"Do you remember three things you got for Christmas last year?"
This confronting question was put to me by Financial Planner Eoin McGee, who insists we all need a bit of cop on when it comes to our Christmas spending.
"Life is about experiences, not things," he insists. "If you get someone a physical item for Christmas, it's very likely that by March, they'll have forgotten about it.
"If you go and borrow [money] for Christmas, you'll still have the financial hangover when they've already forgotten the thing that you pushed yourself to buy."
Instead of ordering bath bombs and fluffy socks for everyone and their mother this year, McGee suggests either spreading out the spend (offer to bring someone out to dinner in the new year), or getting your group to commit to a Secret Santa.
At the very least, everyone should agree to a price cap.
"I think it's much harder to buy something for someone for less than €20 than it is with an unlimited amount," he says. "It requires a bit more thought and a bit more understanding of who that person it, to get it right."
Another option, he insists, is to agree to skip presents altogether - and stick to it.
If that's not your cup of tea, the financial expert recommends getting a pen and a piece of paper and writing down the name of every single person on your shopping list.
"Write down everybody's name and write down the amount you're going to spend on them," he says. "I want you to get this shock. Add it all up and look at how much you're planning on spending."
Once you've recovered from said shock, you can go back and reassess the presents you plan on buying.
Additionally, while you do your shopping, you should keep track of who you've gone over or under on. If you planned to spend €50 on Mary but actually spent €60, you'll need to subtract that €10 from someone else.
When it comes to your Christmas shopping, McGee notes that a last-minute dash around Grafton Street is a worst-case scenario.
"It's disastrous to leave your shopping to the last minute," he explains. "Retailers are probably going to have a higher pricing on things, and when you don't know what to buy, you decide to get that, that and that because three bad things will equal one good thing."
"The opposite is also the case," he notes. "If you buy too early, you could end up in a position where you've already spent the money, but then you see something else and decide to get the second thing as well."
To get around this, McGee suggests ensuring that you can not buy a second item for someone until every single other person on your list is looked after. Then, you can decide if it's worth buying that extra gift.
"It's about stripping some of the emotion out of the spend," he says. "Use me as the excuse!"
Presents aside, the social aspect of Christmas can come at a high financial cost. To try and battle this, McGee recommends opening up the Notes app on your phone (or taking out that trusty pen and paper) and writing down every single festive cost and what you on spend it.
"Whether it's a bit extra in the grocery shop or the taxi home you got because you met someone for an after-work drink and can't drive, and you weren't bothered getting the bus - whatever it is, write it down and write down how much you spent on it."
In January, when all is said and done, tot up all these expenses and find out exactly how much you are spending on the festive season.
If you loved every second of it and have no regrets, you know exactly how much you need to save for the following year. If the amount leaves you in a small state of shock, though, it's time to rethink your holiday habits.
"Depending on the research you look at, Christmas costs about €1,400 for a family, €800 for a household with no kids in it," McGee explains.
Ideally, you should be putting €100 aside every month in the year in the run-up to Christmas, but if that's not possible, he recommends putting €50 or €25 or €10 - whatever you can afford.
To incentivise himself to save money, McGee says he tries to gamify his habits, giving himself a reward system for choosing the cheaper option.
For example, if you can get a bus home for €2 or a taxi for €10, when you choose the bus, you can use your banking app to put the €8 you saved into a vault/wallet/savings account.
If you do this with all your decisions (opting for a home-cooked meal rather than a takeaway, having people over rather than going out), the money should quickly add up.
Not only will this incentivise you to make smarter spending decisions, but it allows you to save up for something fun or pay off any debt you may have.
If you are at a stage where you have to borrow money this Christmas, McGee recommends facing the debt head-on.
"The sooner you tackle it, the better," he promises. "The longer you leave it, the more likely it is that you'll reach for the cheap stuff that ends up being more expensive - the 'buy now, pay later', the credit card, the overdraft."
"Buy now, pay later is a loan," he continues, noting that the Credit Union is likely the best option at this time of year.
For more financial insights, you can find Eoin McGee in Dublin and Limerick this January, where he will be hosting two exclusive events called How To Tackle Your Finances.
"The objective here is for people to walk away with something tangible or a plan they can work on so that, come next Christmas, they'll be in a much better position," he says of the live shows.
His book, Eoin McGee: How to Achieve Financial Freedom, will also be available in the new year.
