Cushon's Christmas Saving Tips

For December, we’ve come up with 12 saving tips which may ease the financial pinch we know comes with the festive period…  

1. Use them or lose them: Loyalty points 

Building up loyalty points throughout the year to spend during the Christmas period can be a really great way of softening the blow.  

The average shopper has around £47.19 of unused loyalty points. So, you may have enough points for your Christmas food shop or some presents without even knowing it!  

Check out this list of best supermarket loyalty cards – and remember, it's never too early to start saving up points for next year!  

2. Be open about present budgets  

It was recently Talk Money Week, but it doesn’t need to be over. Let’s carry this on during the festive period and normalise talking about money. When you’ve worked out how much you can afford to spend on presents this year, have the conversation with family and friends early and agree on a budget you’re both comfortable with. 

Secret Santa can be a great way to keep the costs down if you have a big family or friend groups and can also make it more fun! Don’t forget to set a budget! 

3. Get some credit this Christmas 

We can’t tell you how to make the family appreciate the four hours of beautiful wrapping you’ll do, but we can tell you that credit cards can be useful at Christmas.   

If you’re buying a present worth over £100, consider using a credit card. This means you are covered by Section 75  law, and so if you even partly pay for something costing between £100 and £30,000, the card company is jointly liable for the whole amount.  

But remember, only use your credit card if you know you can easily pay back the balance. By all means, take advantage of the additional protection, but don’t use your credit card to buy things you can’t really afford, you’ll regret it in the new year.  

4. Budgets & Baubles 

We’re not talking about an overbearing time-consuming budget here, instead look at your balance and allocate an allowance to each Christmas activity. Good categories to think of are:  

Christmas Food and Decorations. Presents. Social activities  

How much can you reasonably give to each this year, but remain financially in control? Many bank account apps allow you to create pots – with names – where you can put money and give it a specific purpose. 

5. Parcels & Pots 

Having a budget is one thing, delivering on it is another. One of the best things you can do is get ahead of the curve, so think about using the next 11 months to prepare. With Cushon, you can have anything from £10 going into a pot. Set up a Christmas pot (even name it that in the Cushon App) and put in a small monthly contribution that will make next December easy, with minimum effort in the interim.  

6. Eco-friendly economising 

Christmas brings a slightly less shiny and exciting angle when it comes to the planet. Biffa (the waste management company) suggests that more than 100 million bags of rubbish are sent to landfill each Christmas.   

Brits will bin what equates to 108 million rolls of wrapping paper. Check if you can save any paper to reuse next year or if you have any from last year that can be used. Also be sure to check that the paper you’re buying is recyclable! This is an easy switch to make with a big impact.  

7. Review your finances over the break 

January brings a good clean slate for new habits, and for many of us financial habits are top of the list for review. It’s not been an easy year, and there’s worry that people will start opting out of pensions to increase monthly income.  

However, this move can put your financial future at increased risk and could lead to longer-term financial struggles. If you opt out or reduce your contributions, you could be giving up more than you think including tax relief and employer contributions. Before making any decisions, check how much income your pension could generate in retirement and see how contributions might impact your savings using

11. Make the most out of online discounts  

If you are someone that prefers to online shop for presents, when browsing around make sure to utilise tools like Honey, a browser extension that automatically searches and applies coupon codes at your online checkout with a single click. Install it here to start saving! 

 12. Freeze that food 

The nightmare before Christmas is thinking you’ll not have enough food, and the nightmare after Christmas is trying to work out what to do with all the leftovers. There’s only so many soups and turkey curry the kids will eat.   

Food waste at Christmas is a huge issue, and it really doesn’t need to be. Freeze it! Make it into something, batch it up and whack it in the freezer. Great for the getting through January, the bank balance and great for the planet. 

If you or your family have any spare, unopened food after Christmas, please consider donating it to a local food bank as many people will be relying on these to make ends meet, especially during the cost-of-living crisis. Find your nearest food bank here.