Christmas MoneySaving

Warning! Christmas is coming: it’s on the 25 December this year!

You may think this warning unnecessary, but so many people treat Christmas as if it were an unforeseen shock spend. When asked in January why they’re skint they say “why Christmas of course!” as if they hadn’t known it was coming. The best way to deal with Chrismas is preparation. There are a huge number of ways to cut the cost if you start early and this guide’s full of tips and tricks to get you more for less. If you don’t prepare, you’ll end up trying to pay for this massive event out of December’s income. Most people can’t afford that, and end up borrowing, leaving them starting off the new year in hock to the banks. Remember, debt is simply paying for something each month AFTER you’ve had it, but you pay the bank interest on top. Saving is paying for something each month BEFORE you’ve had it, and it pays you interest. So why not get ready now?

You've grotto read this!

• Don’t use Tesco Vouchers for Christmas food.

  Lots of people store up Tesco vouchers for Christmas treats, yet this is a massive waste. Redeem vouchers on Tesco's special Clubcard Deals Brochure and points values increase four-fold. In other words, a voucher worth a fiver in store is worth £20 if you redeem it on these deals. Offers include days out, gifts, jewellery, magazine subscriptions and more.

  This means it's the perfect way to buy presents without spending any real cash. On the back of a previous year's Xmas article, MoneySaver Moo Moo replied in the Forum, 'thank you! I have converted £120 of my Clubcard Vouchers into £480 of MFI vouchers and ordered my new bedroom furniture. I was saving them for my Christmas food shopping!' Sadly MFI vouchers are no longer available, yet many things are and it shows the power of this. Full how to: Boost Nectar, Airmiles or Tesco Points

• Don't ask "how can I get it cheapest?"; ask "what can I afford"?

  A common mistake is deciding what you want first, then trying to find it cheapest. The first question you should ask is "what can I afford?" Let your finances dictate your Christmas, because fun as it may be, Christmas is just one day. It's not worth ruining the whole of next year for. Full how to: The Budget Planner

• Use discount vouchers, don't pay full price.

  Shops are clever: in the run up to Christmas they want to entice new customers with discounts, but without reducing the price for people who’ll shop there anyway. So they use special click ‘n’ print web vouchers for those prepared to look. There are tons of these around. To help, we collate the best in daily updated Deals Lists: Shopping Vouchers, Grocery Coupons, Days Out, Eating Out

• Spread the cost at no cost.

  Christmas can be a major financial burden, which is why it’s staggering so many people try and pay for all of it out of December’s income. Often they fail, leaving costly debts in January. Yet it is possible to spread the cost; work out your rough Christmas spending e.g. £600, and make it up by putting aside £200 in October, November and December, to spread the cost out over three months.

  If you need to (try not to though), it’s also possible to spread the cost of Christmas into January, without any interest cost, even if you don’t have a special 0% credit card. This is because if you pay almost any card off in full there’s no interest. Therefore, spend on an empty credit card and with very few exceptions, provided you pay it off in full in January, you won’t be charged interest. Full how to: The Budget Planner

• Use a shopbot to find the cheapest books, CDs, games and electrical goods.

  Why go to direct to Amazon to buy a book, when in the same amount of clicks, a ‘Shopping robot’ will search scores of internet retailers to find which is selling it cheapest? Just tell it what's required, click on 'compare prices' and it finds the cheapest for you - whether it’s books, games, CDs, DVDs, electrical goods or practically anything else.
  
  To help, we've built the Megashopbot, which whizzes around all the top online retailers to find you the cheapest price: Megashopbot.

  And remember … shop online and Christmas shopping ends earlier. The typical ‘last order date’ for online shops is 18 December, though it varies. Full how to: Cheap online shopping

• Get a 5% discount on all your prezzie shopping.

  Cashback credit cards give you money back every time you spend on them, no matter where you spend. Banks aim to make this back in interest, yet if you set up a direct debit to pay them off in full at the end of the month, you won’t be charged a penny. The current top card is the American Express* Platinum Moneyback card, which pays new cardholders a massive 5% introductory cashback - that's 5p per pound spent - on up to £2,000 spending during the first three months. Once this intro offer exprires, its rates are tiered, paying a maximum 1.25% cashback.

