The top 12 money-saving tips for Christmas

Christmas is coming; the goose is getting fat and the credit card bill even fatter. But don’t panic if you’re struggling to get everything done under budget, here are a few last minute tips to save your wallet over the next week.

1. Cards

Get organised and make sure you have all your cards sent by Thursday December 18, the final posting day for Second Class mail.

Even better, send e-cards this Christmas, costing you, and the planet, less. Try www.ecards.co.uk or www.hallmark.com. At www.everyclick.com/christmas you can customise your own Christmas greeting, which for a £5 donation to the charity of your choice will then delivered to up to 100 people’s inboxes.

2. Shopping

Online shopping days before Christmas are fast running out (click here for the final postal deadlines) but it’s still worth logging on as prices can be dramatically lower.

Many online stores offer voucher savings, too. Try www.myvouchercodes.co.uk, www.voucherstar.co.uk, or www.discountshoppinguk.co.uk, for the latest deals. Have a look at comparison sites if you’re buying a product that is widely available, such as a Nintendo Wii or the latest Prada perfume. Try www.kelkoo.co.uk, www.price-runner.co.uk or www.moneysupermarket.com.

And don’t forget to use all those loyalty points you have had stored up on your Clubcard, Nectar Card or Advantage card.

3. Decorations

Invest in some gold, silver, glitter or snow spray and go mad with pinecones and branches collected from the garden. Fill up glass jars and vases, or bind with string to make a Christmas wreath. If you are running short of display space for your Christmas cards, suspend some string from the ceiling and hook them over it, or cover a notice board with a collage of your favourites. A colourful, cheap alternative to holly and mistletoe.

4. Christmas Tree

Hang a few of your gold-sprayed pinecones from the tree with ribbon, or simply tie a few red or green bows onto the branches for an old-fashioned touch. Making salt dough decorations can be an enjoyable tradition for kids, and covered in glitter, paint or sequins make for pretty tree ornaments. Find the recipe at www.allfreecrafts.com/christmas/salt-dough-ornaments.shtml

5. Travel

Book tickets for coach or train travel online in advance and you could not only save money, but ensure you have a seat rather than spend Christmas Eve wedged next to the loo.

Book through www.thetrainline.com or www.nationalrail.co.uk

6. Presents

Companies like Red Letter Days offer "experiences" that you can buy online, but vouchers can be pricey, so why not create your own? You can give something free, for example an I-owe-you for a home cooked meal for your recipient and a few of their friends, or an I-owe-you for a weekend’s babysitting. Or you could arrange an inexpensive but thoughtful day out- such as a trip to a National Trust house with afternoon tea, or tickets to a film to be released in 2009 in cinema.

For the technologically challenged members of your family try setting up a personalised iGoogle or NetVibes page with all their favourite sites and news feeds.

And for an original and inexpensive present for kids how about giving them an endangered wild animal? From £3 a month, you can adopt a tiger, dolphin, panda, orang-utan, rhino, elephant or a polar bear on the World Wildlife Fund website wwf.org.uk/adoption

7. Wrapping

You don’t have to spend a fortune on sheets of glossy paper instead buy rolls of brown paper from a post office or stationery store on the cheap. Spruced up with a sparkly ribbon, your presents will rival anything Paperchase has to offer. Buy your ribbon by the metre from a haberdasher and make gift tags by cutting round last year’s Christmas cards with a pair of pinking shears.

8. Crackers

Crackers are overpriced and, let’s be honest, slightly disappointing. This year buy some recycled fill-your-own crackers, (John Lewis are selling a pack of six for £5) and customise them to suit your friends and family. Hunt for gifts in charity shops, or fill them with freebies you can pick up at cosmetic counters. Search online for free samples too, try www.free-stuff.co.uk, www.smartfreestuff.co.uk, www.freeinuk.co.uk or www.freebielist.com.

9. Food

Shopping in the cheaper supermarkets could save you up to a quarter on your Christmas food bill, according to a survey by consumer watchdog which.co.uk. The average cost of a shopping basket, including festive essentials such as sausages and bacon, mixed vegetables and potatoes, costs £38.04 at Aldi, compared to £51.26 at Waitrose.

If you just can’t face a budget turkey check out our food cost-cutting blog here.

10. Eating out

If you’re planning on having a meal out with friends or colleagues over the Christmas period, try searching for deals and making a reservation through www.toptable.co.uk. You can save 50 per cent on the price of a meal with toptable’s Xmas offers.

11. Drinking

Not that we’re encouraging you to binge, but buying booze in bulk will cost you less. Most stores offer a discount if you buy a half dozen or a dozen bottles at once. Tesco is offering 50 per cent off more than 50 wines when you buy at least six bottles. Voucher websites have many money saving offers for off licences too, including Odd Bins, Majestic and Wine and Co and 40 per cent off at Threshers, Wine Rack and Victoria Wines.

