by : Andy Adams

It's no secret that through no fault of our own we spend at Christmas, we spend a lot. Expensive Christmas presents such as video game consoles like the Nintendo Wii and high-tech music players like iPods the holiday period can end up being quite pricey on presents alone.

The advice given to cope with the holidays is to save up good and early, but many of us have too many other expenses to pay throughout the year that saving a lump sum for December is just impractical. This leads millions of shoppers to charge Christmas gifts to credit cards, resolving to pay it all off in the New Year. The trouble is that some people end up in the situation where they may not get finished paying off this Christmas before next year's festivities begin!

This has led to people getting what is known as a Holiday Hangover, much like the kind of hangover you normally get at Christmas, you drink too much, you feel terrible the next day. A credit hangover works in a similar way; You spend too much, you end up feeling just as rotten when the bill comes through the next month showing how much you now owe.

However, there is a growing problem with the amount we're spending over the holidays. There is hundreds of pounds worth of unsuspected expenses over Christmas which we may end up paying for on credit cards just naturally, the most of which is food. Food is the hidden expense of Christmas; invariably you will be having family members round for Christmas dinner or after dinner nibbles round at the relatives. You're buying more food for more people equalling a bigger cost. This is one factor to remember when spending over Christmas.

So when shopping for Christmas next year make sure that you are careful with the credit cards, if you want to be even cleverer with your cards consider looking into cashback offers and 0% credit cards so you don't get charged extra on purchases.