  A couple of warnings are necessary though. Spend under £3,000 per year (from the date you get the card) and Amex won't pay you ANY cashback at all. Even more severely, spend nothing on it in a twelve month period and you'll be hit with a £20 dormancy fee. The solution's simple; if you'll spend less than £3,000 a year, go for the next best card.

  If you have a household income under £30,000 then for alternatives and all the details, read the Full how to: Best Cashback Cards

• Give yourself about £2,500 as a present.

  Saving money isn’t just for Christmas: it needs to last all year round. The average person in the UK could boost their disposable income by around £2,500. This isn’t by cutting out cappuccinos (though if you’re really short of cash that may be necessary too), but by paying less for what you do right now, whether it's your mortgage, credit cards or contact lenses. Spend a few hours working through your finances and you can easily cover the cost of Christmas and more. Full how to: Money Makeover

• Grab store card discounts but don’t pay interest.

  Never, ever, ever borrow on store cards! In other words, if you spend on them, you must pay them off in full at the end of the month, or you’ll be charged hideous interest rates. Yet most store cards tempt you in with discounts such as 10% off your first spend, which can be turned to your advantage. Grab one especially for Christmas, then pay off in full, and you gain while the store card company doesn’t. Full how to: Store Cards

• Get expensive perfume on the cheap!

  Forget big department stores for perfume: a whole bunch of specialist online sellers offer it for a fraction of the price. Better still, buy the even cheaper unboxed bottles, then get a pretty box and wrapping for a couple of quid. This way, they think you went to extra effort but actually you saved extra cash. Full how to: Cheapest Perfume

• Get a whole year's interest in ONE day with Christmas ‘savings stamps’

  Use supermarkets’ Christmas ‘savings stamps’ schemes to get a whole year’s interest in just ONE day. Buy electronic or real stamps at any time to save up for your festive shopping spree, and around November, the stores very generously stick on a bonus of about 4% of what you’ve already saved. Yet there’s absolutely nothing to stop you buying as many stamps as you want the DAY before, and grabbing a near-instant bonus; it keeps the supermarkets happy too, as you're tied to them for your shopping. Asda, Somerfield and Woolies all paid a 4% bonus last Christmas. Full how to: Christmas Spending Boost

• Use Martin’s Money Mantras before you spend.

  Whatever you plan to buy, whether it’s a present or it's for yourself, it’s worth questioning your spending with one of two money mantras, depending on whether you’re skint or not. Before you buy anything, ask yourself these three questions:

IF YOU'RE SKINT
Do I need it?
Can I afford it?
Have I checked if I can find it cheaper anywhere else?

IF YOU'RE NOT SKINT
Will I use it?
Is it worth it?
Have I checked if I can find it cheaper anywhere else?

IF THE ANSWER IS NO TO ANY QUESTION. DON’T BUY IT!

• Knock £100s of your Christmas food & drink shop.

  If you’re planning a massive shop, go to Mysupermarket and it’ll compare the cost of goods in Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Ocado (Waitrose) and Asda online. Yet these prices are similar even if you go yourself. Plus don’t feel you need to get higher brands for Christmas.

  Last year for an ITV programme, I organised two identical Christmas parties for 20 maternity nurses. For one, the tree, drinks and food were a higher level brand; the other, one brand level lower (ie. if the higher brand was ‘finest’ the lower was ‘normal’, if the higher brand ‘normal’ the lower was own brand) . They didn’t know which was which and preferred the cheaper stuff more often than the expensive. Full how to: Supermarket Shopping

• Get a free reply from Santa.

  There are companies out there charging a tenner to reply to children’s letters to Santa. Yet you can do it for free. If children post (with stamp) a letter to Santa, Santa's Grotto, Reindeerland, SAN TA1 before 12 Dec (though preferably earlier), the Royal Mail says he'll write back.

• Be creative, not costly.

