How Do I Save Money Leading Up To Christmas?

Longwalker

We have been cutting back over Christmas for years now and this year the budget is being slashed even further 

Present buying is restricted to Mum, Daughter and son in law, and the three grandchildren

Daughter and SIL have already received , they needed something which they didnt have the money for, so we purchased , the grandkids will be getting what they need, not want - IE shoes. Mother doesn't need anything, but shes the only older generation left, plus its her birthday, so we get her a few small gifts, and not always new. A new book to her is new, even if from a charity shop. Me and he rarely buy each other gifts, we would rather have a night out - this years pressie to us is seeing a show the week before Christmas  - tickets were bought last year . So taking. out whats already been spent , Im looking at spending £150 on gifts. Pressies go in gift bags, which I rarely need to buy as we recycle them. One I have here has been used at least 5 times looking at the sellotape still stuck to the top

We send the grand total of 5 cards, which are always bought after Christmas. Those five cards are to the family we live far away from and one friend who we only see once or twice a year down to distance .TBH I dont know of anyone who sends cards to friends or those in the work place anymore. 

Christmas dinner is just a glorified roast. And there really is only so much you can possibly eat in a day without being a glutton.

I buy a turkey breast and a good sized bit of gammon - and that will do the three of us for a week. Veg always goes down Christmas week so I buy plenty. We dont eat a lot of sweet stuff. Mum still likes a bit of Christmas cake, so I buy one of those small slabs , he likes the odd mince pie - so a box of those and a carton of cream The rest of the shopping is what I would normally buy for the week and where Im not needing any more meat, theres the leeway for the few extras we do actually buy. Already Im finding the nice stuffing and the pigs in blankets in the reduced sections, picking them up and into the freezer. The one extra we do look forward to, is a prawn cocktail starter. I used to buy very expensive prawns from M&S, now I buy a bag of frozen raw tiger prawns and cook them myself. With the HM Marie Rose sauce you cant tell the difference. I adore a baileys at Christmas , but lidl own brand tastes as good and theres another local brand here which is even nicer, at half the price. We would buy beer and wine weekly out of our personal spends as we no longer go to the pub so theres no increase in spends there

Plan your meals for the week with care, plan to use up everything before shopping again. With us it kind of goes, Christmas dinner two days, cold meat and bubble and squeak , leak and Turkey pie ( more leaks then turkey and left over stuffing and sausages get thrown in ) ham egg and chips and if there is any gammon left, that goes into a quiche with salad , any turkey - into a stir fry. Any extra veg that looks like it might not last another week - prepped and frozen

Even with cutting back over the years, I still found we were wasting or bits were hanging around for months - biscuits, sweets etc, so this year there is none being bought 

Our Christmas might seem to be boring but its not. I get just two days off, I cant eat anymore then I can eat, I cant be sitting there shoving sweets and cake into my mouth just cos its Christmas . There are always loads of sweets dropped off into work, you can bet a pound to a penny those that have gone overboard will be offloading cakes and biscuits 

Toonie

I suppose it all really depends on what your Christmas is like to begin with. My Christmas celebrations have always been fairly quiet and low key. I long ago agreed with my siblings that we weren't doing presents. Nieces and nephews likewise don't get presents, but when I go and see them I will bring along some things or we go for a day out. At home it's just me and DP, we exchange presents, and usually stick to a £50 budget. This year, as things for us are very tight due to me not working through disability, our budget is £10.

Food wise, we will buy a couple of things we don't normally get (prawns and smoked salmon trimmings, a little Christmas pud for DP and some cream, some nice chocolate for me) but we still have budgeted for it. I always save up Nectar points during the year to use to buy some treats for Christmas like a nice bottle of wine to go with dinner or a few beers. This year I've also been saving the vouchers from any surveys I've done so we can spend those on some extras as well. If you don't already do any survey sites, you could most likely make a little extra cash before Christmas to help out.

I make Christmas cards to send to friends and family. I don't have to worry about stamps as I took part in the Postal Panel for Royal Mail for 6 months so have a stack of stamps I can use.

Brie

And watch out for the store hype! 

At a local to us large chain of supermarkets starting with a T they have had Baileys on special. 

A litre bottle was selling for £13 reduced from £21.  And the 700 ml one was reduced from £15.75 to £8.  So the reflex reaction is to get the bigger bottle as you save £7 whereas on the smaller one you save £6.25.  But the smaller one is actually better value having been reduced nearly 50% as opposed to the litre bottle being reduced by 33%.

