7 Easy Ways To Save Money For Christmas NOW

ad | First of all, I must apologize for mentioning Christmas in July. I know. It should be illegal. But for the sake of this post and today’s topic, it’s a must. Because we’re talking about money and for most, Christmas is often a time of year that can bring up financial stress.

According to the Bank of England, a typical family in the UK spends on average £2,500 a month – but almost a thousand more in December. With most spending between £1,000 and £1,500 on Christmas alone.

I can’t say I’m surprised in the absolute slightest. When you’ve got gifts, decorations, food, alcohol, Christmas days out with the family and Christmas parties all to consider, it’s a wonder we don’t spend more, really.

And this year, with the cost of living crisis affecting more homes, it’s likely going to be tighter than ever and even more of a struggle for people to afford Christmas. Which makes me really sad – Christmas is a time to be joyful, not stressed about money.

But most of us want to make Christmas special for our loved ones, especially if we have children. 

I know I’m always spending too much at Christmas – I’m a people pleaser and I just want to buy my loved ones things that I think they’ll love and will make them happy.

This often leads me to spending too much. A lesson I need to learn this year, as we’ve just bought our first home so Christmas will be even tighter than usual for us!

So, that being said, we’re going to look at some ways in which you can save money for Christmas –  starting NOW. Because now is the time to start saving and putting away the pennies for the end of the year.

7 ways to start saving for Christmas in July:

Set a budget and create lists 

If you’re buying gifts willy-nilly, there’s no way to monitor how much you’re spending and you’re likely going to be spending too much. So the first thing you’ll want to do, way before Christmas, is to set yourself a budget.

If you have a family, then discuss this budget with them, so you can all agree on a suitable budget to suit all parties, so nobody is spending unnecessarily more on gifts than others.

You might also want to make a list of people you’re buying for and essentials you need to buy for Christmas to ensure that you stick with this list and don’t go mad when you enter a shop!

Utilize cashback apps 

I always absolutely kick myself when I make a purchase online and realise I’ve forgot to use a cashback app! So let this be both of our reminders that cashback apps can be amazing for accumulating money throughout the year that you can spend on Christmas.

If you’re looking for an app that provides you with INSTANT cashback, then JamDoughnut is 100% the one for you!

You can earn cashback each time you spend money with 100’s of leading supermarkets, restaurants and shops. Your Instant Cashback is guaranteed when you shop online, in-App and in-store.

The images above are taken from the app itself when I first downloaded it. You can see you have your account with the amount of points / cash you have, as well as your refer a friend section and any prepay codes you’ve bought.

The app itself is very user friendly. I for one hate complicated apps and although my literal job is online, I’m not very technical, so something straightforward is always a winner for me!

JamDoughnut also has their “pumped up deals” section, which offers a higher percentage of cashback for a limited time. At the time of taking this, Marks and Spencer was one of their pumped up deal stores but this will change.

You can also head to the “Daily Doughnut” news page, which offers you tons of deals, discounts, competitions and giveaways to be aware of!

The app is super secure as well, giving you the option to create a passcode specific for the app as well as allowing you to sign in with face ID, if you have it.

If you fancy downloading the JamDoughnut app, receiving INSTANT cashback on your purchases and building up your cashback for Christmas, it’s available on the App Store and Google Play.

The App has over 150 brands in it, from the every day supermarket spend to high street fashion, home improvement and food delivery amongst the brands.

Consumers use the app to buy their spend with their brand and we give the instant cashback into their account and get £2 for free with their first purchase! You can use my referral code MX2N!

Build up a cash pot from Prolific

Prolific is a great platform for building up a little cash pot for Christmas. You can start using Prolific any time and keep the money you earn from surveys in your Prolific account until it’s nearer Christmas.

Then you can withdraw it all and spend it on Christmas gifts only! Prolific is a free website where you can take part in surveys and research studies. I find it one of the best sites for that out there because their studies are quite interesting and your cash builds up fairly quickly.

Gain Amazon vouchers from CashWalk

I’ve recently started using the CashWalk app and it’s a brilliant and SUPER easy way to get vouchers and gift cards. CashWalk awards you coins for how much you walk, then when you reach a certain amount, you can cash out with a voucher.

There are a few ways to earn additional coins as well, such as watching daily advertising videos or completing tasks. It only took me around 2 weeks to gain enough coins for an £5 Amazon voucher.

Use it enough and you could accumulate a fair amount of vouchers that you can save and use for Christmas gifts nearer the time! If you decide to download this app, use my code: YP2WJ for 100 free coins when you join!

Get paid for scanning your receipts

Shoppix is an app I rave about and think everyone should download. All you need to do is scan your receipts – that’s it! You get points for your receipts scanned (and additional points for consumer surveys) and you can cash out via PayPal or via a voucher when you reach the threshold.

Again, this is a free app and I’ve probably had about £50 from them over the time I’ve had this. Although it takes a little while to accumulate your points, it’s still extra money for doing NOTHING but scanning a receipt!

Browse charity shops throughout the year

I follow Budget Mum Soph on Instagram who recently showed how she managed to get all her son’s birthday presents from a charity shops and that’s definitely an idea you can take on board with you for Christmas.

I think this taboo around charity shops needs to go because I always seem to find a ton of great stuff in the ones I go to – I got myself the perfect dress for a funeral from one last year.

Pick up bits and pieces throughout the year; books, clothing, toys, games and you’ll save a ton of money.

Keep a literal moneybox for your change

Although we mostly all use cards now, there will always be spare change knocking about. Get yourself a sealed money box and use it religiously throughout the year for all your loose change.

Although it might not amount to a GREAT deal, it’s still a little extra you can keep for Christmas at the end of the year.

I hope this post gives you some easy ideas on how to save a bit of money for Christmas this year. As Tesco says, any little helps. And when Christmas is so expensive, it really does.

Don’t forget to use code MX2N when you download JamDoughnut!

How will you be saving for Christmas this year?

Want some more Christmas content in July? Check out these posts!

• 10 Things To Gift Yourself This Christmas
• How To Make Christmas More Eco-Friendly
• 80 Cozy Self Care Ideas for Christmas