How To Have A Thrifty Christmas

By Nadine On December 12, 2012 · 1 Comment

December is my most expensive month of the year, not only because of Christmas, but 24th December is also rather special in our family! My husband and I met on Christmas Eve way back in 1990, we had our daughter on Christmas Eve in 2002, and my sister in law and one of my best friends also celebrate their birthdays on Christmas Eve, so December is a month for celebration!

When I heard that Tesco Mobile was having an #XmasSavingTips Blogger Challenge to celebrate their new handset deals, I wanted to join in with the money saving fun and share my own tips on creating extra value this Christmas.

Tesco Mobile has some great deals on handsets and tariffs at the moment, including the Samsung Galaxy Ace which is only £12.50 per month with 500 free minutes, 5000 texts and 500MB of data or the BlackBerry Curve 9320 which is on pay as you go for just £125. But I have my own ‘handiwork’ to save money this Christmas – see what I did there?! Handsets, handiwork – LOL!

Here is what I do to make Christmas as thrifty as possible, and anyone can use these tips for a cheaper festive season too. It is all in the organisation, so you may want to print this blog post to use as a checklist for next year…

Things you can do now:
Before Christmas we decorate the tree. The children usually come home from school with a handcrafted decoration, but another fun idea is to make sweet treats for tree decorations at home!

Have you ever made Rice Krispie buns? Well how about Rice Krispie tree baubles? Here is a recipe I’m using, and it will occupy the children one weekend before Christmas when I want to avoid the chaos of shopping malls and gridlocked roads! Warning, I got it from an American magazine so the measurements are in ‘cups’!

12 lengths of string liquorice
12 mini marshmellows
3tbsp butter or margarine
4 cups mini marshmellows
6 cups Kellogg’s Rice Krispie’s
frosting to decorate

For the tree hanger part – Fold each liquorice piece in half and push ends through centres of 12 marshmellows. Set aside.
In a large pan, melt butter over low heat. Add marshmellows & stir until completely melted. Remove from heat.
Add Rice Krispie’s- stir well until coated.
Divide warm cereal mixture into 12 portions. Shape each portion around liquorice ends. Cool.
Decorate with frosting.
Serving size – 1 ornament to hang on the tree!

After Christmas:
When you are putting away the trimmings and recycling the cards, select a few cards that have a neat image on the front- a Santa face or a Christmas tree for example, and as long as the sender didn’t write on the back of the image, you can cut it out to make a unique gift tag for next year’s presents! Why go out and spend a few pounds on shop bought tags when these work just as well and cost you nothing!

In the post-Christmas sales when everything is half price, purchase next year’s Christmas crackers (they will store well in the loft or under a bed) and also get things like pyjamas, slippers, gloves and make up bags etc. Things that do not have an expiry date are ideal to buy when they have money off and put away for a family member for next year. It means you have got a start on your shopping well in advance too!

On their own, none of these tips will save you a fortune, but put together it can make quite a difference to your purse at this time of year and as they say at Tesco, ‘every little helps!’

Disclosure: This post is part of the BritMums / Tesco Mobile blogger challenge to share our best #XmasSavingTips and contains sponsored content.