The summer holidays are over, the kids are back at school and I’m thinking of putting the golf clubs away for the winter.

We are all in need of therapy from the nonsense that has been going on regarding our exit from the EU and the knock-on effects into our UK politics.

What better therapy than a dose of shopping? What better excuse than buying a few Christmas presents?!

The big retailers are taking delivery of products by the lorry load and are about to launch their advertising campaigns to persuade us to spend the usual ‘small fortune’!

So what is the best approach to Christmas shopping? From a choice perspective, anything you want to be on offer will be available over the next couple of months. So if that’s what you’re after, now is the time to shop.

It’s never too early to shop for Christmas!

From a financial perspective, you probably missed the boat. Alongside making products available, retailers are charging peak prices for their goods, making shopping over the next couple of months that much more expensive than it would have been if you’d shopped steadily over the last six months. Yes, I’m agreeing it’s never too early to shop for Christmas!

With the availability of online shopping and a society that won’t wait five minutes for anything, more and more people are buying things when they want them, not waiting for birthdays or Christmas. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to find things to buy for loved ones at this joyous time of year.

Christmas is not a time for getting deep into debt

So my thoughts are that we shouldn’t try too hard. Don’t buy something just because the other person will buy for you, if there’s nothing that person wants. Give the money to charity instead.

Also don’t compete by trying to spend more because there is nothing you can get for your original budget. That’s the quickest way to build up a credit card debt that you’ll spend the first six months of next year trying to pay back.

Christmas is a time of goodwill to all people, not a time for getting deep into debt.