Christmas is an expensiiiiiive time. If you’re like me, you LOVE seeing the faces of your loved ones when they open your gifts – it’s a feeling that’s rarely matched. But, especially for a student, it can be difficult to get your savings sorted to buy those gifts. It is, after all, known as the most expensive time of the year. There are some simple things you can do to save a little bit more in order to buy some amazing gifts for your loved ones.
- Skip the daily morning coffee.
I know I know, we all need our daily dose of caffeine, especially during early mornings. But don’t worry, I’m not telling you to ditch it completely! Depending on whether you prefer strong unflavoured coffee or flavoured lattes, you can buy either a jar of ground coffee or sachets of flavoured lattes for between €1.50 and €3.00 in Tesco, Dealz and Dunnes. If you invest in a great keep cup and prepare your coffee in the morning before you leave, your coffee will stay warm throughout your first lecture. In case you need a midday coffee after, remember that in many shops and cafes you can get a discount for using a reusable coffee cup.
- Prepare your lunch to bring with you.
Buying your lunch out every day can add up. To avoid this, why not prepare your lunch either the night before or in the morning and bring it with you in a Tupperware container! You can make really nice lunches for very cheap, and most times the ingredients will last you the week. On top of this, you can even use dinner leftovers for your lunch – a win-win as you save money on your lunch while also reducing food waste.
- Take time to write a list of presents and think them through.
This is one of my favourite ways to not only get all my presents for all my loved ones, but for also keeping track of how much I’m spending. I usually write out a list for each person, with products I have seen or already know I’ll get them, with the prices beside them. This can be a great way to keep track of everything you have bought and how much it has cost, so try not to deviate from the list. If you’re out browsing the shops one day and see a gift that you HAVE to get for someone, come home and see what you could remove from that list (if there’s nothing, that’s fine too but make sure you can afford it)
- A yearlong piggy bank!
I will admit, this is an idea I thought about a couple of days ago and I am so annoyed at myself that I didn’t think about it at the start of the year and implement it. Buying a piggy bank (one that doesn’t open, and it must be smashed) and saving however much you can every week from the first week of January. If you save €10 a week, by the time you start shopping for Christmas and smash your piggy bank, you’ll have saved an extra almost €500 (depending on when you start your shopping)
With this method, saving for Christmas will be something you don’t need to worry about as you’ll have taken care of it all year!