There are loads of expenses to think about when it comes to Christmas. Here's how to save on your festive essentials.
Sections
Trees
Gifts
Food and drink
Entertainment
Everyone loves a pantomime but they’re not always the cheapest evenings out. Go to Ticketmaster to find out where to book tickets for national shows and tours. Don’t despair if it’s too expensive as local theatres have some great offerings for much cheaper too. Look out for newspaper deals in the coming weeks.
Grab free tickets for a TV Christmas special like Surprise Surprise with Holly Willoughby and ITV Text Santa or Brass Bands at Christmas. Head over to Applause Store or the BBC to find more shows.
Go to Opentable, 5pm and lastminute.com for special offers on meals out.
Parties
Extras
Cash in, cashback and other money tips
Cash in on your loyalty. If you haven’t exchanged your loyalty points for a while, now is the time to do it.
Even if you don't shop at the likes of Tesco or Sainsbury's regularly, you may find you have racked up a healthy amount of points which can shave some of the cost off of Christmas.
Make purchases through cashback websites and get a percentage of your spending back. They’re really simple to use. All you have to do is sign up for free (we like TopCashback and Quidco) and have a browse through what you want. To get the cashback you just need to buy through the cashback site’s special link. Your cashback will be in your account within 14 days.
Get on Groupon or LivingSocial for festive deals. You can pick up novelty jumpers, Christmas cards and discounts on Christmas events.
While it’s great to take advantage of the many, many offers available at Christmas time, don’t be lured in by store cards. They can generally only be used with one retailer or group and some charge as much as 25% interest. Shoppers are enticed by attractive introductory perks without any real warning of the debt dangers of running up interest on such a card. Be careful about signing up to multiple cards in a short space of time as it can do some damage to your credit rating.
The best plastic to use for your Christmas shopping is a credit card. You can choose between various perks like interest-free purchases, cashback on your spending and other rewards like air miles and supermarket points. Find out more at The best credit cards for Christmas 2017.
Check to see if you’re entitled to any unclaimed benefits and tax credit cuts. Find out what you could be getting by visiting the Gov.uk website.
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