Katiehound

and it's actually cheaper at sainsburys- if you want the original version

Longwalker

Always avoid the hype

Those special offers at the end of aisles - dont reach for them until you check the price per kilo or litre or whatever weight they are selling at against every other product of type. Cheese for example, Cathedral and another well know local brand take it in turns to be on special - still £2 + a kilo more then the own brand. And be honest, unless one is making a very posh cheese board, cheddar is cheddar when making a toastie, sandwich or cooking with it

OP, it is going to be hard to save money now this close to Christmas , I think for most oldstylers we look towards Christmas immediately after Christmas is over - getting wrapping, cards and even stocking fillers when the shops clear their Christmas stock - the Boots 75% sale was always looked forward too. As offered above there are so many challenges on the forums to save money, we save 20ps and that money saved over a year was over £300, we also womble, every penny picked up is saved, even out here in the country we might make £10 a year. We save all coppers as well, we dont get much because we rarely need to use cash, but every penny removed from the purse and put into a piggy bank is a saving

You can sell stuff during the year. I use my local FB selling page - no fees. Priced right and you have cash in your pocket within a few hours and a bit of cleared space in your home - keep that money hidden away for Christmas. Try to get on the Royal Mail posting panel, you get stamps and vouchers, do surveys -even someone as time poor as me can make £20 a year 

The earlier in the year you start looking towards Christmas , the cheaper it becomes - or rather more affordable. The other way, and one I do many a year, is leave the turkey and meat till Christmas Eve and buy reduced. You may not get what you actually want but sometimes you can pick it up for pennies - I still look back at the year I got half legs of Lamb for £1, turkeys for £6, chipolate sausages for 20p a pack and a huge beautiful Santa down a chimney chocolate Christmas cake from M&S for just £2. But Im a risk taker , we take what comes and make do with what I can get. You have to be brave to take that route, it doesn't always pay off 

Just remember that Christmas isnt about the amount of gifts ( and thankfully more and more are understanding this ) its about having family time. Having enough food and heat. No point in getting into debt for it and struggling all year 

Wraithlady

If your family are of the 'it's not Christmas if it's not turkey' opinion, (or there's a lot of you to feed)  this won't work but for those not feeding the 5000, a free-range capon (or two) works out substantially cheaper than a free-range turkey. 

I had to opt for a FR bird as 'supermarket' turkey has the taste and consistency of blotting paper imho and MIL couldn't eat goose or duck (my preferred option) - but it was pricey! Average £50-65 for the smallest they'd do and we always had more leftovers than we knew what to do with. A free-range chicken or capon, however, is £7-10 which is a very noticeable saving, cooks more quickly (saving fuel costs) and we still had leftovers.

Landgirlinthelittlecity

Might not help you now but we as a family put away £20 a month from Jan to oct and then in oct we have a specified number to get what we want. It’s worked really good the last few years and we’ve not needed to worry about what to get everyone, plus because oct is the last payment you can get something in the Black Friday sales. This year myself and my other half are banding together to get a drill for the house. 

Floss

Wraithlady said:

If your family are of the 'it's not Christmas if it's not turkey' opinion, (or there's a lot of you to feed)  this won't work but for those not feeding the 5000, a free-range capon (or two) works out substantially cheaper than a free-range turkey. 

I had to opt for a FR bird as 'supermarket' turkey has the taste and consistency of blotting paper imho and MIL couldn't eat goose or duck (my preferred option) - but it was pricey! Average £50-65 for the smallest they'd do and we always had more leftovers than we knew what to do with. A free-range chicken or capon, however, is £7-10 which is a very noticeable saving, cooks more quickly (saving fuel costs) and we still had leftovers.

As a child we always had a capon for Christmas dinner, as my mum didn't like turkey. I can't find them anywhere now though, even my local butcher cannot get hold of them.

Flugelhorn

There will be 4 of us for Xmas and no-one eats that much turkey - we usually get a turkey breast / portion (last year £5  I think) - no left overs and plenty of space in the ovens for all the other goodies 

joedenise

We always had capon at Christmas when I was a child.  It was made illegal in the UK at least 20 years ago but if you're lucky you might find a butcher who can get you one but it will be imported from somewhere where it is not illegal.