A thrifty mum-of-eight has shared her top money-saving tips after saving £2,000 over Christmas.
Jenny Harry has been pregnant over six Christmases in the last 11 years and has become an organised budgeting guru. She starts putting money away as early as September so that she can spend £200 on each child.
Hailing from Fife, the 34-year-old, is a savvy shopper who always searches for discount codes online before making a purchase while setting alerts on Amazon for price drops on specific items. After getting all the discounted presents, Jenny and partner James, 46, then spend around six hours on December 24 wrapping the gifts, the Daily Record writes.
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The student paramedic also manages to save on the Christmas dinner by collecting Nectar points through the year and admits to utilising her student discount at every chance she gets.
Jenny said: “Christmas is a lovely time with everyone around and I like to make it as fun as I can for the children.
“It’s like a sea of wrapping paper while they’re all opening their presents on Christmas morning. But it is an expense we have to save for. I usually say £200 per child, but this year that’s gone up to £500 each as they wanted bikes and bigger things.
“I’m lucky as I get a student discount, so that’s saved me about 50% on some presents. I always search for discount codes before buying anything online, sometimes that can save me hundreds of pounds.
“And I set up alerts on Amazon so I know when an item has dropped in price. With eight kids, I bulk buy a lot of things. On sites such as eBay, the more you buy, the cheaper the per-item cost, so it becomes cheaper.”
While she's already spent a hefty £2,000 on Christmas gifts for Logan, 16, Thomas, 14, Kalyn, 13, Keanu, 11, Kaleo, 10, Elijah, 7, Kastiel, 5, Oakley-Axl, 3 - she believes it would be closer to £4,000 if it weren't for her money-saving ways.
Going into Sainsbury's, Jenny shops smart by using the Nectar points she saved up in the year to buy the Christmas dinner and she always buys products she gets bonus points on, so says it “quickly adds up”. She also collects points by shopping at Argos, especially on Black Friday.
She adds: “I’ll buy the biggest turkey and biggest bag of potatoes I can find from Sainsbury’s. And then dessert will be a Viennetta or ice cream as they all like that. It’ll cost around £120.”
While studying, Jenny also works part-time in a bar and admits that she hardly buys brand new clothes for the kids, as the little ones have the older siblings' clothes that they have grown out of.
But for gifts, Jenny trades in their older trainers for new ones with Adidas, which can give her 30% off the price. She took advantage of the McDonald’s Monopoly pieces promotion this year to get the kids earphones for Christmas.
The mum said: “They don’t have lots of items on their Christmas lists, but if they do, they’re not really expensive. On Christmas morning, the house looks like a toy shop. We let them make a mess and unwrap everything, and then they have fun trying to find all their presents underneath it all.
“I have to be really savvy to get them everything they want and to make it work for us financially. James and I have given up on buying each other Christmas presents as it’s too much.”
She explained: “I have to budget all year round, not just Christmas, to make it work. For household bills, our washing is always done at night to get the reduced rate. I also swap lights for candles at night too.
“Our food shop is all about bulk deals, and I check the price that the items would have been individually and work out if it’s cheaper to buy in bulk or in smaller quantities. It usually means it takes a lot longer to do the shopping, but it’s worth it.
“For electrical items, we plan buying those months in advance, and I watch the price rise and fall on a number of websites, then I’ll look for the best deal around Black Friday time. My student discount is a huge help, too. I make sure I’ve got the best deal possible, and that I’ve got lots of points if I’m going to use those towards it,” she said.
“The kids can be sneaky too, so it means we have to keep all the presents hidden, and if they’re in colourful wrapping paper, they’d find them all. So James and I don’t wrap them until all the kids are in bed at around midnight on Christmas Eve.
“It takes us about six hours. I love being a mum and finding the best deals means my money goes further - and I’m happy to do that if it means it puts a smile on my kids’ faces.”
On a normal day, Jenny explained that as she studies full-time, James looks after the kids. They start their day by getting the younger children ready for nursery and school, while the older ones take care of themselves.
Jenny then pops off to college, while James takes care of the housework. Then they divide pick up and it’s dinner time. Jenny said she’s been pregnant for six Christmases over the past 11 years with her eight children and says she always wanted her children close in age so they would be friends.
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