Christmas may have been and gone now, but if you want to avoid wasting money on last-minute presents next year, it is always a good idea to plan ahead carefully.
Of course, you might have bought your friends or relatives something they will love like guild ball tokens for their favourite game, and know exactly what they will enjoy receiving year-in-year-out.
But this is apparently not the case for many people, and according to American Express, a quarter of Brits dashed out to the shops in the week leading up to Christmas to get their hands on presents that they forgot to buy.
“With gifts to organise, hosting or attending to parties and having the Christmas dinner to prepare, the festive season can be incredibly hectic, so it’s not surprising that an item or two might fall off the shopping list,” said Stacey Sterbenz, vice president of American Express.
Women tend to be worse than men, with 26 per cent frantically searching for last-minute items compared with 23 per cent of blokes. And when it comes to recipients who are low down the list of priorities, friends are more forgotten about than family members.
In fact, one in ten Brits scurried through the shops looking for a present for their mate at the last-minute.
But this can often lead to disastrous consequences as shoppers may end up buying gifts that don’t go down too well with their loved ones. Indeed, Gocompare.com Money revealed that £355 million is wasted on unwanted gifts at Christmas!
