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COST OF LIVING

How to save money this Christmas in Sweden

Inflation is still high in Sweden and so are food prices, but there are ways you can save some money, even at Christmas.

Published: 15 December 2022 13:44 CET
Updated: 26 November 2023 08:06 CET
a woman drawing up a Christmas budget next to her son
How to make your Christmas budget stretch further. Photo: Fredrik Sandberg/Scanpix

Gifts

Gifts can feel like a difficult expense to cut down on, as you don’t want the person receiving the gift to feel like you don’t value them. Having said that, a gift doesn’t have to be expensive to be good.

One tip for buying cheaper gifts is buying something second hand. You can use Sellpy for second hand clothes and accessories, and Tradera or Facebook Marketplace for general second-hand goods, including furniture, electronics and home decor.

You could also try making something yourself – are you good at painting or sewing, for example? Could you bake them something and package it in a nice box?

For children, there are a wide range of second-hand toys and books available online (again, have a look on Tradera and Facebook Marketplace), and at second-hand shops like Stadsmissionen or Erikshjälpen.

Food

For some families, Christmas is all about food. Swedish food prices are on average 26 percent higher than two years ago (and the price increase is even higher for some common Swedish Christmas items such as oranges, cabbage and sugar), but there are a few ways to lower your food costs.

You can use a service like Matsmart to buy food at a reduced price which would otherwise go to waste, or you can keep an eye on the offers at your local supermarkets and pick up food you need for Christmas when you see it on offer.

You can also shop at cheaper supermarkets – a 2023 Matpriskollen comparison of Swedish supermarkets showed that Sweden’s cheapest supermarkets are generally Lidl and Willys, but prices offered by the Ica and Coop chains vary a lot between individual stores.

You can also lower your food costs by asking your guests to bring something with them, such as drinks, bread, or another item they can easily take with them if they don’t live close by. The Swedish word knytkalas refers to a potluck dinner where each guest brings something.

If you’ll be by yourself or with a couple of other people, see if you have any other friends who are staying in Sweden and don’t have any plans yet – maybe they don’t celebrate Christmas, or aren’t sure what they’ll be doing as they’re also an immigrant in Sweden and won’t be going home this Christmas?

Ask if they want to join you for the Christmas meal, and share the costs of food. You can even skip the presents if you prefer, just make sure you discuss this in advance so you’re all on the same page.

Travel

If travelling abroad you’ve most likely booked your Christmas travel by now, but one tip for those of you travelling within Sweden is to look for carshares, like this Facebook group and this website connecting drivers with potential passengers looking to travel between two cities or towns in Sweden. You may be asked to pay half of the cost of petrol, but this will still come out cheaper than driving by yourself in many cases.

Try searching for the term samåkning and the cities you’re looking to travel between if you’re interested in a carshare.

As far as train travel is concerned, the best advice is to book as early as possible – so if you haven’t booked your Christmas travel yet, make sure to do it as soon as you can.

Decorations

Christmas decorations don’t have to be expensive either. Second-hand shops are full of Swedish Advent candelabras and Christmas star lights at this time of year. Just make sure to check how much energy they use before you buy so you don’t end up with a sky-high energy bill when January comes around.

Swedes are also big fans of making their own Christmas decorations or julpyssel, like pepparkakor or smällkarameller filled with sweets and hung on the Christmas tree to eat once Christmas is over, so why not give that a try this year instead of buying expensive decorations?

Many Swedes also decorate their homes with natural decorations like small branches, twigs and pinecones in vases or bowls at Christmas, so try picking up some on your next walk if you want to follow this tradition. Do note, though, that you are not permitted to break twigs or branches off living trees without asking the landowners’ permission, so only collect items that have already fallen to the ground.

Article first published in 2022 and updated in 2023

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For members

MONEY

How to lower the monthly cost of your Swedish mortgage

The mortgage makes up the biggest chunk of a lot of home owners' monthly bills. But did you know there’s a way you can lower your mortgage cost?

Published: 16 February 2024 06:44 CET
Updated: 24 April 2024 14:43 CEST
How to lower the monthly cost of your Swedish mortgage

Essentially, when you take out a loan in Sweden, the government gives you a discount on the interest you pay, in the form of a tax rebate.

This doesn’t include interest paid on all types of loans – for example, student loans are not included – but it does include your mortgage.

In order to qualify for the discount, referred to as ränteavdrag (interest deduction) or skatteavdrag (tax deduction), you need to fulfil some requirements: 

  • You’ve paid income tax and at least 1,000 kronor in interest in the last taxation year
  • You have a capital deficit (meaning that your interest costs must be greater than any capital income you’ve earned through interest or dividends)
  • You are either partly or wholly responsible for the loan or mortgage in question

If there are two of you who are both named on the mortgage who fulfil these requirements, you’ll each receive 50 percent of the total tax rebate.

The interest deduction is automatically subtracted from your yearly tax and listed in your yearly declaration, if you fulfil the requirements, meaning you’re likely to get it back as a lump sum when tax season rolls around in April.

How much do I get?

The actual sum you get back varies depending on how much tax and interest you’ve paid during the year, but there are some general calculations which can give you a guideline of what you might get.

You’ll get 30 percent of your interest costs back on the first 100,000 kronor you pay in interest over a year, and 21 percent on anything over 100,000 kronor. 

If there are two of you, you each have your own individual tax deduction, even if you’re paying the same loan, so as a pair you’ll get back 30 percent on the first 200,000 kronor, as well as 21 percent on anything over this figure.

To figure out how much you’ll get, you need to first find out how much interest you’ve paid during the year your declaration covers and subtract this figure from your capital income earned through interest or dividends.

If your figure is negative, that means you can subtract this figure from your tax paid during the year. Bear in mind that if you owe tax, then your interest deduction amount will be used to pay it back first, lowering the total amount you receive.

You can also change the proportion of the deduction applied to each partner if you share a mortgage, dividing it 60/40 or 70/30, for example, if you don’t share the mortgage 50/50. You can do this through your bank or by manually changing the figures in your tax declaration.

I don’t understand. How does this make my monthly mortgage payments cheaper?

Here’s where something called skattejämkning comes in. This literally translates as “tax equalisation”, and it’s a way you can spread your tax rebate for interest costs out over a year, lowering your mortgage costs each month rather than of getting a lump sum in the form of a tax rebate during tax declaration season.

In order to equalise your tax, you’ll need to contact the Tax Agency directly, filling out a form with the catchy title of SKV 4302 – Jämkning (ändring av preliminär A-skatt) or using their Jämkning online service.

To do this, you’ll need to have in-depth figures on things like your salary, pension payments, sick pay and any other income like unemployment benefit or maternity or paternity payments, as well as capital income and any business income for the tax year you’re applying for, as well as your expected income for the rest of the year.

If your application is accepted, the Tax Agency will tell your employer to subtract less tax from your payslip each month, effectively meaning that you get your tax rebate for interest costs back in your monthly pay instead of getting it paid out all at once.

Bear in mind that if you do go down this route it’s important that your calculations are correct. If you accidentally overestimate your interest payments or underestimate your tax owed, you could end up being hit with a hefty tax bill once your declaration comes through.

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