  There are many ways to give great gifts without spending a fortune. With a drop of imagination and spark of creativity, you can find any number of great gifts costing just £5. It could be giving your partner a back-rub or promising to do the dishes (though you'll have to go through with it!). Or write your other half a letter saying telling them why you love them. It's always said that young children prefer the wrapping not the gift, so buy the biggest box you can, fill it with balloons and wrap the whole thing in Christmas paper; they'll love the huge box and jumping in the balloons.

  The annual Festive Fivers competition challenges you to dream up a present for either a child or adult for less than a fiver, and it can be bought, made or a mix of the two. Last year’s top presents include a back stage National Theatre tour in London, and a framed football match programme bought off eBay. Full how to: Festive Fivers (and watch out for this year's contest).

• Download free internet telephony to chat to family and friends.

  If you and the person you want to talk to overseas both have the internet, you can talk for free via internet telephony. Simply download software such as Skype* for free onto your computer and plug in a headset and mic to natter for free as long as the other person's also wired up on the same computer software.

  Alternatively, chat on a normal phone for as little as 1p/minute by using special ‘override’ providers such as 18185. Here, you tap in an access code to dial for its service and this is billed on your normal home phone bill at a fixed rate. You then dial the number you're calling at no further charge. Full how to: Completely Free Calls Worldwide

• If you need to borrow, use a 0% credit card for spending.

  Borrowing for Christmas is always a bad idea. Yet I know some people will still do it. So if that's you, at least be sensible with your borrowing. The best 0% deal for new borrowing is Tesco's Clubcard Credit Card with 0% for 12 months followed by 16.9% APR.

  The next longest deals are Sainsbury's and M&S's credit cards, both with 10 months at 0% rising to 15.9% APR. Full how to: Best Credit Card For Spending

• Stop spending on things you don't need to boost your Xmas pot.

  If you buy a can of Coke and a packet of crisps every day at work from now 'til Christmas, you'll spend just over £100 on it. So give these or other unnecessary expenditures up, and put the same cash in a savings jar, and you'll be quids in. Full how to: The Demotivator: stops you spending what you can't afford

• Secret Santa

  Why not follow the old tradition of Secret Santas, where a group of work colleagues, friends, or even a school class set a budget e.g. £5 or £10 per present and then secretly draw names out of a hat for who needs to buy for whom? This way you need only buy one present for the group rather than scores.

• Don't Forget!

  If you're posting Christmas presents make sure you don't miss the last post. The last First Class post is 20 December, Second Class 18 December. For international mail, post by 5 December to Australia, New Zealand, South & Central America, Caribbean, Africa, Middle East, Asia and the Far East. For the US, Canada, Japan and Eastern Europe post by 10 December. Western Europe is 12 December.

• Boring, but make a list, and check it twice!

  Christmas shopping on impulse is dangerous, so make a old-fashioned shopping list and stick to it. Remember shops spend a fortune on targeting your spending impulses; a list helps you beat them. And even if you’re shopping on the high street, remember to benchmark the prices using the shopbots first.

• Swap tips on the Christmas and special occasions board

  To help with the Crimbo preparation, the Christmas & Special Occasions board is full of top tips on cutting the cost of the festive season. MoneySavers post the latest yuletide bargains and share their own suggestions on having a more affordable Christmas.

• Bah humbug! Delay Christmas.

  Well, delay it for a few presents at least. Don’t feel forced into giving huge presents in time for Christmas. If the gift is likely to be one that’ll be substantially reduced in the sales e.g. a new hi-tech TV, computer or dress, why not simply send an IOU note with a promise to buy by mid-January. Put it in a nice card, tie a ribbon round it and make it look special – but remember by spending less for Christmas you’ll have more money in the family kitty.

• Don't neglect next Christmas either

  Buy cards and decorations in December and prices are sky high. Yet come January, the price plummets and you can pick up massive reductions on festive treats.

  In many ways, even now it's too late to get the very best MoneySaving Christmas. The perfect time is January, when as well as buying cheaply at the sales for the following year, you can start a savings fund, putting cash aside each month and earning interest on it. Then come December, you'll know exactly what money you've spent and can have Christmas without the worry of debts.