Christmas Money Saving Tips

Its that time of year where Michael Bublé’s songs are constantly being played, mince pies are being consumed by the truckload and gift sets galore are being bought!  For most people Christmas is an expensive time of year with gifts, decorations and food to buy.  According to The Telegraph ‘UK households usually splurge an average of £473.83 on presents’.  No wonder people find Christmas stressful!  Although it doesn’t have to be expensive.  There are some ways to avoid spending a lot of your hard earned cash this festive period.  Here are my Christmas Money Saving Tips to help reduce the cost this year.

Christmas Money Saving Tips

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Start early

Spread out the cost of Christmas by starting early.  You can pick up plenty of cards, wrapping paper, decorations as well as some gifts in the post Christmas sales.  Even if you don’t start as early in January there are plenty of sales on throughout the year where you can pick up quite a few bargains.

Save

If you don’t have the space to buy presents early you can put money aside every month instead so you can splurge on your Christmas shopping.  Some supermarkets also have a scheme where you can buy saving stamps on a card to help pay for your Christmas grocery bill.  If you have completed your card by a certain date most supermarkets will add a bit extra to it.

Cash Back Sites

There are a few cashback sites out there and the one that I use is (#aff) TopCashBack.  This is a free app that gives you cash back for making purchases on things such as clothes, toiletries, electrical items and much more.  Last year I had over £111 that I exchanged into an M&S e-voucher but you can swap it for other stores or even cold hard cash into your bank account.

Black Friday

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday coming up soon there will be plenty of amazing deals to be had.  Lots of the big retailers get involved with huge price drops and special discounts especially on big ticket items like electrical items and kitchen appliances.  Amazon is also really good for finding bargains on lots of different products.  Be aware though that some retailers will bump up the prices of certain items before Black Friday.   Do your research and take a note of prices so you know you are getting a genuine bargain.

Special Offers

Some retailers such as Boots, Marks and Spencers, have 3 for 2 offers where you get the cheapest item for free.  Boots usually have an offer on where they have a star item each week which has 50% off.  Marks and Spencer also usually have certain offers on in the weeks leading up to Christmas with up to 50% off.

Loyalty Points

You can use loyalty points towards paying for your gifts or food.  Boot’s Advantage points can be used towards buying gifts such as perfume or gift sets.  You can even use the points you collect at the supermarket such as Nectar, Tesco’s Clubcard, Asda Rewards, etc towards your Christmas food shopping bill.

Shop Around

Don’t buy from the first store that you find an item in.  Shop around online looking for the best price.  Once you have found the best price, use any discount codes that might give you money off or even free delivery.

Homemade Gifts

Instead of buying people gifts that will be shoved into the back of a cupboard and forgotten about why not make something for them instead?  You could bake some cakes or biscuits, make a tea cup candle or even a voucher that they can redeem from you such as babysitting, cooking dinner, etc.

Share the Cost of Christmas Dinner

If you are hosting Christmas at yours this year don’t be shy and ask people to help out by bringing something.  Not only does it save costs but also time in the kitchen.  Being stuck in the kitchen while people are having a good time in another room isn’t fun!  If someone can bring the dessert and another brings some drinks that will cut down your food bill quite a bit.  My parents are hosting us this year and I’ve offered to take round the starter and some snacks.  My Dad isn’t as able to do the cooking like he used to plus my Mum is a rubbish cook.

I hope you found this Christmas Money Saving Tips post useful.  Do you already do any of these tips?  Have you got other Christmas money  saving tips?  Share them in the comments below.

If you are looking for more Christmas posts:

Ten Tips For A Stress Free Christmas 

Top Ten Christmas Films

DIY Christmas Planner