Tips To Save Money At Christmas
As belts might be even tighter this year (for obvious reasons), here are some tips to save money at Christmas to keep your costs down.
I know talking about Christmas already might seem a bit scary, but fear not. No matter what financial situation you’re in this year – you can still have a great time.
If your budget is tight, spending £100s or even £1,000s on one day simply isn’t worth it. And if you do want to spend a bit of money to make it nice – you don’t have to go overboard.
Here are some tips to save money at Christmas, if you’re looking after the pennies this year:
Get your turkey NOW (if there’s room in the freezer)
Something you might not think about, is that you can keep turkey frozen for up to 2 years with it still staying fresh once thawed.
As supermarket shopping and online shopping slots are limited, it might be harder to get your hands on one this year.
Morrisons released its turkeys for collection on Wednesday 16th September – so you’re able to buy now. Tesco already have frozen turkeys available to buy too.
It’ll save you time and stress. It may not save you money, as Aldi turkey crowns are usually cheapest – but it’s still a good price and gets you in early.
If prices of turkeys go up as we get closer to Christmas, then it could end up saving you money.
Use Price Trackers
If there’s something you want to buy someone for Christmas, start taking notes on the price now. It’s never too early.
There are plenty of price trackers online which will tell you what the prices are, and may tell you the historic prices too.
You can use this to your advantage, to see what the average selling price is, and if it drops below, you can snap it up.
One of the best websites for this is CamelCamelCamel, which monitors the price of every item on Amazon, and tells you what the highest and lowest price has been in a graph.
Amazon products are generally matched in price with it’s competitors, so it’s usually a good indicator of what the average price is.
Buy With A Discount Code Or Cashback
If you’ve read my blogs, or seen me on TV before – you should know this one. Before buying anything online… and I mean ANYTHING, do a quick Google search for a discount code and look at cashback websites.
If you’re just about to buy anything and see a ‘discount code’ box – that should be the prompt for you to look for one.
Finding a 10% off discount code after a Google search on my Expedia holiday order saved me over £200 once – so it’s absolutely worth doing it.
If you don’t find a discount code, cashback websites such as TopCashback or Quidco is a great place to look too (see the full guide).
You may be surprised at the cashback you could get on there too. There’s even 2.1% cashback on Apple at the moment – which is quite rare.
Make Your Own Presents This Year
Gifts made by your own free hand will cost less and likely mean a lot more to your loved ones. One idea is creating your own photobook.
You can order free photo prints on Snapfish or Freeprints – where you only pay the postage (less than £2). This can be of pictures this year (if you have any), or nice holidays you’ve had in the past.
Get yourself a scrapbook from Poundland and something to stick them in, and that’s a thoughtful gift for less than £5.
Set a budget (or have a discussion) now
If you know that money will be tight this year, it might just be worth having a frank discussion with your loved ones about gift giving.
Either set a strict budget or agree on no presents at all this year, and replace it with games, a zoom quiz or something fun that you can fill your time.
Last year, my mother, boyfriend and I all had budgets of £100 on each other – and it worked perfectly. It meant that we all knew not to overspend, and we all got an equal amount.
It’s never worth going all in for one day a year, and then having the repercussions to pay for in January.
Conclusion
Christmas this year doesn’t have to be cancelled, and you can use these tips to cut a cheaper Christmas that won’t leave you crippled come January.
If you have any more tips to save on Christmas, do comment down below!
What will you be doing to save money this Christmas? I’d love to know in the comments below, on Twitter @Jordon_Cox or on Facebook.
