Saving for christmas 2012

I save all my John Lewis vouchers I get from my credit card to put towards Christmas spending. It suits me. I either buy presents in John Lewis, and like to think I'm getting them free, or I use them for my food shop in Waitrose.

I just embezzle in November :)

We're thinking of joining the Tesco Christmas Saving Club thing, so we can top-up our clubcard vouchers and get a bonus at Christmas, as we pretty much always shop at tesco. So that means all the food shopping would be taken care of. And maybe some presents, depending what they have in :)

No need, Sabre, Have you forgotten the Zombie Apocolypse?

Hi edmun58 As you can see the members of this forum decide for themselves how they will save for next Christmas. I am wondering if you have got shares in Lyoness as you keep plugging it to us all. We all make our own minds up and mine will be once again at Asda. So go and do your shopping through Lyoness and enjoy but don't keep plaguing us with it.

Excellent advice as always Sabre. What you suggest is the best way to be ready for next Christmas. If only we could get decent interest rates on savings to keep pace with inflation then things would be better still!

That would be the icing on the cake Sidesalad. It's been absolutely years' since we had any good returns on savings and every penny you take out it is harder to put back but at the same time it's lovely to buy something you really like and get pleasure from.

Good idea Sabre, once things settle down I'll start doing that. Money too toght at the moment :(

I put away £10 per week into a jar, not for Christmas but for those unexpected bills that may arise. If the year passes without incident then I have £520 to pay for Christmas.

To ensure this weekly saving I have cut out buying fancy take away coffees from overpriced branded shops and occasionally opt for a meal deal from a bakery, rather than queueing up and having a tasty but overpriced made to order sandwich.

Or even cutting out that one extra pint in the pub can save you £4 a time.

These small changes have saved me money and I, therefore, am able to place the £10 away without truly missing it!

It doesn't have to be a big gesture that helps save you money but the small almost insignificant one's. Simply sitting down and thinking about how small amounts of money easily leave your wallet, purse or pocket and changing this by consciously asking 'do I really need or want this', and soon you have noticeable savings but like anything, it does take discipline to not take out of the pot on a regular basis!

Actually Sabre I do believe that saving, per se, should be on everyone's agenda this year although admittedly easier said than done. And of course this needs to be an ongoing discipline and not just for Christmas. As you say, £30 a month is a start and certainly better than nothing. What worries me are the vast amount of people who live in negative financial situations where they constantly borrow Peter to pay Paul every month so to speak. Perhaps the government should bring in recognised tax breaks to allow people to save from income every month and that may well heal some of the injurious levels of debt that trouble a lot of us. But with public spending being cut, cut and then cut again I cannot see that happening. But as you quite rightly say, old fashioned saving values always work best!

Thanks Snoops. It's amazing how helpful those savings are when it comes to Christmas as with the best will in the world it does cost more usually than you have anticipated. I've still got some on my Asda card and hopefully that will last me until the end of the month. I will shop at the lovely vegetable shop two villages away if I need any and not go to Asda until next month. I hope.

I've already made a start Sabre. I'm building up points on both my Tesco and Nectar cards also putting loose change into my coin sorter.
Hopefully it will be a small yet profitable build up and of course I'll make up another of my hampers buying non perishable bargains from October onwards.

I made about £500 in surveys and competitions when I was unemployed last year (oh and all those pound coins at the bus stop) - certainly mounts up and saved my bacon as I havent had to pay for any DIY or Kitchen goods in the last 2 years.

Paid for the christmas present this year although i didnt have too many to buy.

The old saying "look after the pennies and the pounds look after themselves" certainly works for me!