How I am going to Save Money this Christmas and cut costs

How I am going to Save Money this Christmas

Christmas this year is going to be much more of a frugal one for us. In the past we have always had regular money from full time jobs coming in and we have could afford something a bit more frivolous. This year it going to be different. We have spent much time adjusting to the self-employed world rather than employed but it means we no longer have the security of a regular pay check coming in at the end of every month and for the moment that means we are having to pull in the reigns.  Here’s how I am going to save money this christmas.

We are bringing in enough money to pay the bills, as I shared in my post a few weeks ago and those bills are a lot lower thanks to reassessment of everything from energy bills to repayment of 0% credit cards to removal of payments to savings accounts. For the time being we are making do on as little money as possible.

My thoughts on what we are going to spend this Christmas

• The big one is to change our Christmas shopping habits. In the past as a treat we have always done a big shop in Waitrose or Marks & Spencer. This has always been a hugely expensive shop costing maybe £300. This year we will be doing a Christmas shop with a list at a budget supermarket, we are expecting this to come in at £100.
• I am going to invest in experiences for the boys rather than lots of things. I have been looking at sites like Buy a Gift and Groupon who offer cool experiences to give as gifts. There are gifts such as Segway adventures or sky diving experience that the boys would love.
• I am buying a few gifts now in the sales to save pennies. Including the Asda toy sale.
• My gift to my hubby will be my cooking. I will make all sorts of goodies over the festive period. Things like a lovely roasted gammon, sausage rolls, roasted Brussel sprouts, roast dinners, Victoria sponge.
• The extended family will be getting homemade gifts like these Christmas crayons and photos of the boys.
• There are a few nights out planned with friends and bloggers, but we are in a similar position and will doing it on a budget.

How to Pay for Christmas

I am going to employ a few sneaky methods to pay for Christmas this year. You will be surprised how it all adds up

• I have some cash stashed away and I am going to invest it in an Asda Finance Savings card. For every £144 you have loaded onto a card you receive a bonus of £6, so if you get 3 cards and put £432 onto the cards I get an immediate bonus of £18 as long as the cards are loaded before 13th November. A simple way to get a boost to any money you would be spending in Asda anyway here is a link to get a card.
• I have gone through my clothes and sorted through what doesn’t fit anymore and what I won’t wear again. Gone are the corporate suits and the dresses 2 sizes too big. I have a fair selection of Ted Baker dresses so am going to sell them all on eBay. Branded clothes sell well!
• We have a selection of children’s toys and potential Christmas gifts for others these will be sold on my local Facebook selling site.
• Alcoholic consumption will be reduced! This maybe sounds obvious but a large proportion of Christmas money is spent on alcohol. I can’t drink wine after having my gall bladder removed so will be drinking a lot less. In fact, I am looking forward to a few more sober nights.

Here are my initial thoughts, what will you be doing to cut costs this year or making some extra cash?

This post was a collaborative post with Asda Finance.