standard

Top Tips For Cutting The Cost Of Christmas

From buying gifts to stocking up the fridge and decorating the house with beautiful decorations, there’s no denying that Christmas can be a very expensive time. Luckily, to help you keep the costs down Gocompare.com has revealed some of the nation’s best money-saving tips.

Using loyalty points, discount codes and vouchers emerged as the best way to save a few extra pennies, while setting out a budget and sticking to it was also deemed a great idea. Shopping in the sales can help you as well, as can avoiding any expensive festive experiences.

Last-minute shopping was frowned upon as this can be more expensive, while agreeing on a price limit for friends and family was also found to be a good way of saving. Using money-off apps can help spread the cost, while shopping at a cheaper supermarket can make a bit of a difference as well.

Other ideas that emerged included swapping the turkey for chicken or another type of meat, reusing Christmas wrapping paper and cutting down the number of people on your Christmas card list.

“For many people, Christmas puts added strain on already stretched finances – but as our survey shows, some forward planning, sensible budgeting and a little Christmas creativity can help you shave the cost of your festive spending,” customer insight manager with Gocompare.com Claire Peate remarked.

Do you have any good ways of cutting the costs at Christmas? We’d love to hear your ideas so let us know in the comments below.

handmade Christmas cards
standard

Avoid The Queues, Shop Handmade Online!

Let the silly season commence! Christmas can be a really joyful time but it can also be a period of great stress, particularly when you’re out and about, stomping up and down the high street, trying to find the perfect handmade Christmas cards and presents for your friends and family.

This year, why not do all you can to keep the stress at bay by shopping for your gifts online at home on the sofa with a nice mug of mulled wine and some carols on the radio? Much calmer indeed! You can spend as long as you like thinking over your purchases and won’t have to fight anyone over the last teddy bear left on the shop shelves.

Even better, you won’t have to trudge home in the rain and snow with all your heavy shopping bags. Your friendly neighbourhood postman will just pop them through your letter box in a few days’ time.

However, there is one thing you need to make sure of when Christmas shopping on the internet – don’t leave it too late! Always check with the retailer to see when their last days for delivery are and bear this in mind when making your purchases. There’d be nothing worse than turning up on December 25th with nothing to put under the tree just because you forgot that the last day for ordering your presents was the 21st and you missed the deadline.

Why not set some time aside this weekend to do some of your shopping? Stick a lovely festive film on (we’re quite partial to Miracle on 34th Street, ourselves) and see what you can find online.

handmade Christmas cards
standard

Christmas Markets Soon Arriving!

No doubt all of you out there will soon be thinking about doing all your festive shopping and picking up some handmade Christmas cards and gifts for all your friends and family (exactly what we’d recommend – there’s nothing quite as special as a beautiful and unique handmade present to make someone smile on Christmas day).

To help you all get very much into the spirit of things, we very strongly advise you all to find out what Christmas markets are going on in your local area and make sure that you visit at least once before the festive season is out. And, as luck would have it, the markets are just a few short weeks away from opening their doors once again!

Lincoln’s market will be open from December 3rd, Bath’s from November 27th, Manchester’s from November 14th, the Southbank’s Winter Festival starts on November 5th, Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland will be on from November 21st… soon, Christmas will be all anyone can talk about, so make sure you know what’s going on where you are.

We’re certain that a few glasses of delicious spiced mulled wine and some Bavarian sausages will really get you in the mood for some festive shopping, so after you’ve had a lovely time with your friends and revelled in the yuletide atmosphere, head back home to the warmth of the hearth and have a look to see what we’ve got in our online shop.

We’ve got all sorts of handmade goodies for you to give as presents (or just keep for yourself – everyone deserves a bit of spoiling at this time of year, after all), so take your time and check out our jewellery, lace mats, tapestries, jewellery boxes, photo albums and bird houses… you’ll have a hard time deciding what to buy first!