It seems like the run-up to Christmas starts earlier and earlier every year, but I never thought that it would be starting at the end of the summer!
SDA is trying to encourage its customers to save up for the festive season with the novel addition of Santa’s grottos into some of its stores. We may only be heading into autumn but the supermarket chain is getting people in the festive mood early by handing out Christmas savings cards.
A spokeswoman for ASDA said: “The grottos are just a bit of fun as part of promotion for our Christmas savings cards. Our research shows that a lot of people are already starting to put money away for Christmas.”
The cards will allow customers to save money for Christmas and ASDA will reward customers with bonuses depending on how much they manage to save. I think that this is a great idea; many people get in terrible debt after Christmas and any methods to help people save up and prepare for the festive period are a very sensible idea.
In these times of austerity anything that will help us plan and control our finances is definitely a good thing. So much pressure is put on families to have all of the latest gadgets and toys at Christmas so maybe schemes such as this can really make a difference. These gift cards are a much better idea than getting short-term loans with unbelievable rates of interest. I really worry about what people are going to do with the debt that they are accumulating by looking for quick fixes. I am not someone who scrimps and saves, but so far I have been able to avoid getting any high interest loans and I hope that I will never have to get one.