Are fancy advent calendars worth it? any deals around?

Lolfo

So many beer/candle/bath bomb/stationery advent calendars out there. Are they a gimmick or are they good value? Thankyou.

MSE_Oliver

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WhFlJOay64

Here is a transcript of the video above:

Okay, so we're talking about the beer Advent calendars, the wine Advent calendars. The cheese Advent calendar is one that gets a lot of attention with the mini cheeses in. Are they a gimmick? Yeah, a lot of the time they are but not always.

I actually had a look a few years ago, these quirky Advent calendars and worked out the worth of the items inside them. I'd say about 65% or 70% of the time, you were paying a premium for the calendar, so they're not always the best value, but some people won't be fussed about that because they're kind of a bit of festive fun, aren't they? So it may be that you just want to check to see if you're okay with the overall price.

Now, beauty Advent calendars, they are a little bit different. You can pay £30 or whatever it might be and get £100+ worth of stuff in them (if you were going to buy them separately). So they can be a good way to get beauty items that you'd like for cheaper or the other thing that you can do is also split them up and give them as gifts to different people.

Oli Townsend - MSE Deals Expert

This question and answer came about during the MSE Forum 'Ask An Expert' event. It won't be updated so may no longer be correct at time of reading. This info does not constitute financial advice: always do your own research on top to make sure it's right for your circumstances

Ask an Expert: Deals & Shopping (Nov 2022)