A mum has shared how she saves more than £650 every Christmas to cover gifts for friends and family.
Kate Richards, 33, says she’s been using the same saving trick for the last three years and doesn’t even notice the money she’s putting aside.
It’s all thanks to the 1p Challenge, which involves saving 1p on January 1, then 2p on January 2, and so on until you reach December 31 (or before, if you want to stop at Christmas)
The most you will have to put aside in one day using the 1p challenge is £3.65, which is saved on the final day, December 31.
If you complete the challenge, you'll have saved £667.95 by the end of the year - which Kate says is enough to buy presents for her whole family.
The mum-of-one, from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, said: "There's an app and it automatically moves money into your account for you.
"By the end of the year you've got £667.95 and you don't notice it coming out everyday.
"I've done it since 2019 and used it every year for Christmas shopping.
"They also do it in reverse and start with £3.65 and go down. It links up to the bank and you get a notification each day, you don't have to think about it and it's great.
"I already have all my presents wrapped and everything, it's all done."
Kate is also able to save an increasing amount of money every day, automatically, using an app called IFTTT.
The teacher says she's even taken money saving expert Martin Lewis ’ advice to hold a secret Santa with relatives instead of buying each person a gift.
This has saved her £90 alone - as she now has a spending limit of £50 for one person, as opposed to spending £140 on seven family members.
Kate also uses thingstogetme.com to organise Christmas lists for her son.
The site allows people to write up their own Christmas lists and links to specific items they want, which can be sent to friends and family.
Those buying the gifts can ‘reserve’ what they’re gifting to avoid duplicates.
Kate said: "I was buying for seven people at £20 each and instead this year we've done secret Santa with a £50 limit so you're only spending £50 rather than £140.
"It's more fun as you have to think about one person and what they would really like - with one person you can think a bit more.
"I use a website called thingstogetme.com - you put your Christmas list in and send it to everyone and they can reserve an item which ticks it off so there are no duplicates.
"You find the item on Amazon, stick the link in and any extra info like colour or size and people can just tick it off, buy it, and it's sorted.
"You can do a good range of prices - some presents were £4 and some were £40 - and I had loads on the lower end so people could pick and choose what they could afford and reserve it."
