Money Saving Amy provides post-Christmas advice on saving those pennies

Here’s some money saving tips for the ongoing Christmas and New Year holidays.

Money is probably tight after treating yourself for the big day, but there still many ways to enjoy yourselves without dipping into your reserves.

Freebies

Firstly let’s talk about some freebies that you could enjoy this Christmas period.

There’s currently a free cocktail or mocktail on the Vodafone app, valid at Revolution bars until December 30. If you’re after some more free drinks don’t forget to use the “Dusk” app and the “MiXR” app which will also give you free drinks. This is a lovely way to enjoy the festivities over a drink, without having to spend!

Next up is a free hot drink at Greggs, valid each week on the 02 priority app. Not only can you access this app as an 02 customer, you also get access to this app as a Virgin media customer.

As well as your free drink Sunday-Thursday (one total drink during those days), you can also get a free Greggs breakfast roll or sausage roll or hot drink on a Friday or Saturday too.

Also a reminder, that if you have an Asda Christmas cash pot, this must be spent by the end of December or it will expire, so don’t forget to use that for some “free” food and drink over the festive period, or just to stock up on those essentials.

Left over food

A great way to make the festive food last longer is to make bubble and squeak, this is a versatile recipe that you can throw pretty much anything into. Last year I used up various vegetables such as sprouts, carrots, and cabbage along side potatoes. You can also make this for vegetarians or meat eaters.

All you need to do is mix up all the left over veg and potatoes, making sure it all sticks together and then pop small amounts in the frying pan, when they start to crisp up, fold the mixture in half and flatten again and repeat this to make the bubble and squeak nice and crispy throughout.

Other great ways to use the left over food include turkey sandwiches, turkey curry, Yorkshire pudding wraps, turkey pie and stew (very versatile!).

Shopping the sales

When it comes to the sales, remind yourself that it’s only a bargain if you were going to buy it anyway.

It can be easy to get carried away when the prices are reduced. A couple of simple ways to keep yourself from over spending are to either avoid the shops if you feel you won’t be able to stick to a budget or that you don’t actually need anything. But also think of the year ahead – if you over spend now, what will that affect? Would you rather lots of sale clothes or a trip out in summer? Asking myself that helps me to stay on track when it comes to bargain hunting.

If you feel that you won’t be able to resist things while going round the shops, stick to shopping online where you can just shop for the product you want. If there’s something you really want and are worried you may miss it being on sale, sign up to the email newsletter of the brand/shop which will likely notify you of sales going live.

But of course, the sales can be a great time of year to get ahead for the following year on a much lower budget. You may be able to grab wrapping paper, cards, and stocking fillers for a fraction of the cost. A particularly good sale can be the boots sale, over the course of a couple of months the prices will get lower, but the stock choice will also get lower. Last year I did manage to grab some lovely bath bombs when they were 70 per cent off! This is a great sale to stack with the boots scan2recycle offer too to get even more for your money.

If you are shopping the sales, remember to get even more discount by getting cash back via site like Top Cashback, Jam Doughnut, Airtime rewards or Qudico. These are sites and apps that you either shop through, or buy gift cards from to pay with, either one offers a percentage of cash back. Cash back is free money on something you’re buying anyway so it’s a must do money saving trick.

It is of course important to check that your sale item is actually a good deal, many websites now offer a “price check” history of an item so you can see whether that is actually a low price for the item, and whether the item has been that price before. This is something to be particularly wary of with tech items and more expensive items, shops can sometimes over inflate prices for a few weeks before and drop the price for a “sale”, so this is something to be cautious of when shopping the sales.

January can also be a great time for looking out for deals in restaurants and hotels, with many offering discounts to get customers in, during the quieter months. So again, if there’s somewhere you like to visit but often can’t justify, check their website or sign up to emails and keep an eye out for discounts.

I hope you all have a wonderful time bringing in the new year in a few days time. I look forward to bringing you some January budgeting tips to set you up for the year ahead.