These 9 tops tips for how to save money over Christmas and avoid getting into debt might include some you haven’t heard before! If you’re worrying about how to save money over Christmas this year, you’re certainly not alone.
Christmas can be a worrying time of year when it comes to money – and this year you might be feeling more worried than usual.
Or perhaps you’ve splurged in the past, but this year you have had the time to work on your money mindset and have decided that you’d like to reign in the Christmas spending!
Perhaps you’re an over-giver, and this makes the holiday period difficult.
1. Where to Save Money this Christmas
Start by looking at other areas where you can save money – like your bills. Review your outgoings and make sure you’ve got the best deals. There are lots of deals to be had at the moment, particularly on energy.
Check out money reward apps to make big savings or generate cashback on purchases you would be making anyway.
2. Challenge Your Beliefs to Save Money this Christmas
Challenge the beliefs you hold about money, especially during the Christmas period.
This year more of us are considering what is truly important over holidays. Is it time spent with family and loved ones, or are you subconsciously trying to “keep up with the Joneses”?
3. Get Financially Naked!
All too often when we feel in a state of “not enough-ness”, so the simplest of acts such as opening your bank statement can become incredibly overwhelming.
Getting financially naked is about taking those steps: open your statements, identify where money is being spent and if there are any leaks which can be plugged.
Is that subscription actually being used, or adding to your life in any way? Are you consciously spending money in a way that supports the values you hold in life?
That ‘not enough-ness’ feeling creeps in for lots of us during the Christmas period. We worry that we haven’t bought enough, spent enough, or given enough. Now is the time to challenge that belief – how much is ‘enough’?
4. Swap Your Traditional Christmas Gifts for Gifts of Time
Christmas has become very commercialised. So break the trend and give your time instead. Perhaps a babysitting voucher for a friend to have some time out.
Or as a romantic gesture, organise a date with your partner each month for the next 12 months, write the details on a note inside and each month they get to open an envelope with a treat. Mix the ideas up. It could be a meal out to a candle lit dinner with your phones turned off!
5. Resist the Urge to Splurge and Plan Ahead
Make a list of who you need to buy for and stick to a budget.
Often overspending can occur when you don’t plan or rush at the last minute. Shop online for deals and don’t forget those trusty cash back websites.
In January, set up a savings pot and start saving ahead for next year. Or perhaps when you are doing your weekly food shop, throw in a £10 gift card into the trolley and tuck it away for next year.
6. Create a Movie Night Shoe Box
Wrap a shoe box up in Christmas paper, add in a bag of popcorn, an iTunes £10 gift card, and a few other treats from the local £1 store, and you are giving your gift receiver permission to have a well earned rest and nibble treat over Christmas!
7. Family Secret Santa
Most of us have pulled a dud name from the office secret Santa hat at one point or another! But with almost all of us ‘Out of Office’ this year, it’s time to re-invent the game!
Bring secret Santa home, and implement a family secret Santa! If you have a particularly large family and struggle to find everyone that ‘just right’ gift, this can be a great way to cut costs and reduce the overwhelm of gift buying!
There are even some excellent free websites and apps which automate the whole process for you! We love Drawnames as it allows every person added to create a wish list, and you can set a budget per person too.
8. Snow & Poop!
For a little low cost and cheeky fun, gift the little ones some Snowman Soup or Reindeer Poop!
Make your own Snowman Soup with a sachet of hot chocolate and some mini white marshmallows.
Bags of Reindeer Poop are simply Maltesers! If you’re feeling extra creative, lots of supermarkets often sell bags of red Reindeer noses. Pop one in a bag with 8 Maltesers and you have the noses of all 9 Reindeer.
9. Follow Santa!
For an incredible (free) Christmas eve activity for the whole family, check out NoradSanta.org.
This handy app lets you track Santa as he delivers his gifts all around the world. My boys absolutely love watching Santa travel the Globe every single year (and we get time to sneak off to the kitchen for a cheeky festive tipple!)