Jay Pillay: Beware the festive season debt trap

It’s almost February 2026. The festive season is over. You look at you bank statement and you say, that wasn’t the festive season. Oh no. That was the debt season. It happened last year, and it’s happening again this year. The rest of the year is going to be payback time.

How can you as salary manager avoid the December/January debt trap? It makes sense to ask, what causes the problem during this time of year?

Salaries are paid monthly, and are usually fixed for 12 months. Sadly, not all expenses are fixed for 12 months. Several items form huge spikes in the spending curve:

· Holiday, travel, party, and gift costs during December and January

· Car and TV license fees – these occur in any month

· School fees (if paid annually or quarterly)

· Any other cost (like holiday points or timeshare) paid annually.

One way around this pitfall is to estimate the total of all these once-off expenses and divide the result by 12.

Then make every effort to save that amount each month, perhaps even in a special account. Then as these needs arise, you can draw from the account. In fact, provision for these annual expenses must be a fixture in your monthly budget.

It is important too that you don’t put this off too long – you want a reasonable amount in the annual expenses fund by about November of 2026.

Then when the festive season comes along again, you can really celebrate, knowing that you have planned for it. Yes, your festive season won’t be a debt trap.

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