Christmas is just around the corner, and it is such an expensive time of year, especially for students. Here are 3 ways to cut back the costs and stay within your budget at this time of year.
Secret Santa
Secret Santa is one of the best ways to save money, and is great to do with your housemates or uni friends. Instead of spending money on everyone, you just have to buy for one person. This gives you the option of spending a little more on one person and making it extra special. It also gives you the option to cut costs even more as you could have a maximum budget of £5 and buy each other joke gifts. Giving out Secret Santa gifts is great fun too!
Experience Days
I’m a sucker for any kind of experience day, and they make great gifts too! You can almost certainly find a discount code online for websites like BuyAGift, and they have such a huge range of experiences to choose from. A bonus of these is that they are often for 2 people, so you get to tag along as well (self-gift alert!). My personal fave was the Orbit Slide in the Olympic Park, which I bought as a gift for someone last year – it was so much fun and a really unique gift. My sister loves the Prezzo £30 3 Course Meal for two – and to be fair I understand why because that’s a great bargain.
Make something yourself
It might sound a little primary school, but homemade gifts are actually lovely! You get to use your creativity and make something heartfelt for someone you care about. I’m personally the least creative person on the planet so my go to homemade gift is a photo pin board or photobook of great memories. I swear by the Free Prints app, which gives you around 40 free photo print outs each month, and all you have to pay is postage (which is around £2). You can then buy a cheap a scrapbook or pinboard and create a personalised gift for someone.
Christmas doesn’t have to be an expensive time of year, and if you use some of these ideas you’ll save yourself some £££s.
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