‘Most households with children already saving to afford Christmas’

Nearly half of households with children are already aiming to save money day-to-day so they are able to spend as much as they normally would this Christmas, claims a recent report.

According to the latest shopper insights from IGD, more than half of those families with children aged between 0 – 4 (54 percent) are already planning ahead for Christmas 2022, with concerns about the cost of celebrations as the cost-of-living continues to rise as inflation soars.

Almost half of those with older children (47 percent of those with children aged 5 – 10 and 45 percent of those with children aged 11 – 18) are also concerned about how the rising cost of living will affect their celebrations later this year.

This is a stark contrast to the 16 percent of shoppers without children who have already started saving for the festive season. The research further claims that a significant 60 percent of shoppers agree that a rise in costs would seriously affect how much they spend on special occasions this year.

While the Easter break was celebrated by many, the cost-of-living crisis means spending on such seasonal events is likely to be impacted this year.

Rhian Thomas, head of shopper insight at IGD, said: “Throughout the pandemic period we predicted that once COVID-19 restrictions lifted, shoppers would be keen to celebrate special occasions to make up for time they lost during lockdowns.

“However, in 2022 this may be affected again as the rising cost of living affects how much shoppers have to spend on these occasions, particularly the least affluent and shoppers with young children at home. These groups will still want to make the most of special occasions, however, so providing options that enable them to do this with stretched budgets should be a key consideration for businesses this year.”

“Offering this group of shoppers the ability to save money for big occasions like Christmas, while continuing to buy your products, such as through a loyalty card savings scheme, could be a good way to lock in their spend, but still allow them to save for big occasions,” Rhian concluded.