With Christmas just around the corner, many will be looking for ways to make the pennies stretch a little further until the January payday. Especially as parents can find costs building up during the most wonderful time of the year.
Whether it's the decorations, the food, or the presents under the tree, it’s easy for costs to rack up in December. To help parents save money on the family festivities, Little-Loans.com has partnered with ‘Instagram Mum’ Emma Stretton, who has shared her tried and tested tips to make this a Christmas to remember for your kids - without breaking the bank.
Mum-of-two Emma, who lives in Manchester, said: “I’m super excited for Christmas this year as it’s the first one in our new house. We’ve got a little bit more space to decorate but don’t want to spend loads on buying new decorations. I’ve got a few tried and tested ideas we use every year to decorate on a budget, and I’ll be trying some new ones too.”
Emma's top tips for saving this Christmas
Advent Calendars
“For me, Christmas is all about experiences and doing things as a family. We have an advent calendar with little windows on it that we fill up ourselves each year with notes and activities to do each day. These can be as simple as ‘watch Home Alone with hot chocolate and marshmallows’ or ‘today we’re going to see Father Christmas’. It’s a good way of showing the kids that Christmas is about more than just material things, but we do also put a few chocolate coins in that cost less than £1 a bag.”
Advent Calendar cost for two kids: £3 (Source: Asda)
Cost of chocolate coins: 59p (Source: Asda)
Saving: £2.41
Homemade tree decorations
“Our tree is a big mishmash of decorations, with quite a few that the kids have made over the years. This year, we could do with some more to fill out the tree, so I’m going to make salt dough decorations that the boys can then paint and hang up using ribbon. We’ll also be looking for some pine cones to spray-paint with glitter and use these on the tree, too. All of these can be made from things we can find, or already have in the house!”
“Paper decorations are a big trend this year and don’t cost a lot, so if we need to buy a couple of extra tree ornaments, I’ll be going for paper ones that are more eco-friendly too.”
Bauble Multipack Cost: £10 (Source: Matalan)
Cost of DIY decorations: £0
Saving: £10
Wrapping paper
“I always buy brown paper to wrap presents and that includes birthdays, as well as Christmas. This year I’ll decorate gifts by getting the kids to collect leaves from the garden and then stamping leaf prints onto the paper in gold and red paint. I like a rustic theme, but you could also do this with plain white craft wrapping paper, stamping silver and gold prints onto it, for a more winter wonderland-style.”
Cost of two rolls of Christmas wrapping paper: £5 (Source: Wilko)
Cost of two rolls of brown wrapping paper: £3 (Source: Wilko)
Saving: £2
Table decorations
“Christmas is the only time I’ll bother decorating the table. We have a tartan runner, which was just a piece of fabric from eBay, and I tie all of the napkins up using chunky yarn. This year I’m going to put dried oranges and cinnamon sticks into glass jars, which will look pretty and smell nice and Christmassy. I always keep big glass food jars throughout the year to create my own votives. This year, I’ve also saved some tins which I’m going to paint red, tie some ribbon around them and fill them with sprigs from the Christmas tree. We always get a real tree, so I’ll just chop some bits off the back.”
Cost of a tartan table runner and decorative Christmas jars: £8.99 (Source: Homescapes) and £14 (Source: Hobbycraft)
Cost of Emma’s Ebay fabric: £5.99
Saving: £17
Buy pre-loved
“If I do fancy some new decorations, like gonks or garlands, the first places I’ll look are Vinted and eBay. It’s amazing what people sell on there. You can find some really quirky, individual decorations, sometimes for only one or two pounds. I also get the kids' Christmas jumpers from here, although the ones they had from last year are still in good condition, so I won’t need any this year, and I wear the same ones every year too. It’s expensive and wasteful to need a new Christmas jumper every year.”
New grey gonk: £8.99 (Source: Amazon)
Second-hand grey gonk: £4 (Source: Vinted)
Saving: £4.99
“Finally, I won’t be putting pressure on myself to have a perfect Christmas. I’m just looking forward to having time off with my family and friends, even if that just means going for a winter walk. The best way to save money at Christmas is to remember that it’s about the time you spend, not the money.”
