The Salary Calculator

Seasonal saving tips

by Madaline Dunn

With merriment and mistletoe, gingerbread houses, and Christmas lights, the festive season can be a wonderful time to get together with loved ones. However, it can also be pretty pricey, especially these days. According to research from the Trades Union Congress (TUC), for example, the cost of traditional Christmas dinner food has risen by an average of 18% in the space of a year, three times faster than wages! Meanwhile, Finder predicts that those across the United Kingdom will spend £20.1 billion on Christmas gifts this year.

With the cost of living crisis making us feel the pinch more than ever, it’s likely you’re looking for ways to scrimp and save this Christmas. So, at The Salary Calculator, we’ve compiled a list of seasonal saving tips to make things a little less stressful.

At The Salary Calculator, we’ll explore the following:

• Ways to save on Christmas food shopping,
• Guidance on how to keep presents affordable,
• Tips for low-cost transport,
• The top tips for energy saving in the season, and
• Apps that keep saving simple.

Christmas Food Shopping Saving

With so many little bits and pieces to buy for the festive dinner, it can really add up! However, it can help to know some of the cheapest supermarkets to buy your Christmas food from. Alert conducted a study into this (not including Aldi and Lidl), and found that Asda has come top of the list at £55.90 for festive essentials this year. Holding the middle ground is Morrisons, at £64.24, while Waitrose, perhaps unsurprisingly, was the most expensive at £73.81.

In a separate review by MoneySupermarket, which included Aldi, the budget supermarket was crowned the cheapest supermarket for festive bits in 2022. This was followed successively by Asda, Tesco, and Lidl.

Once you’ve decided which supermarket you’ve chosen for your Christmas shop, you can save further by employing some of the following tips:

• Go plant-based! – There’s a misconception that going plant-based is expensive, however, researchers from Quorn found that going meat-free this Christmas could save you up to 71%. Whether you buy a meat alternative, or make a nut roast, swapping out the meat components to your Christmas dinner can save a fortune, while also helping the planet and saving the animals!
• Check online codes for new shoppers & other discounts – Many supermarkets offer discount codes to first-time online shoppers, which can save you a tonne on your Christmas shopping. This can be as much as 30%. Plus, this time of year, there are lots of other discount codes available as well. Sites like VoucherCodes.co.uk can be a big help here.
• Use your leftovers, don’t throw them away – When you’ve finished your Christmas dinner and you’re full to the brim, often the thought of more food can make you a bit queasy and you may throw away the extra bits left uneaten. This leads to five million Christmas puddings, two million turkeys, and 74 million mince pies being sent to the rubbish tip while still edible. To make sure you don’t add to this, turn leftover veg into soups or bubble and squeak.
• Only buy what you’ll eat – For the above reasons, make sure to buy only what you know you’ll eat. It can be tempting to go ham on Christmas shopping and buy all the little trimmings and extras, but if you know it’s unlikely to get eaten, don’t buy it and save yourself a pretty penny.

Affordable gift giving

Gift-giving can be one of the most stress-inducing parts of Christmas and cause a lot of worry when it comes to finances. That said, there are things you can do to alleviate this stress and have a more affordable Christmas.

Agreeing to a price limit on gifts with friends and family can help to lessen the burden when it comes to gift-giving. This allows you to set a budget and stick to it.

Likewise, choosing ‘preloved’ presents can be another great way to cut the cost of Christmas. There can be a lot of pressure to buy your loved-ones new clothes, toys and ornaments, but there’s a whole world of preloved presents out there, just waiting for a new home. Charity shops can be a brilliant way to go, and you’ll be helping a good cause along the way, and not to mention the planet!

And, why not have a go at making Christmas presents this year? Whether that’s knitting a hat or making Christmas truffles or honeycomb, making your own Christmas presents can save a ton of money, be a fun activity, and add a personal touch to gift-giving.

Transport tips

Transport around the holiday can get pretty expensive, whether that’s because you’re travelling by train or you’re taking a cross-country car trip to see loved-ones. Luckily, we’ve got some travel tips to make things slightly cheaper.

One thing many people don’t think of when travelling by car, is how much extra fuel is used when the boot is packed in full. So, if you’re about to set off on your Christmas travels, remove any unnecessary items from the boot because this can end up costing you more than you’d imagine.

If you’re travelling via train, the age-old advice of booking your trains in advance has never been more true. Figures show that you can save up to 60% on your train fare by booking it early (up to 12 weeks in advance). If you’ve left it a bit late (after all, there is a lot to get done in the lead-up to Christmas), before you book an open return, see if you can buy single tickets or ‘split’ tickets to break up the journey, this can sometimes cut your ticket price by quite a bit.

Saving energy in the season

Everyone knows how expensive energy is right now, and unfortunately, prices aren’t expected to lower anytime soon. However, there are some practical ways to reduce your energy bill this Christmas.

Why not use the microwave for cooking your vegetables, rather than the hob? According to research by Quorn, carrots, sprouts, and peas can all be cooked in under three minutes, working out at around just 3p. The research team found that this is a 79% saving on using an electric hob, and a 6% saving on using the oven.

These days, it’s very much the age of the air fryer, and it’s not surprising why. Air fryers take less time to cook and use less energy – and they can be used for a whole variety of cooking. According to Jenny Tschiesche, the author of The Air Fryer Cookbook, you can cook just about anything, and even the star of the show of your Christmas meal can be popped in if the basket is at least 7-8 litres capacity.

While it might feel tempting to light up your house with an assortment of multi-colored lights and inflatable Christmas decorations, it might be a good idea to leave the lights off this year. You won’t be alone, either. According to a survey from GoCompare Energy, 27% of people are planning on putting up fewer lights this year and a sixth aren’t putting up any at all. However, if you’re overcome by the Christmas spirit, and feel the urge to light it up, purchase LED holiday string lights or timed lights that turn off automatically.

Best apps to help you budget and save

These days, there are lots of apps that can help you work out where you are with your finances and help you save.

The Too Good To Go app, for example, enables people to purchase and collect high-quality food from restaurants and supermarkets that would otherwise go to waste at an affordable price.

Meanwhile, the Emma app is a free budgeting app that tracks your subscriptions, sets up monthly budgets, tracks your payday, and makes payments within the app. Similarly, Money Dashboard links to over 90 UK banks and financial providers so you can get an overall view of your finances and budget accordingly.

Tags: cost of living, discounts, Economy, savings