Save money this Christmas (yes, really!) (From Daily Echo)

Save money this Christmas (yes, really!)

4:35pm Friday 16th December 2011 in Money Saving Expert By Martin Lewis

It's the final countdown (duh duh duh duh ...). Christmas is almost here, so tacky songs are permitted, tinsel's everywhere, and shops hope you’ll ignore price tags and spend, spend, spend.

Yet don't let go of the MoneySaving – here's a sackful of thrifty ways to smash Christmas's cost.

1. Don't focus on the perfect Christmas

Too many create a Christmas lust list and only later think how to pay for it. That path leads to disappointment or debt. Instead, work out what you can afford, then have the best time possible on that.

2. Free Christmas IOU generator

Christmas is the year's costliest shopping time, January sales the cheapest. If you're buying a big-ticket item (plasma TV, PlayStation), break this stranglehold with my specially designed Xmas IOU generator.

It produces a gift certificate telling family you're waiting for the sales to get the gift cheaper. You could also buy a small extra gift from potential savings to show the boon of waiting. This way, kids get a triple whammy: the gift, the boon and a lesson in money sense. Print your own at moneysavingexpert.com/iou

3. Buy perfume now, not Christmas Eve

It’s said more perfume’s sold on 24 December than in the whole of August. Yet buy then, and you're locked in to high prices. Supermarkets tend to undercut the high street, but the web usually beats both (do check sites’ last order dates).

Try comparison sites such as FragrancesCompared.com and CheapPerfumeExpert.com. Eg, Thierry Mugler Angel has a RRP of £32, but is available for £11 this way.

4. Find £100s of lost Tesco vouchers

So many find big cash, I can't stop nagging about this. Quickly check and reclaim any unused or lost vouchers online (step-by-step help at moneysavingexpert.com/tesco). I've been swamped by people who've got over £100 worth – one person even found over £500 worth. If you find some, you can print them out or use them online straight away.

Many save these vouchers for an in-store Christmas splurge, yet take look at tesco.com/clubcard for Tesco Rewards (or get a brochure in store), which gives between double and quadruple the in-store value. For example, £10 of vouchers becomes £40 to spend on jewellery at Goldsmiths (£30 from 1 January 2012), or other great gifts such as days out, restaurant vouchers and magazine subscriptions.

5. Free video message from Santa

It’s possible to get a personalised video message from Santa himself without paying a penny, great for good little kids, and quite fun to send to naughty adults too. Just go to portablenorthpole.tv/home, put in a few personal details and Santa will film his bespoke words of wisdom.

6. Remember kids aren’t retail snobs

If you've small kids, remember they don't care what you spend on them, so don’t value your gift based on the price.

At its extreme, for one TV show, we wrapped some empty boxes to look like Christmas presents, telling a six and eight-year-old they were empty in advance. Once the producer said "it’s a wrap”, they excitedly tore the wrapping open, saw the boxes and played trains with them. Just getting a present was what counted. So don't throw your cash away on frivolous consumables that'll only last a few minutes, be creative.

A perennial favourite of my site’s festive-fiver Christmas gift contests is the balloon box. Get a huge box, fill it tight with blown-up balloons, then wrap it. It’s the most adored £2 you’ll ever spend – though carefully supervise the burst balloon-bits don’t get in mouths.

7. Don't believe the Skype hype when calling abroad

Though using Skype to talk web-to-web is free – and therefore unbeatable, don't assume it's the cheapest way to call an overseas phones (as opposed to via someone's computer). Often it’s cheaper to dial a special access number from your landline (not mobile), which gets you dirt-cheap calls – a daily updated list of the cheapest to every country from 37 providers is at moneysavingexpert.com/callchecker.

For example at the time of writing it finds the cheapest to the US is 0.5p/min compared to Skype's 1.6p/min and BT's standard 12.6p/min. For Pakistan, it's 1p/min against Skype's 10p/min and BT standard's 57.2p/min

8. Downshift your turkey!

Many think "it's Christmas, let's go finest". Yet you often pay for the brand, not the taste. I once organised two identical Xmas parties for 20 nurses (for a TV programme, nothing sordid), one on high brand levels, the other lower. It was a blind test and overall they preferred the cheaper stuff. As dropping a brand cuts costs by 30%, savings are huge.

9. 5% off 1st class stamps

If you're about to lick and stick a pile of cards, you can cut stamp costs. Either buy 2nd class (duh) or stock up at Superdrug, which is giving 5% off first-class stamps until 3 Jan 2012.

10. Write 'it's a gift' on any presents

Legally, only the person who bought the gift has consumer rights if goods faulty, so the recipient can't exchange. Many shops ignore this, but for safety, use a gift certificate or get the shop to write on its copy of the receipt and yours that it's a gift and who for. Rights are then transferred.