7 Easy Tips To Help You Save Money This Christmas
Lots of families find it very hard to make ends meet, as low wages make it difficult for many people to get by. These people struggle before each and every Christmas, as they all want to have proper holidays, but buy gifts to their children and to enjoy a nice meal with their friends and family. The latest survey from Morrison's shows that the average family spends about £165 in December on top of their regular expenses. However, you can still have fun without spending this extra money. All you need to do is follow the below expert tips to save this Christmas without increasing your debt burden.
1. Trim the list of Christmas gifts
You can discuss the presents topic with your friends and family members, and agree to cut down on the regular gift exchange. Some of your friends are going to agree to give up this habit or to set a price limit for these gifts. It is also possible to go for a "children only" rule. A Secret Santa, which implies tossing all names of people in your group in a hat and drawing one name per person. This is how each of you is going to buy one single present. If you also set a maximum limit for the gift, you're going to save a lot of money.
2. Use vouchers to the full
According to a survey of the Gift Cards and Vouchers Association, lots of gift vouchers are left unspent each year, totaling a whooping £240m wasted. Keep track of all vouchers around your home, and use your loyalty card rewards. If you are like most people, you should have at least one Tesco Clubcard, Sainsbury's Nectar or Boots Advantage. In addition, you could save even more money by using these points before Christmas, when all retailers run promotions to attract shoppers.
3. Go for discount supermarkets instead of your usual ones...
Festive dinners can cost you a lot of money. You can cut down these costs by doing your shopping at Aldi or Lidl. These German supermarkets have a good selection of festive foods at affordable prices. Besides, the quality of some of these delicacies has been perceived as being superior to more expensive brands.
4. ... but hold your horses, buy only want you need
When you are a host, you are tempted to spoil your guest by offering them a wide range of foods. If you are like most people, you probably overestimate the amount of food one can eat before feeling full. You can avoid wasting food by calculating the right portions to offer your guests. You can use the portion calculator on lovefoodhatewaste.com. If you estimate you are going to have a two-hour party, this calculator will tell you that you must prepare seven party food nibbles for each person. The website gives you examples of foods, so you can easily add them to your shopping list.
5. You don't need that much alcohol to survive Christmas
Festive periods are often associated with huge amounts of drinks that can easily add up to a small fortune. By using a cost comparison website such as Quaffers' Offers (quaffersoffers.co.uk), you can find out where to go to get the best prices for the wines you want to buy.
6. Take a look on eBay
This doesn't mean you should go on eBay to buy presents, but rather to get rid of things you don't need anymore. Most of us have piles of unnecessary stuff around our house. You could generate a bit of cash by putting them up on eBay for sale. You'll need to work a little for the money, as you'd have to take photos of your items and upload them, and then ship the sold items to the buyers. If you can't be bothered doing so much work, you can always consider alternative ways to make some extra money for holidays. You could sell books on Amazon or list your stuff on local internet forums. You may be able to find buyers in your area, people who wouldn't mind coming to your house to pick up their items.
7. Learn how to save money on Twitter
*Please note that this is a collaborative post*
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