Save £2,500 by Xmas with these 14 tips!

Follow these simple tips, and your bank balance will look far healthier by Xmas!

If you fancy giving your bank balance a boost before 2011, here are a number of very simple ways to make or save some serious amounts of cash by the end of the year!

#1 Give the gym the elbow

I’m not a fan of gyms – a bunch of men admiring themselves flexing in the mirror, and then walking around the changing rooms naked as the day they were born is not my idea of fun. And they are pretty expensive too, as you’ll be shelling out the best part of £30 to £50 a month for the privilege.

Worst of all, most of us don't use the gym often enough to make it worthwhile. If you only go once a week, think about how much each visit is costing you. It's even more painful than doing exercise, isn't it?

Personally, I’m a much bigger fan of doing exercise that doesn’t cost me a penny. Have a read of 11 ways to get fit for free for ideas on how you can do the same.

Of course, your gym may not allow you to cancel your contract if you're part-way through it, but you may at least be able to pause your membership or potentially sell it on. Call them up and investigate.

Money saved: Up to £150

#2 - Switching your bank account

One dead easy way to raise some quick funds is to switch your current account to one of the clutch of accounts which actually pay you a cash reward just for opening them.

And what’s more, these accounts are actually pretty terrific in their own right. The Halifax Reward current account, for example, pays you £5 a month so long as you pay in £1,000, irrespective of your balance at the end of the month - and Halifax will give you £50 in cash just for opening it. Alternately, there’s the Santander Preferred In-Credit Rate account, which pays £100 cashback when you switch, and then offers a market-leading 5% interest on balances up to £2,500.

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And finally, there’s the First Direct 1st Account, far and away the most popular account with lovemoney.com readers in terms of the customer service it offers. With this account you’ll get £100 for signing up, and then a further £100 if you’re not happy after six months and want to move elsewhere.

Money made: £50-£100

#3 - Packed lunches are in

Working in London, lunchtimes are something of a nightmare. Just walking out of the office door, I’m hit with the alluring smells of local Italian, Chinese, Mexican, Malaysian and Thai takeaways. It’s very easy to end up handing over the best part of £25 a week just on lunches, which is an awful lot.

By switching to making your own lunch every day (with the odd treat here and there, of course) you can save at least half of that outlay, which soon adds up.

Money saved: at least £150

#4 - Sensible spending

Whenever I want to buy something now, I hold back until I’ve checked the likes of Quidco and GreasyPalm to see how much cashback I can get for my spend. And when it comes to Christmas presents, I’ll be deciding what my family and friends get based entirely on how much cashback I can make as a result!

Just how much cashback you earn varies depending on what you buy – for example, CDs and DVDs tend to attract rates of about 5%, while gadgets are nearer 10%. The rate on offer also varies depending on the retailer, but if you use cashback effectively between now and the end of the year for your shopping, there’s no reason you can’t make £100 back.

#5 – Vouchers and discounts

It’s not just cashback websites that make shopping an awful lot easier. You also can’t afford to do your Xmas shopping without the aid of the many voucher and discount code websites around at the moment.

According to MyVoucherCodes.co.uk a third of us saved £100 on our Xmas shopping last year by using voucher codes. Don't be one of the two-thirds who miss out on easy savings!

Money saved: £100

#6 - Book travel early!

Xmas is a time when many of us do the rounds, seeing the family that you do your best to avoid for a lot of the year (not me, obviously). However, if seeing them involves travelling, then those journeys can cost a fortune – Xmas is not a cheap time to take a flight or a train.

#7 - Ditch unwanted presents

Every year, you can guarantee that you will get at least a couple of horrific Xmas presents. And if you’re anything like me, you probably stick them at the back of the cupboard and forget about them.

Well, why not make some money from them? Stick unwanted presents, along with old DVDs or books that you no longer want on auction sites like eBay or eBid, and you’ll soon have made a few bob from stuff you neither want nor need!

Money made: Up to £100

#8 - Clever bits of plastic

Where you do your shopping is one thing, but how you pay for it can also lead to some serious returns, particularly if you use a cashback credit card.

The top card in the market currently is the American Express Platinum Cashback card. Over the first three months, it offers a return of 5% cashback, up to a maximum of £100. So in other words, put all of your spending on the card in the buildup to Xmas, and you’ll be looking at a £100 reward!

Unfortunately, American Express isn't accepted everywhere, and after the first three months the cashback rate drops to between 0.5% and 1.5%, depending on how much you spend. So you may prefer the Egg Money World Mastercard, which is more widely accepted and offers a straightforward 1% on all purchases. However, you do have to pay a £1 monthly fee for this card. Just be aware big spenders (who spend over £7,500 a year or more) are better off with Amex.

Money made: £100

#9 - Sort out your boiler

Winter is coming, so it’s the most important time of the year to be sure that your heating isn’t going to let you down.

If you’re planning to upgrade your boiler, you should definitely consider npower, who have an amazing promotion at the moment – any homeowner installing a new A-rated boiler through the firm will receive cashback of £349. What’s more, the firm claims that having an A-rated boiler can save you up to £225 in energy costs!

Money made/saved: £574

#10 - Switch your energy supplier

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It’s not just your boiler that can lead to some decent savings – if you switch your energy supplier, you can save around £150 a year. And as we’re about to head into the period when you’d be spending the majority of that, now is exactly the time to switch to the cheapest possible deal for you.

Be sure to use the lovemoney.com energy quote engine to compare the best deals in your area.

Money saved: Up to £150

#11 - Ditch your old mobile

If you have an old mobile sat in the back of the cupboard collecting dust, you are missing out on some useful cash. According to SellMyMobile.com, September has seen the highest increase in price offered by mobile phone recycling firms, thanks in part to the number of smart phones now being recycled.

And if you don’t like your iPhone 4 much, you really are missing out – you can currently get £438.60 if you recycle it!

#12 - Forget about cards

If there is one thing I hate about Xmas – and any other notable occasion of the year for that matter – it’s the fact that you need to exchange cards. Why? They are just a complete waste of money, and will be in the recycling basket (or worse, down the back of the closet) in a matter of weeks.

Why not send e-cards online, or if you really must hand over something physical, make it yourself!

Money saved: £25

#13 - Ditch the cinema

I used to love going to the cinema regularly, but I just can’t justify shelling out £15 for my wife and I to nip down to my local multiplex (besides the fact I can’t resist the pick & mix).

In comparison, signing up for a deal with someone like lovefilm starts to look like a bargain – you can currently get a 14 day free trial, and even after that you can rent two films a month for just £3.99 a month.

Money saved: Around £75

#14 - Enter the lovemoney.com competition!

And finally, for the chance to win £100 (plus all sorts of lovemoney.com goodies) all you have to do is take these quick surveys.