What’s Your Christmas Budget? Because More Than Half of Australians Plan to Spend Less This Year

I know it sounds ridiculous, but folks are already beginning to talk about shopping for Christmas presents (advent calendars are already rolling out, too).

This year, one of the leading issues impacting Christmas present shopping is likely to be the rising cost of living. Strained wallets are clearly going to be a concern for many this festive season, and a recent survey of Aussies from CouriersPlease has found that many are looking for ways to save.

Christmas present shopping trends for 2022

When surveying a group of over 1,000 Aussie online shoppers, CouriersPlease found that some 54 per cent of people are planning to spend less on their Christmas shopping this year.

A little over a quarter of respondents (26 per cent) shared they would be spending less overall this holiday season, and a further 26 per cent said they were planning to buy fewer Christmas presents. A teeny portion of the group (3 per cent) said they were planning to skip Christmas altogether this year, 42 per cent shared they were intending to spend the same on gifts this year.

While buying fewer gifts is certainly an option (does your neighbour’s dog really need to receive a pressie?), there is also a large portion of people who are hoping to save on Christmas presents by nabbing a deal, instead.

According to CouriersPlease’s survey, 61 per cent of online shoppers are looking to sort their gifts out much earlier than in earlier years. In fact, one in five shoppers (19 per cent) shared that they have already got their Christmas presents for 2022. Yes, in September.

A further 34 per cent of people said they were planning to have their shopping sorted by the end of September (what!). While not everyone is quite that organised, a good chunk of people reported they planned to get onto Christmas present shopping in October (32 per cent), with 66 per cent of people saying they wanted to have their gifts finalised by the end of next month.

Jessica Ip, Chief Transformation Officer at CouriersPlease, said that: “Our research shows that in addition to rising costs, slow and disrupted supply chains are spilling over into consumer confidence. A sizeable proportion of Aussies are likely to look more closely at their discretionary income and tighten their pockets this year, leaving much smaller budgets for Christmas gift-giving.”

“At the other end of the spectrum, Christmas will be coming early for retailers, with a majority of Aussies shopping earlier than they did last year. Courier services such as ours are also anticipating an influx of early Christmas-related orders this year and may see our ‘peak period’ – which tends to start in October – fast-tracked as a result.”

Interestingly, that date is way ahead of the official Black Friday sales, which traditionally fall around November, and sit as a pretty popular time to grab some Christmas deals. In any case, planning out your spending well in advance can help you curb your spending at the most expensive time of the year, so there’s no harm in being organised.

If you’d like some more budgeting advice for the Christmas period, check out these tips from a financial advisor next.