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Save the £5-£10 you would spend on a box of Christmas crackers by making your own! Collect the cardboard cylinders from toilet rolls in advance. All you need is paper to make the hats, scissors, paper/tissue paper, something to put in the crackers (you could make sweets/chocolates) some glue and glitter to decorate.
Save money buying presents where possible by making them instead! Edible presents are always gratefully received - Make biscuits, save up jars to make jam as gifts, peppermint cream sweets need only a few ingredients to make. Check out the Christmas cake and biscuit tins in B&M. Other easy to make presents – make a batch of candles and a batch of bath bombs and pair these up to create relaxing little bath sets. Look online for other ideas of things to make and for help, look on YouTube for tutorial videos.
Make your own cards, wrapping paper and gift bags! Save up pieces of ribbon, card, sequins, paper etc to do this. Alternatively, you may prefer to tell all friends and family in advance that you have decided not to send Christmas cards this year so they don’t feel obliged to send you one – maybe if you can afford it you could donate some of the money you would usually spend on cards to a charity instead. I did this one year as I was moving house over the Christmas period and it saved me time and I had nowhere to display cards anyway.
When out Christmas shopping – find out if the shop price matches. Toys r us will do this – check the price of what you’re buying online on your phone whilst in the store and if it is cheaper elsewhere (quite often on amazon) and the item is in stock, go over and pay on the customer services till and show them the item on your phone. You can then purchase it at the cheaper price.
For children – try looking in the Poundshop for little toys/arts and crafts things/ fun bath items to use as stocking fillers. Poundshop even has a website which offers free postage if you spend over £35! The Works is a cheap place to buy books too which helps fill a stocking on a budget. Tiger is a good shop for buying cheap games and other fun items too.
Buy presents for people you won’t see Christmas day in the sales on Boxing day. So much cheaper if you can cope with the chaos!
Have a clear out of things you don’t need and sell it on eBay. You can use the money you receive to help with Christmas shopping and (particularly if you have kids) the space you make by de-cluttering will help when it comes to putting things away again after Christmas.
Consider buying a chicken instead of Turkey – it’s cheaper and some people prefer chicken anyway.
Make Christmas decorations instead of buying – delegate this job to young family members!
Have a look for things you may want to buy as presents on eBay. You can pick up things even with tags still on much cheaper.
Buy frozen food for Christmas dinner to help spread the cost and take away some of the pressure of buying it all in the shops fresh last minute. Buy and freeze bread rolls for boxing day sandwiches, and start buying things like alcohol and Christmas cake ingredients. You’ll be glad in December!
Try to be strict with your budget. Decide what to buy everyone and stick to the list. Hasty purchases and adding ‘little gifts’ you see when you are out shopping quickly add up!
Consider buying toys for your children second hand. Give them a clean and make sure they’ve got batteries in and children won’t mind their gifts aren’t brand new. Last year I decided I didn’t want to spend all morning on Christmas day taking toys out of packaging and looking for screw drivers and batteries so did all of that before wrapping them. When he opened his gifts they were ready to play with – and there was less rubbish to pick up before guests arrived. It occurred to me whilst I was wrapping that I could have brought it all second hand since I was binning the packaging before he even saw it!
Instead of serving wine when family and friends come over, get some jugs out and make sangria and mulled wine. Adding lemonade and orange juice will make the alcohol go further.It will also disguise cheaper wines and no need to fork out for branded soft drinks.
Make the most of supermarket savings schemes. For example, ASDA have a card you can load money onto to use nearer Christmas. If you add £144 onto a card, they’ll add an extra £6 on for you.
Send Christmas cards early, so you can use second class stamps.
Save money on Christmassy chocolate by making your own treats. Try ‘Snowman soup’ – a cellophane cone filled with hot chocolate powder, mini marshmallows and chocolate chips. Be as creative as you like! Edible glitter adds a nice festive sparkle too.
Write ‘promise cheques’ for family or friends – this could be a sleepover for children, volunteering yourself as a babysitter for the night for a friend or a back massage for a partner.
Buy a live potted Christmas tree – you can bring it in every year to decorate and simply put it outside again for the rest of the year. This is cheaper than buying a cut tree and throwing it away every year.
Don’t buy batteries at the checkout when purchasing gifts – these often work out to be more expensive. Work out which ones you need and buy these as a discount shop.
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Find it useful? Please share!
Last updated: 08 July 2024 | © KIS Bridging Loans 2024 | Terms & Conditions
