Now is the time to save money for Christmas!

Summer is finally on its way and we’re all looking forward to enjoying those sunny days and long light evenings. There are so many more things that you can do when the weather is warm and bright, and it’s so good to be able to get out in the fresh air whenever you want to.

And probably the last thing on your mind right now is . . . . . Christmas!

Whether you love or hate Christmas, it’s one of the unchangeable facts of life. It’s not going to go away any time soon. But the key thing is that the further in advance you prepare, the easier things will be. If you start to save money for Christmas now, you will not face that last-minute huge expense in December.

There are still over six months to go before Christmas. So here are six ideas on how to save money for Christmas. If you do just one of them every month, you should have a nice pot of money by December ….

Set up a new savings account

To get serious about saving, you need to set up a separate savings account. This will help you to keep your Christmas savings apart from your day to day money, so that you don’t keep dipping into it. It will also help you to see your savings start to grow, which can be incredibly motivating.

At the moment, interest rates are high for savers, so look around for a good deal. You should be able to find one for around 5% interest that also allows you to withdraw money without any penalties. Even if you only save money for a few months you will get some extra money from the interest on your account. 

Set up a direct debit to save money into this account. Even if it’s only a very small account, it is better than nothing, and you can find other ways to add to it, as we will now look at.

Find ways to reduce your regular payments

It’s amazing the number of people that make regular payments they no longer need to. Many of us don’t take the time to check bank statements but it’s important to do this so that you know exactly what you are paying for. In particular look for things like subscriptions, memberships and insurance payments that you may be paying for but no longer need and could cancel.

It’s also worth going through all your regular payments such as energy, phone, broadband, TV and necessary insurances to see if you can get a better deal on some of them. Often if you contact your current provider to explain that you are thinking of switching they will offer you better value to keep you as a customer.

You can also look at other potential providers to see if you could save money by switching. Websites such as Compare the Market, USwitch or Money Supermarket can help with this. 

Any money you save from the above efforts can be paid into your savings account every month instead.

Cut down on food waste

The UK has a major problem with food waste. On average, every individual in the UK wastes around 70 kg of food per year – the equivalent of 140 meals. This means that we are spending far more money than we need on food, and can eat just as well for much less cost.

The main way to cut down on food waste and save money on food shopping is to cook meals from scratch and plan your food shop carefully. If you plan your food shop you can use up ingredients that you already have in your cupboards, fridge and freezer. To get help with this, take a look at websites such as Love Food Hate Waste and Big Oven which have hundreds of nutritious meals based on what you already have. 

Careful planning will take a bit of time, but will ensure that you only buy items that you really need and will definitely use. And an extra way to save money is if you then make double quantities of every meal and freeze what you don’t use. This will enable you to start building up a supply of home-prepared meals that have already been paid for.

Set daily savings goals

As well as putting aside a monthly amount into your savings account, it can also be effective to set yourself daily savings goals from time to time. The amounts can vary, as can the ways you achieve them. 

As an example, you may decide to try and save an extra £5 every Friday. You could change the way you do this each week. One week you might decide to take your own coffee and lunch to work instead of buying them, buy one less drink if you go to the pub, watch a DVD instead of an on-demand movie . . . the possibilities are endless and you can do something different every week.

Another alternative is to save a little bit of money every day. You could either put all your loose change into a jar, or find some means of choosing a random amount to save that day.

Try a no-spend challenge

One popular way to save money is to do a no-spend challenge for a week or even a whole month. There are two ways to do this:

The first is to do a complete no-spend challenge. So you still pay for essentials, such as bills, food, basic toiletries and medicines, but cut out all unnecessary spending, such as going out, takeaway food or drinks, clothes, cosmetics, hairdressers or any kind of impulse buy. This is a great way to save money, which you can put straight into your savings account.

If this sounds a bit too much, you can do a smaller no-spend challenge by just cutting out one specific thing. Whether it’s alcohol, takeaways, shop-bought coffees, or anything else that you feel you spend too much money on, just give it up for one week or one month. You will still manage to save money and can add this to your growing savings.

Sell stuff you don’t need

Another great way to save money – and sort your home out at the same time – is to sell everything you don’t need. Recent research found that in a typical UK home, around a third of possessions in UK homes are unused. So why let them occupy precious space when they could be rehomed and hopefully bring you a bit of money in the process?

Some of the most common unused items include hardly-worn clothes, books, DVDs, puzzles or board games, and many other household items. So take a look around your home and start sorting out what could be sold.

Once you have a collection of items to sell, there are many ways to do this. For example:

• Car boot sales. See our article on car boot sales here for helpful tips.
• Online selling sites such as local neighbourhood groups, Facebook Marketplace, eBay, or Gumtree.
• Online collection services such as Music Magpie, We Buy Books and Ziffit.
• Specialist dealers for items such as jewellery, cameras or musical instruments.

You may have to spend a little money in the process – for example postage costs or car boot entry fees – but the rest can go into your savings account.

We hope that this article has given you a few ideas as to how to save money during the rest of the year, and be ready to enjoy Christmas 2024!

Do check back here soon for more financial and lifestyle tips from Loans 2 Go.