6 Tips For Staying Frugal Over The Christmas Period
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Christmas can easily feel as though you’re continually spending money – even if you’re used to being super frugal throughout the year. Here are a few ideas to keep the frugality going strong over the festive period.
The last few weeks it’s felt like I’ve been spending money left right and centre. Although the majority has been spending we’ve planned for, such as Christmas food and the last few gifts we wanted to buy, I’ve still found it a little bit scary!
Staying Frugal Over The Christmas Period
With that in mind, I’ve been thinking about ways I can get back to my frugal roots – from activities with my family to make sure we stick to our food budget come the new year.
1. Limit Food Waste
Food waste is a huge problem here in the U.K. Every year, 5 Million Christmas puddings get wasted, along with 75 million mince pies and 4.2 million plates of Turkey and vegetables. That’s an insane amount of food to go in the bin!
I find planning is one of the key ways to eliminate food waste. It’s also about knowing exactly how long food can be stored for, labelling so you know when items were cooked and having ideas on how to get everything used up.
Pinterest is a brilliant place to start when it comes to recipe inspiration and I also love the foodie app Yummly, where you can upload a picture of the ingredients you want to use and it will suggest meals based around them.
2. Fill up The Freezer
The week between Christmas and New year is a brilliant time to stock up on items from the reduced section to see you into the new year and beyond. Once Christmas Day and Boxing Day are over it’s likely you’ll have lots more room in your freezer now it’s no longer full of party food and a frozen turkey. Many of the supermarkets also give away vegetables for free as they are overstocked – these are worth picking up and them blanching and freezing or making into a soup.
Just this week at Morrisons’s I was able to grab 14 lamb chops, a ribeye steak, braising steak, 4 Naan Bread and a loaf of normal bread for just £2.50 – the RRP was over £38 and it will provide at least six meals for us. We love lamb but don’t usually buy it so this was
3. Make The Most of Christmas Telly
There are loads of lovely Christmas films and television shows on over the festive period. If you have a digital box that is able to record, it’s worth sitting and setting up recordings of anything you think your family might enjoy. If you pay for a subscription service like Sky, it ensures you’re getting the most of it, plus it means programmes will be ready to watch when you want rather than planning around when they’re live.
If you’ve previously had Sky Movies through NOW TV it could be worth logging into your account – I was offered a free month – perfect for Christmas movies while everyone is home – and then I went to cancel they offered a further three months at £2.40 each which I agreed to – the usual price is £11.99 so it’s a big saving and we do love watching movies so I know it’s something we’ll get use out of.
It might not be the same as a trip to the cinema, but a lovely Christmas film with some homemade popcorn is a lovely frugal way to spend an afternoon between Christmas and New Year, especially if you need something calm after all the festive madness.
4. Frugal Foods
January is going to be a super frugal month for us as we’re both self-employed and won’t have earned much over the two weeks off. While we do have saving as a bit of a buffer, I’d rather not dip into these if I don’t have too. I’ve been making a list of some of the best frugal foods to see us through January.
- Soup – soup is one of those quick and easy frugal foods. I actually made a batch when we cooked our Christmas turkey in the slow cooker, simply by adding a few potatoes and carrots and then blitzing once the Turkey was done and been removed. These a now in the freezer for a month of lunches on the days I work from.
- Popcorn – is it weird popcorn is one of my favourites foods? Homemade popcorn is very cheap to make and I’ve already picked up a bag of kernels from the supermarket. It’s perfect for when we want something that feels like a treat but don’t want to go out and buy something. Making at home also means we can add our own toppings and flavours too – I actually really like a savoury version with smoked paprika.
- Pasta – I always buy the cheapest basics pasta, which costs around 20p or 30p a packet. Pasta is so versatile and doesn’t need much to make it a meal. Plus it’s brilliant for a meal the next day if there are any leftovers.
- Frozen Veg – Buying frozen vegetables means you get much more for your money and there’s no risk of them going off either.
5. Frugal Activities
While we’re all still in Christmas mode, there are lots of fun and simple things we can do as a family. We’re big fans of playing board games and try to add a couple to our collection each year, usually from charity shops.
Taking a walk around the local area to look at Christmas lights is another simple activity that is enjoyable for the whole family.
I’ve recently started baking with my daughter and we’ve both enjoyed it so far. Ingredients don’t have to cost a fortune – I tend to buy cheap mixes that just need water or an egg adding to them. A great example of this is my 62p peach cake recipe which is simple but super frugal.
Looking ahead to next year, once the festivities are over you ask children to turn this years Christmas cards into labels for next year. Of course, adult supervision will be needed for scissors and a hole-punch but it’s a great way to reuse and recycle old Christmas cards and talk about why it’s important to do so at the same time.
This year I also made salt dough Christmas decorations using a recipe for a white dough. This simple recipe used all ingredients I already had so was perfect for a cheap rainy afternoon activity. As these are white they don’t need to be painted and I used ribbon we already had to hang them from the tree.
6. Avoid the Sales
While it can be tempting to head out into the sales, it’s worth thinking about whether there are things you really need and will make use of or whether you’re just shopping for the sake of it.
While I would normally buy cards and wrapping paper in the sales, I’m hoping to make more sustainable and ethical choices during 2020 so have left this for now. I also hope to do the same with clothes and am considering whether it’s possible to only buy second-hand clothes for myself during next year. While I do buy probably 80% already this way, commenting to a whole year seems like a big step!
However, with that in mind, instead of sale shopping, I had a look around the charity shops instead. I bought a pair of Superdry jeans for £7 – much less than they would have been new or even in the sales and I was helping a charity at the same time.
