OK, I know we’ve only just got it over and done with, but it’s the same panic every year when it comes to paying for Christmas and I think it’s time to start looking at ways of planning for it much earlier.

Committing to saving a set amount of money every month can seem daunting to people living on the breadline.

I get it, I watched my mum do it for years bringing up three kids on her own. However, there is a simple way to save small amounts, often, that you’ll never miss out of your budget – Skimming.

What is skimming?

Skimming is a simple saving technique that can help you save a decent sum away without overstretching your budget too much.

Saving a monthly sum can feel like a huge chunk of your money is missing if you have debt problems, are a low paid income worker or are living on the breadline. Skimming eliminates that.

How does skimming work?

It’s really easy.

Set up a savings account if you don’t already have one.

Use your debit card to pay for anything you need to buy over the course of a day. Once a day log onto your internet banking and check your balance.

Let’s say your balance is £567.34. To skim your bank, you simply round that figure down and transfer the difference to your savings account. If you’re rounding down to the nearest pound, you would transfer 34p to your savings.

Not all banks will allow you to make a bank transfer of under £1. If that’s the case with your bank you can round down to the nearest £5 or £10 if your budget allows it, meaning in this case you could round down to £565 and transfer £2.34.

I can’t afford to skim daily

With some budgets this is completely understandable, but if you can’t afford to do it daily, try it once or twice a week. If you manage to skim even £4 a week, you would have £208 to put towards next Christmas − much better than nothing!

I’ll forget to do it

A hectic lifestyle makes something like this easy to forget until it is a well-instilled habit. Until that good habit has formed, set yourself reminders on your phone to the frequency you’d like to skim and save.

Final word

52% of Brits think they will still be paying off their credit card bill for Christmas 2016 as they’re putting up their Christmas tree for 2017.

If you fit into that category, maybe it’s time to think of other ways to prepare and eliminate the panic and stress that paying for Christmas can bring.

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