December is here, and as we near closer towards the holidays, the longer our wish list grows!

More often than not, we all start the new year with less money and find ourselves in more debt than we planned. But why?

Below we list the top four reasons why you spend more when you’re on holiday:

Hello Credit Card! Our weakness lays within our credit cards, we’re all guilty. During the holidays it’s so easy to get caught up in the moment, convinced that you need those shoes, you swipe the card without thinking and only question yourself the following month.

It was a good deal. Blame the advertising! You go Christmas shopping and end up buying more than what you budgeted for because it was a good deal: Buy two, get one free… Spend R900 and get R400 off. We all get caught with a once in a lifetime offering.

Spender bender! This time of the year we end up going on a bit of a financial bender, splurging our year’s hard earned money on a treat yo’self campaign! We’ve already bought the dress, we needed the new sunnies to go with it and while we’re cruising on the beach (because why else did you buy the new sunglasses?), you just happen to treat yo’self to an overpriced cocktail too. By not cutting back, we end up overspending and falling way behind.

Oh Christmas tree! It’s true, being the busy individuals that we are, we wait until the last minute to do Christmas shopping, instead of planning ahead. This is a sure way to spend more than what you planned as prices go up, selection goes down, and you don’t have time to comparison shop. By the time we’re half way down our list of gifts, we’re hot, we’re tired and we just wanna go home so we just pay.

Too late to try to save or cut costs? Why not have a look at taking out a loan to help get through these holidays?

Johannesburg, a thriving city in South Africa, is often viewed as one of the most expensive places to live. With no beach and a lot of entertainment that could cost you, we’ve managed to find a range of things to do that wont cost you a ridiculous amount!

Here’s our list of some really rad places and things to do this summer for less than R100: 

1. Kitchener’s Comedy Night R20: Have a good laugh with some live comedy for just R20 on a Tuesday night at Kitchener’s Cavery in Braamfontein.
2. Orlando Towers R30: Out for a bit of adventure? Climb these beautiful towers, a landmark right outside the urban township of Soweto and jump off them.
3. Sci-Bono Discovery Centre R35: A repurposed power station turned world-class science centre will teach you the evolution of science, helping you get quiz ready!
4. Johannesburg Botanical Gardens (Free): If you’re looking to lay down, read a book or just wonder about, the Botanical Gardens is a breath-taking public space to have a relaxing picnic.
5. Gilroy Beer Tasting (R80): Go on a beer journey with award-winning brewer Steve Gilroy in Muldersdrift.
6. Grounded at Echo (R45-R55): Can I have my cake and my Zulu lessons too? Learn how to speak Zulu every Monday from 5pm to 6pm, and grab a piece of cake.
7. The not-dead poetry society (R30): Feeling like you need to express your love or creativity? Die Dowe Digter is an ideal platform where creatives alike get together to spread their love for poetry.

Wonderboom Nature reserve (R25): Find your love for the environment at this nature reserve and meet a tree that’s 1 000 years old!

Black Friday is every retailer’s biggest income day for the year. But, why is it called Black Friday? Because it’s the day that retailers make their greatest profits in black ink.

Black Friday, the glorious day shopaholics and savers have been waiting for has come and gone, and you’ve now realized that to your wallets dismay you have spent way above your budget! But why?

It wasn’t planned, sometimes these things happen… We’re sorry to say, we could have told you so! Black Friday and sales are carefully engineered to get you to spend as much money as possible.

So if or when you see the sign SALE and you get excited, we’re talking to you. Here’s how sales actually make you spend more:

Sales, coupons, deals whatever you want to call them, are carefully engineered to get you to spend more. It’s called Loss Leaders.

Loss Leaders are items that the store loses money on, these are basic items that you buy often. While Thanksgiving has just passed, Luxury aside, let’s use Turkeys as an example. Around Thanksgiving, Turkeys are a tradition, with the cost of one turkey being approximately $5 (R70), the stores also knows that you’ll need freshly baked bread, cranberry sauce, vegetables and gravy. So what happens next? The stores will increase the cost of these items to make up for the losses on the bird.

Loss Leader sales also come with limitations, for example; when you spend R1 000, you’ll receive 30% off. This is where you get caught: The “when you spend this much” part covers the loss of the sale. Yet you automatically feel like you are getting a great savings deal, the problem is, you were never planning on spending the R1 000 to start with.

Keeping that in mind, you should always be wary of huge discounts, retailers often increase the price of an item and then place the price of the discount item below the original price, making you think that you are getting a better deal than what you bargained for. These techniques are all designed to get you to spend money on items that you weren’t planning on buying, and best of all, we actually fall for it.

So what do you do now? Return the items? Yes, that’s an option and it’s entirely up to you. We deserve to treat ourselves and shouldn’t feel guilty about it, but the problem lies if you have overspent.

So what’s your next option? When you see special deals and the four lettered beloved word SALE, always follow the golden rule: When going to the shops, only purchase what you planned to buy in the first place. Swhether or not there’s a deal, a discount or a coupon, and if it does just happen to be on sale, lucky you!

Overspent? Why not take a look at taking out a loan?