Sunday, November 6, 2011

Top 5 Tips for a Cheap Christmas


What with all the gifts you have to buy this December, along with the necessary stocking up on festive food and decorations, Christmas can be expensive. But there is a whole range of ways to make your Christmas budget go further this year, without missing out on all those glittery extras.

Rather than waiting until you run out of money and splurging on applications for instant decision credit cards or instant loans at the last minute, make use of these top five tips for Christmas budgeting and enjoy a Christmas without the horror of excessive repayments come the new year.

1. Use discount vouchers

Forget ideas about Scrooge, these days there are a huge range of top-name discount vouchers available at the click of a button, and all the smart kids are using them. Discount vouchers can help you take a good chunk off your Christmas present costs with minimum effort. It’s a sensible way to cut your overall bills by upwards of 10 percent, and you won’t be limited on choice as so many major brands and high street chains are doing it.

2. Start setting money aside

It’s a wise idea to start putting aside a lump of your earnings each month in the run up to Christmas. This way, you will have a ready-made Christmas fund when the time comes to start shopping. It’s far better to save money and earn interest than to have to look around for instant decision credit cards or instant loans, on which you will be paying out high rates of interest. Interest rates on savings may be low at the moment but shopping around can find you a savings account which will earn you a reasonable amount of interest on those monthly payments, giving you a little extra for granny’s new hat and scarf or your teenager’s latest Apple accessory.

3. Recycle your handset

Recycling your old phone is good for the environment and will also earn you some extra cash. This is especially relevant if a new mobile turns out to be one of your Christmas gifts. eBay is one place to go to sell off the old model, and there are a large number of online firms willing to pay good money for your old handset, and you can compare valuations online at many of the sites simply by typing in your model number.

4. Get cash for your contract

If your Christmas gift list includes a brand new mobile phone, try using one of the cashback or voucher sites such as Quidco, which offer good money for your old contract. Selling an under-used contract is just good sense, and could earn you well over 50 pounds for your trouble – another sum which could help make those applications for instant decision credit cards and instant loans redundant.

5. Get free tickets

One regular Christmas expense, particularly if you are part of a large family, will be attending the local pantomime or its equivalent. Fortunately, this is an expense you can escape by gaining free audience tickets to any of the festive TV or radio shows over Christmas. The BBC and most other channels will offer these to members of the public on their websites, sign up for the relevant newsletters for updates.

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