How to be Ready For Christmas at the Start of December

I think I'm in the majority group of people that find Christmas to be quite an expensive affair but most of the time I actually manage to find myself ready for the festivities at the start of December, now I know it probably won't be much use to you now but I thought this would be a good post to refer back to next year to help ease the burden of Christmas. So here are five tips to help you save those pennies.

Don't just buy gifts in December

Now this might seem like an obvious one but there are so many of us that year after year after promising to start early, still find ourselves rush buying in the middle of the countdown to that special day. The trick I've found is to buy things all year round, grab the bargains when you seem them. Boxing Day is a good time to start, this is when you can get all of your wrapping paper, cards etc for the following year. And these days shops have sales on all year round so pick things up as and when you have a bit of money spare, you'll be surprised how quickly you can buy for everyone and at a fraction of the cost.my 

Save those pennies

And I mean this one literally. Save the small change. My mum and I put aside all our 1ps, 2ps, 5ps, 20ps and even 50ps when we can. This year we've managed to save just over £100 in change, this goes towards smaller presents and the drink bill. The only problem I have here is carrying all that money down to the bank, it's one heavy load I can tell you! By saving throughout the year it means that you don't have to wait for that December pay packet to go and buy things.

How to Make Easy Savings this New Year

We're speeding through the new year, nearly half way through January now (how did that happen?). This is a busy time of year for me, lots of birthdays throughout January, February and March and while I'm trying to get over the expense of Christmas I'm always thinking about ways to save money whilst making sure there is still enough in the bank too.

People say a new year, and a new start! For some, it may just be another calendar year and whilst I don't typically set resolutions anymore, 2017 presents an excellent opportunity to start fresh on so many fronts and of course one of them is financially, and to ensure I start the year on sound financial footing, while instilling good habits in terms of spending and saving. 

2016 was a pretty challenging year for a lot of people, and with the Brexit process set to begin in earnest within the next couple of months, many believe that we could be in for a bumpy ride, the future is sort of unknown.

Now I know that most of that stuff is beyond our control so all I can think is that it is best to concentrate on myself and my family, taking care of things at home, and ensure that our ducks are nicely in a row. Here are some easy ways that I'm going to try and implement myself  and hopefully you’ll find them useful too…

Become a budgeter

It’s always something we plan to do, or vaguely keep track of in our heads. But how many of us ever actually get around to sitting down and putting pen to paper on what we actually spend each day or week? Shining the light on day-to-day outgoings will almost certainly highlight ways to save. Sure, we all need to have some luxuries we enjoy in life. But chances are, a bit of budgeting, and then sticking to it, will leave you with many more pennies in your pocket at the end of each month. My first cut is the amount of takeaways and eating out we do.

Saving Money With Aldi

Food bills. These seem to keep going up and up and this isn't just because the number of children I have has increased over the years!! It is the price of things like meat and fresh produce that I find to be the most expensive. So when I was recently asked by Aldi if I'd go and do a shop around my local Aldi store to see if I could save myself some money on my weekly shop, I just had to give it a go.

I was sent £40's worth of vouchers towards my food shop. I tried to stick with the things I would normally buy.

So lets start with the negatives. My local Aldi store is a very small one so doesn't stock the biggest range of things so there were certain items that I wasn't able to purchase, this isn't a reflection on all Aldi stores though. I also found that a lot of products didn't have long dates on them so I would be left having to buy the same again sooner than I'd like.

But having said all this, did I save money?

Yes I did!! £40 got me a lot for my money with bags of potatoes for as little as 59p and branded products such as Colgate toothpaste for a tiny 75p, I was impressed.

The best savings were when it came to the price of meat. A comparison to where I normally shop :