Ten great Christmas money hacks

Have you come to the end of the money before you reached the end of your shopping list? If you suddenly find yourself in need of more presents, decorations and food and drink - without actually having the cash for it, then the answer may lie in our ten great Christmas money hacks.

1. Make your own decorations
Georgie Frost, consumer champion at Share Radio, says she likes to bake orange slices, tie cinnamon sticks together with ribbon, or take the kids out to gather pine cones to decorate the house for less. However, there are endless ideas online for decorations you can make on a shoestring. Even if all you have is a cereal box or a few old buttons, someone crafty out there will have come up with something clever to do with them.

2. Check all your loyalty card vouchers
It's worth digging them all out, and going online with them all to check your balance. Forgotten vouchers could cut the cost of your supermarket shop or even stretch to a couple of extra presents.

3. Use Mysupermarket.co.uk
Make your supermarket shopping list, and then hit the website to find the store where each item is cheapest. With especially expensive items like the turkey, it's also worth checking back every few days until someone is offering a discount.

4. Don't neglect freebies
We run Freebie Friday every week, listing a handful of great freebies to cover everything from gifts to festive travel. You should also checkout bargain-hunting sites like hotukdeals.com, which are regularly updated with new freebies found by its users.

5. Move your birthday
For future years, it's also worth moving your birthday. When you sign up for loyalty cards and store newsletters, they often send you a voucher or freebie for your birthday. If you tell them it's your birthday in the middle of December, the freebies will come just in time for Christmas.


6. Make your own gifts
Frost suggest getting inspiration from Pinterest and Instagram for great gifts you can make yourself. It's also worth bearing in mind that you don't need any great skill to do this. Infused vodka, for example, just requires a bottle of the cheapest possible vodka, plus flavourings that can range from pineapple chunks to jelly beans. Pop the flavourings in for up to a week (while the vodka is refrigerated), replace the label saying 'incredibly cheap budget vodka' with one saying 'lovely thoughtful homemade gift', and Bob's your uncle.

7. Give service gifts
If you have a handy skill - like putting up shelves or mending fences, then offer to give someone your time and skills for Christmas. Even if you have no skills to offer, something like walking the dog or babysitting can be worth a great deal to them - and will cost you nothing.

8. Arrange a Secret Santa
If your family or a group of friends are all feeling the pinch, you can arrange a Secret Santa, so you only buy for one person each. It'll drastically reduce your present spend without leaving anyone giftless. If there are lots of children in your group - who might not be overjoyed to get just one present - then arrange just to buy for the children

9. Arrange to meet half your family on the 27th
Then make sure you snap up vastly discounted gifts for them in the Boxing Day sales.

10. Give people things you already have
This doesn't mean palming them off with something and pretending it's new, it means choosing something of yours that you know they will love, and wrapping it with a handwritten note explaining why you are giving it to them. It may be a book you loved, the DVD of a film you watched together, or a piece of jewellery they have always admired. It's the thought that counts, and this is far more thoughtful than anything you could buy new.