12. Entertaining

Nothing beats charades at Christmas so forget buying board games and be more inventive. For ideas check out: www.partygamecentral.com/christmas/christmas_party_games.htm or www.partygameideas.com/christmas-games

If you’re having guests over ask them to bring a contribution for the table such as the Christmas pudding, candles, or cheese and crackers. You could also set up a secret Santa, rather than giving everyone individual gifts. Pick names out of a hat and all buy for the person you have selected.

By Laura Whateley

Picture courtesy of Jim Frazier http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimfrazier/73045573/

More from Money Central:

The 10 biggest winners from the financial crisis

50 tips to beat a recession

The 10 worst property investments ever

The 10 stupidest taxes ever

The six safest places for your savings

Times Money's top 10 investment gurus

The 10 most decadent dictators

The 10 craziest parking tickets ever

The 10 most ridiculous fines of all time

50 great things you can get free

Ten people who predicted the financial meltdown

The 10 biggest stock market crashes of all time

Comments

[easy ways to save money]

Nice post
Everyone can save money in small and seemingly insignificant areas if you know how and where to do it.
These are all great ideas
Great tips! I’ll be coming back to learn more about saving money!

[Jojn]

Get your joint of beef or pork from your butcher in September and freexe it. It will be half the price of the same joint in December

[Financial Planning for Expectant Parents]

Don't forget that you can cut corners on some of your services and I swear you won't even know that you've cut them back Here are some of the easy savings wins I just accomplished:

Cancelled HBO, which we hardly watch anymore ($10 month / $120 year)

Switched our phone and Internet to Comcast ($40 month / $480 year!)

Reduced our childcare by 3 hours per week ($150 month / $1,800 year!)

[Andrew Milner]

Here's Gordian Knot suggestion: Emigrate to a non-Christian country and totally opt out the Christmas farce.
Rip van Winkle cover stories such as hospitalised with infection disease or kidnapped by the Taliban do have their limitations.

[Jeff]

As a first, my family has decided to forget the presents entirely and focus on the holiday and meal. We (the kids) have moved out and the holidays give us the best opportunity in the year to spend uninterrupted time together, cook a grand meal and basically do things as a unit. Saving money by doing without the materialistic aspects is just a bonus.

thanks for the useful advice , which we can save more money during the economic depression .and the suggestion can give my family and friends joy and happiness.

thanks for the useful advice , which we can save more money during the economic depression .and the suggestion can give my family and friends joy and happiness.

[Helen]

At least Laura isn't suggesting that we don't give presents this year. If I were seriously impoverished, I could not bring myself to say "sorry folks - Christmas is cancelled." I'd follow my fellow bloggers to Lidl and Poundland, where £1 can buy a thoughtful quality gift. And my tree will be wearing last year's clothes - I can't imagine everyone has ditched the expensive ornaments they bought before the Credit Crunch.

[Mark Jenner]

Very good article but without the following linkk it looks 50% complete. I would like to share my personal interst with the reader. Hope this link will help you all>
http://www.getdiscountcodes.co.uk/

[JANE +SSP]

good

[Ellie]

Martin! Thanks for the idea! Having checked out crackers in Tesco's yesterday I decided on empty ones (not having the time to make some) and had a look at the John Lewis crackers online and sat there thinking the same - why pay JL a fiver!! It's late in the day so I'm grateful for the Poundland wisdom. Merry Christmas to you!

[bargain!]

Before adding a few tips, I have to agree with the others: £5 for empty crackers?!! Anyway, first use up everything you already have cluttering the house. Cheap cooking foil not only looks great as wrapping (esp on books etc) but it's fast as doesn't need sticky tape. Try supermarket value brand for well under a quid, or the 99p store and Poundland for everything, eg Christmas editions of Green & Black organic choc. It's full of end of lines, re-branded lines as well as some very fetching so-called 'tat'! Primark, Lidl, eBay etc etc. And charity shops are full of unused donated Christmas stuff too.

[boomdoom]

For the christmas shopping i would stick to doing it online this christmas as with all the discounts on teh high street i can get those saving plus the discounts and exlcusive offers that are availble to online stores. The sites commented above are what i would use also another good site is http://www.savvydealsonline.co.uk

[JDS]

Does the author have any idea at all of how to make ends meet on a limited budget?
Try a google search or even ebay or amazon to get better prices than the comparison sites.
Lidl was awarded the best value store NOT Aldi, by Which.
Since when has Brown paper from a Post Office been cheaper than 'cheap' wrapping paper?
Welcome to the Real World of making ends meet.

[Martin]

> This year buy some recycled fill-your-own crackers, (John Lewis are selling a pack of six for £5)

If you want to do it cheaper, buy a pack of 12 from poundland, remove the junk and replace with something better. Why pay John Lewis £5 for six EMPTY crackers?

[Cheap drinker]

If you drink beer or champagne through a straw the alcohol goes that bit further