It’s not long until Christmas and I know how stressful December can be. Worrying about presents and plans over the festive period, and time feels as if it goes so much quicker in December. Today I wanted to share some tips for a budget friendly Christmas, and although it might be too late to put some of these tips into place for this Christmas, I’m hoping some of these tips might come in handy when planning for next Christmas.
My first tip saves me a fortune throughout the year and is something I watched my mum do every year as a child. Every year she’d purchase a selection of gift sets in the Boxing Day sales and keep them stored away for birthdays throughout the year. It’s such a great tip as you can usually find Christmas sets for half price in places like Boots, and you’ll thank yourself for stocking up once friends or family member’s birthdays roll around and you’ve already got a gifting stash to raid.
If like me you have a number of parcels to send to loved ones over Christmas, I cannot recommend Parcel2Go enough as they’re my go-to parcel delivery service regardless of the time of year. They’re basically a really handy service allowing you to get a quote online for the parcel/s you want to send by giving them your postcode, your recipients postcode and finally your weight.
Parcel2Go then give you the different courier services available for you to use and a quote for each one. It’s particularly handy as I work from home, so I can select the services that offer a collection service as they can pick up my parcel from home but some offer a drop off service too.
Sending parcels can be pretty costly at the best o times, but their quote facility allows you to choose the most competitive quote for your requirements and you can even add protection too. One of my favourite features is their parcel tracking service so you can see exactly where your parcel is whilst en route to its final destination for extra peace of mind when sending gifts through the mail.
Another of my recommendations is using cashback websites. If you aren’t already signed up to at least one, you’re absolutely missing out. I now use a number of cashback sites everytime I purchase anything online as it enables me to earn a small percentage of my order value as cashback. It’s literally a few clicks and I like to save my cashback during the year to cash out as vouchers near Christmas to put towards my gift buying to help me save some money.
The next of my tips for a budget friendly Christmas might be an obvious one, but always ensure you scan for promotional and discount codes before making any purchase online. You could find a discount code entitling you to money off or even free shipping, so it’s very much worth it for a couple of clicks and some of the cashback sites even have a promotional code and cashback deal so it’s always work a look.
My last of my tips is so simple but create gift spending limits. Sure enough it’s amazing to receive big expensive gifts but it can really leave a dent in your bank balance which you’ll end up paying for in the new year, and January is always such a long month. With my friends and family we always have a gift spending limit which ensures nobody goes overboard, or is left embarrassed by the differing values in their gifts. It’s always the thought that counts when it comes to buying gifts and it’s never worth getting into debt when purchasing gifts.
I really hope these tips for a budget friendly Christmas were helpful..
*contributed post
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