With the holidays fast approaching, the buzz is gradually building up and things are about to get busier than ever.
It usually starts with a lot of excitement and of course, the impulsive need to buy almost anything that would help reflect our excitement for the season. But while this is relatable because it only happens once in a year, it is also very important to be deliberate about how we spend money and other resources during the Christmas period.
While spending this season, remember that just after the Christmas and new year celebrations, the children will have to return to school in January. If you have no child(ren) or you are single and working, you’ll have to wait for about 38 days (from Christmas) to get another paycheque.
Now that’s a long time. If you mismanage the holiday with sporadic spending, you could have a tough time in January.
We don’t want that to happen to you, as a financial services provider that truly cares about the financial wellbeing of Nigerians, we want you to live happily this Christmas, shop confidently and still wear an even happier smile after the holiday.
So, we compiled these 5 tips to help you get a hang of shopping this season. But before that, let’s get to know each other.
We are Page Financials, an innovative retail finance institution (Licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria) offering outstanding products and services to suit the financial requirements of our diverse clientele.
We commenced business in 2014 and have since been at the forefront of delivering retail financial services in an unprecedented manner to our esteemed customers across Nigeria.
We offer loans of between N200k to N5 million to salary earners in Lagos and Ibadan. Subject to approval, disbursement time is in less than 3 hours. We also have an investment plan where investors can get up to 20% ROI depending on the amount they invest with us and the tenor.
Our customers can also use our mobile app to pay bills and transfer money to any bank in Nigeria at a zero-naira service charge, this means you get to save transaction charges any time you transfer money or pay bills with our app. We are one of the first FinTech companies to embrace the ₦0 on transaction charges while performing financial operations.
Alright, let’s get to our tips for hassle-free Christmas shopping:
1. Make a list.
The first step to failure when shopping on a budget is not making a shopping list, you know why? Because when you start shopping, everything simply looks ‘nice to have,’ and before you know it, you are out of cash.
List the things you need to spend money on, for example; Christmas décor, Christmas dinners, Christmas party (if that’s your tradition), family and/or friends’ outings, Christmas gifts, the food among other things.
Look at the items on the list and arrange them in order of importance, be honest with yourself. You should consider the essentials first, then evaluate the fun items later. Inquire about the price of the items so you can easily work on sorting later.
2. Have a budget
Now that you have a list, and the items have price tags, you should take a back seat, evaluate your income, analyze your present condition, project your January needs, then based on your income and savings, map out an amount that you can comfortably spend this season.
With that amount in mind, revisit your list and do the math. If your projected spend is less than what you have on the list, it’s time to cut down on the unnecessary spend such as exorbitant spend on décor or other things that necessarily do not add to the Christmas experience. This way you would be able to spend more on the things that matter the most.
Remember to reserve some budget for miscellaneous items, this is Christmas and the price of commodities can go high at any time.
3. Look for discount deals
This is the season for those special slash sales. In fact, this is probably the only time of the year where almost every store would have something off the usual price on gifts and other items that are not necessarily Christmas inclined.
A lot of businesses would compete to get you to buy or patronize their services at a lower rate. Therefore, there is no better time to look out for deals than Christmas.
While a lot of people might be focused on getting the Christmas inclined items, watch out for deals on the other things you would love to purchase before their prices go up in the New Year.
Getting appropriate deals could reduce your spending by as much as 50% giving you the power to purchase more items on your list or save.
4. Be strategic with shopping
There is usually a spike in the prices of items when Christmas is much closer. It’s not ideal to shop at this time. Also, weekends have proven to have higher traffic of customers than weekdays. If you can, avoid shopping on weekends too.
On the weekends, most malls, stores and open market places would be so packed that you would get discouraged before you even start your purchases.
If you can, try to go shopping at the beginning of the week. Monday and Tuesday are ideal to shop in relative peace. If this is not convenient for you because of work, you should go early in the day on the weekends, which should give you enough time to do your shopping before the stores become congested.
5. The Internet is your friend
Before the age of the internet and eCommerce, you would walk street by street, store by store and market by market – depending on what you are looking to buy.
That has changed, the internet has changed how we live and shop, it’s up to you to use it to make your life easy.
Instead of going on a long and exhausting tour of the stores, do some online window shopping first. Most of your favourite’s stores would probably have an eCommerce website or an active presence on various social media platforms.
Start by confirming the availability of the items you would like to buy and their price. This way you would save yourself some time and the stress of walking from store to store for a particular item.
In conclusion
The Holidays are here already, major stores have already started running Christmas sales, companies are prepping to close up for the year, those bonuses and 13th salary will roll in.
However, if you don’t plan, you could ruin everything with one wrong purchase, or purchase timing.
What if your favourite deal is on and your salary is taking too long to come in? is there still hope for spending the Christmas in style? Of course, that’s why our business exists.
Quick facts about Page Financials.
Page Financials is a retail financial services provider that provides loans and investment opportunities to salary earners and established SMEs in Lagos and Ibadan. We also have a payment solution that enables the customer to send money and pay bills across Nigeria at zero transaction cost.
If you are a salary earner then you might qualify for between ₦200k and ₦5Million naira loan which you can get in less than 3 hours. To apply, simply visit the online application portal here.
