2. Buy online during seasonal sales: E-commerce sites offer deals and discounts many times during the year, not just during festivals. If the products on sale come with genuine discounts and have a return policy too, you could purchase gifts and utility items online at better discounts than those of physical outlets. Besides buying the same gifts at lower costs than physical outlets, you will also save on the time and energy spent visiting brick-and-mortar stores.

3. Begin saving this year for the next festive season: Saving a specific amount or some percentage of your salary every month will help you build a reasonable corpus for festive shopping next year. While shopping and spending are the prime pillars of festive fervour, adding savings to it will make sure you have adequate liquidity during next year's festivities. Short-term investment options could help you augment your savings with some annual interest. Check what suits you best to make monthly festive savings an annual habit.

4. Give the gift of your time: If you want to give someone a gift but cannot afford to buy anything, consider giving the gift of your time. You could baby-sit or help with some gardening or landscaping for a friend with an overloaded schedule. An elderly relative might appreciate someone to run errands, do housework, take him or her to an appointment, or out for a meal. Handmade gifts are nice, too. If you are already baking cookies for your family, making an extra batch for someone on your list is cheap.

5. Thoughtful gifts outshine expensive ones: Some people are hard to buy for. They have reached a point where they have everything they need, which gives you an opportunity to be creative and come up with a thoughtful, simple gift that is also inexpensive. It could be a framed photo of a special memory, an engraved letter opener, tickets for an event or show, a decorative pillow or something beautiful from a local antique mart or flea market.

Disclaimer
This weekly report is the copyright of NIMED Capital Ltd. (NIMED), an investment banking company licensed and regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (S.E.C.) of Ghana as Investment Advisers as well as the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (N.P.R.A.) as an approved Pension Fund Manager. Information and opinions herein have been compiled or arrived at based on information obtained from sources considered reliable; we therefore do not hold ourselves responsible for its completeness or accuracy. All statements of opinion, projections, forecasts, or those relating to expectations regarding future events or performance of investments represent NIMED’s own assessment and interpretation of information currently available to NIMED, which are subject to change.