Shola Lee
One mum's completely genius money-saving hack has helped her sort Christmas presents for her whole family.
Saving money for the holidays can be tricky, there are so many parties, dinners, and Secret Santas that by the time you reach the 25th your pay-check is pretty much gone.
Knowing this, mum Kate Richards has started saving early and shared her genius hack — after managing to save over £650 for this Christmas.
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So, what exactly does Kate do to save money?
Well, she starts by saving 1p on 1 January, then 2p on 2 January, and so on until she saves £3.65 on 31 December.
This adds up to a total of £667.95, which is more than enough to buy presents for her entire family.
And, come this New Year's Day, we'll be joining her, because that's honestly one of the best money-saving hacks we've ever heard.
There's even a helpful app, IFTTT, to help keep track of things, as the mum-of-one explains: "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 every day.
“I’ve done it since 2019 and used it every year for Christmas shopping."
If you find it hard to find the motivation to save towards the end of the year, you can do the challenge in reverse, starting with £3.65 and working your way down.
“I already have all my presents wrapped and everything, it’s all done," the teacher from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire added.
And that's not Kate's only trick for the holidays, as she also follows a popular tip from money-saving expert Martin Lewis.
The tip? Do Secret Santa with your relatives, rather than buying each person a gift.
And this one really does cut your costs down, becayse the cap was originally £20 per person and Kate would be buying for seven people, it quickly added up to £140.
Now, they just spent £50 on one person, cutting down her expenses by nearly a third.
The teacher added: "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."
Well, looks like we have our plan sorted for next Christmas.