth looking at. Or head to Groupon for opportunities to save on family nights out. 3. Maximise your annual leave around public holidays