And the winner is...
‘It’s never too early to start saving for Xmas. In the tough months, I don’t cancel my standing order but reduce it to £1. By December Xmas is sorted!’
Thank you to everyone who shared their best Christmas Money Saving Tip and entered our draw to win £100.We couldn’t agree more with the winning tip! Saving small amounts can soon add up and we encourage members to save what they can afford. The start of the year can feel a difficult time of year to start saving, but you can always increase and lower the amount you save according to your affordability.
We loved reading through all the member tips and it was great we got a mention too! Here are of some of the other saving tips we received:
- DIY crafts and making food gifts.
- Put £1 a day away – that way it doesn’t seem so much.
- Create a “12 Days of Kindness” advent calendar. Instead of counting down to Christmas with gifts, each day can represent a different act of kindness.
- Penny challenge savings throughout the year. 1p on the first day, then add another penny every day to the amount.
- My saving tip is look on selling sites such as Vinted. You can buy items new for half the price and save bundles.
- Buy things throughout the year when they are on sale. Once December comes you’ll have got it all.
- Look at buying stuff in January and Black Friday sales and keep them for following year
- Set a reasonable amount to put away each month and cut back on the run up to Christmas.
- Check and compare prices online, look for coupons for further discounts.
- Make hand made gifts and try second hand stores.
- Buy meat on a deal and cook meat in slow cooker over night on a low heat, add the gravy to the meat stock and serve on a bap with stuffing.
- Don’t be afraid to tell people you are struggling and you want to leave gifts this year. You will find a lot of people are and really don’t mind.
- Buy early; take advantage of offers e.g. buy 3 get lowest price one free.
- Give up something (chocolate, fizzy pop, etc) and the money you would of spent on that put to one side and the saved money is your money you’ve got to spend.
- Start buying a Christmas presents from July and get something every month.
- Put £5 per child in to your savings at Just Credit Union per week and that’s a massive £260 extra per child at Christmas.
- I go to the charity shops in January when everyone has given away their unwanted gifts and clothes. It saves me hundreds and I include this for birthdays.
- We don’t put pressure on getting each other gifts in our family. What we do instead is all do a huge secret Santa with a different theme each year 🙂
- Send out festive invitations (digital works great!) to your loved ones, encouraging them to bring a dish to share. You can set a theme.
- Don’t buy cards and wrapping paper -write a newsy email and illustrate it with photos and wrap presents in brown paper and let your kids decorate them.
