Money Saving Amy: How can you save on the Christmas food shopping?

Hello everyone. I hope you’re all having a lovely December so far.

Firstly, this is a question I’ve had quite a bit lately, with Christmas fast approaching.

How can I save on my Christmas food shopping?

Utilise your loyalty scheme points, for example Nectar points, Tesco Clubcard points and Asda rewards cash. If you’ve been building them up then now is a great time to use these.

Also don’t forget that nearer to Christmas the supermarkets are very likely to do super cheap vegetables, so keep an eye out for that and get stocked up.

Another great way could be to check the Olio app, if you see free food available that would be great for Christmas, you could get it and freeze it until it’s needed.

And then of course, make things yourself, the shops are full of pre-made Christmas food but this comes at a cost, a bag of premium brand roast potatoes would set you back around £2.50-£3, or more! Whereas a 2kg bag of potatoes could be as little as 59p, or maybe even cheaper when the supermarkets slash their prices. You can prep foods like this in advance, often by blanching and then freezing and storing in the freezer so that some of the prep work is done already.

Finally, don’t over buy Christmas food, I myself in previous years have filled the freezers in December with party food and pigs in blankets, which we then end up eating all through January even when we’re fed up of it. Make a list of what you need and stick to it, if it helps, try and get your food delivered, or use a click and collect service, so you’re not temped to buy extra while wondering round the supermarket.

I hope that these tips help to keep those Christmas food costs down.

Christmas fun on a budget

If you’re heading out for a catch up with a friend or family member this December, or just enjoying a few hours of fun. There’s a couple of apps you need to know about, to enjoy some free treats!

Firstly, the “Dusk” app, with this app you can get a free drink every single day (yes, really!), the drinks change regularly and not every venue offers them, but you can filter the app to show the free drinks venues and this is a fab way to catch up with a friend, for free! If you both have the app, you can both have a free drink, it’s one per person (each person must have the app).

There’s also a new app called “MiXR”, this is for Stonegate pubs and if you sign up to the app, you’ll get a free drink, another fab one for enjoying some Christmas fun on a budget.

Santa - without breaking the bank!

We all know that Santa trips can be a pricey day out, but, they don’t have to be! Often local shopping centres or churches offer Santa’s grottos for a much more purse friendly price.

The Mander centre in Wolverhampton has a grotto that’s only £5 per child, with a gift included.

If you want to make it into more of a day out, you could grab a free hot chocolate from greggs if you’ve got the o2 priority app, or pop into Marks and Spencer’s to get some free Percy Pig sweets using the Swhop box in store, and then have a Christmas stroll round the shopping centre admiring the lights, or head to the art gallery where it’s free entry.

Gift ideas that are useful, but affordable.

If you’re struggling to decide on gifts for people, here’s my list of budget, but useful gifts for people.

•Learning resources for pre-school aged children are a great way to encourage learning through play if you want to avoid traditional toys. Things such as flash cards, wipe clean writing books, puzzles and reading/writing activity books are all fun, affordable and useful gift ideas. “The Works” is particularly good for these types of gifts.

•If you’ve got someone in your life who loves everything “Mrs Hinch”, then you need to head to B&M where they have items such as draw dividers and organisers for as little as £3.50! This could make a great hamper for someone who loves their home organisation. And if someone enjoys everything eco friendly, you could consider gifting them an eco-egg and tumble dryer balls, not only are these a fab eco friendly swap, they’re also a long term, practical, money saving gift.

•Blankets, heated blankets, slippers and hot water bottles are all lovely, cosy gift ideas, available in a wide range of nice designs, but are also a practical gift idea, particularly for these chilly winter days, they will also help keep the cost of heating our houses down!

•A gift that would be lovely for a wide range of people of all ages, would be a “one line a day book” you can get these online for a very reasonable price and they’re a lovely, thoughtful, long lasting gift. The idea of these is you write one sentence everyday for 5 years in the book.

•Homemade gifts such as fudge, biscuits or cakes can also be a lovely gift idea, while still remaining affordable, there’s many ways you can utilise household items to package these too, such as using old jam jars with ribbon round them.

If you’re looking for more ways to have a budget friendly Christmas, head over to my Instagram @_moneysavingamy where I’ve been sharing some cheap, easy, Christmas DIY crafting ideas.