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Kelkoo's Bargain Hunters Guide to Christmas
Chapter 3
Saving on your Seasonal Spend
Even before presents are taken into account, Christmas is an expensive business. We eat more, drink more and go out more during the two-week festive period than at any other time of the year. Yet all these costs can be cut down to size with some careful planning and by following a few simple do's and don'ts.
Firstly, the Don'ts
Don't visit the supermarket in person - go online
Supermarkets are masters at getting customers to spend more than they intended on stuff they didn't even know they needed. Everything they do, from pumping the smell of freshly baked bread around the store to putting tempting BOGOF deals (buy one get one free) at the ends of aisles is done deliberately to get shoppers to part with more cash. So, remove temptation and shop online. Just don't forget to take account of the different delivery charges.
Don't use your Nectar or Clubcard points to pay for food
Whilst it is tempting to save up all those loyalty points that have accumulated during the year and use them for the Christmas food shopping, you could get four times as much by using them to purchase other goods. The vouchers are frequently worth up to four times their face value when put towards the purchase of items such as holidays, jewellery, air miles, family meals out, cinema tickets or Red Letter Days. In other words, use them as part payment for Christmas presents and they will be worth four times as much as they would if you used them to buy the food.
Now the Do's
Check your online supermarket is best value
Shopping online can save you tens of pounds each week compared to shopping in a supermarket but don't just plump for the same shop online. Look around and compare your Christmas cake costs and your satsumas. You could save even more. There is a fantastic website called www.mysupermarket.co.uk that allows you to purchase items from four supermarkets: Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Ocado, in one fell swoop. Basically, you pick your supermarket of choice from the list and start shopping. Myshopping alerts you, as you go along to items that could save you money and/or calories. It will even monitor the cost of your trolley against other supermarkets once you've compiled your shop. Finally, when you've finished, it will either send your order online straight to the supermarket(s) or allow you to print out your list so you know what to buy and from where for the best value in town.
Look for wine vouchers Shop for wine via www.winesdirect.co.uk
There are plenty of online wine merchants that offer great service, including Laithwaites, Virgin wines and the Sunday Times Wine Club. Wines Direct has vouchers that can be redeemed against purchases from any of these, ranging from £20 off when you spend £59 at Virgin wines to £50 off when you spend £149 at Formula Wine. That means it is possible to get a dozen bottles of decent stuff for less than a fiver a bottle (in some cases you could get away with around £3.50 a bottle - not bad!).
Go out for less. Use loyalty points and discount vouchers
Supermarket loyalty points (Sainsbury's Nectar or Tesco Clubcard) can be used to pay for meals in places such as Cafe Rouge and Chez Gerard and can even be used for cinema tickets, train journeys and entry into theme parks, zoos and family days out. If you use your loyalty points to buy food, they are only worth their face value; if you redeem them against meals and days out, they are worth up to four times as much. So, plan what meals out and entertainment you want to do with the family over the Christmas holiday and put your loyalty points towards the most expensive item. They will be worth much more to you that way.
It is also worth checking out www.vouchercodes.co.uk which has a brilliant selection of vouchers which retailers post on their site for limited periods, such as meals at Pizza Express for just £1 or BOGOF offers (buy one get one free) at ASK and other popular restaurant chains.
For further discounts, www.discountbritain.net is helpfully divided into sections, to allow you to choose where you want to save money when going out, it is great. The site offers vouchers giving 20% off 100 of Britain's top attractions for groups of up to six people. There is a big London section but also a UK-wide section including everything from Sea Life centres and castles, to Cadbury World or even Old Trafford.
Christmas can cost a fortune but with a bit of planning you can cut that bill right down to size.
Visit loved ones for less
Buying a train ticket these days can be extremely confusing. There are so many tariffs, each with its own special rule on when you can and cannot travel that obscure what is and isn't a good deal. However, there are some basic rules to help you cut your holiday travel down to size
Book early - if you're reading this then you've missed the 12-weeks early rule but still the earlier, the better.
The best website for train travel is the Trainline (http://www.thetrainline.com/buytickets/). If you know when and where you want to go then sign up to its ticket alert system. It e-mails you the minute cheap advance tickets for your specific journey come on sale.
Flying off for some yuletide sun can also be a challenge for the purse strings, particularly if you're banking on staying away for New Year. The most expensive time to holiday is between Christmas Eve and January 2nd. So, if you don't care when you go, opt to holiday the week before Christmas.
Scour the internet for the best deals using www.travelsupermarket.com or www.opodo.com. You can also search for cheap travel deals with Kelkoo.
Get Skyped
There are always some family or friends that are hard to visit in person at Christmas so do the next best thing, talk to them online for next to nothing with a webcam.
Skype allows you to do all this so long as you're prepared to phone using the internet. It is particularly helpful for those with friends and family overseas. Persuade your nearest and dearest to get webcam'd up and you can have a face-to-face conversation from the other side of the world.
The two big deals to choose from are Skype's Unlimited Europe Package for £3.39 a month or the Unlimited World Package for £7.99 a month.
To make a great early Christmas present, why not persuade those you want to talk to regularly to join up to Skype too, you will see and talk more often than before and could even watch each other open presents on the day itself. Magic.
If that sounds all too much, then get bundling. Tiscali is charging £14.99 a month for its Option 1 Free broadband offer, with a £30 connection fee and the first three months at just £9.99. That's a lot of numbers to crunch but it works out at about £17.50 a month.
There are also great deals from TalkTalk (around 25p a month more for its essentials package , taking advantage of its free connection offer).
Phones get cheaper still if you're wanting to bundle satellite or cable TV into the mix, courtesy of Sky or Virgin.
The long and the short of it is there is no reason why calling your friends and family this holiday should cost an arm and a leg.
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