Always under promise presents. If you start promising a lot of gifts it becomes very pressured for you to spend money. Start working on this as soon as possible. If your children expect very little, they will be happy when they get a bit more than what you promised.

2. Eat In.

At Christmas time, restaurants often charge a premium. With drinks, eating out can become very expensive. Unless you really hate the idea of cooking and washing up, eat in. – It is easier to create an intimate atmosphere as well.

3. Look ahead.

Buy Christmas cards / decorations e.t.c in the new year sale. It may be too late for this year, but, buy the minimum and look out for bargains in the New Year.

4. Get a cheap flight and Leave

Sometimes to save money we need to spend it. Buy a cheap flight to somewhere warm and miss all the costs of Christmas (well most of them)

5. Get the Kids to Make the decorations.

If your children are really excited by Christmas and are driving you crazy with eagerness, keep them busy – ask them to make some home made crackers and decorations. Christmas Crackers are usually ridiculously overpriced for what you get. They can probably only get away with charging so much because it is a one off Christmas purchase.

6. Just Buy Your Kids A Cardboard Box

Have your children ever got a present and been more interested in the box than the present? Why not just get them a cardbox and save yourself £200. The latest Xbox or whatever will be soon out of date in a few months anyway (Perhaps this is a little risky – your kids may not quite share your way of thinking. )

7. Don’t feel obliged to send a Christmas Card to Everyone you ever met.

Do you really need to send a Christmas Card to the dinner lady at your primary school. It is not so much the expense but also time consuming.

8. Shop Online.

Many of the best bargains can still be found online. – It can take some of the stress out of retail shopping. If you order soon you can get all your presents sent in time.

9. Stuff Stockings with big things that don’t cost anything.

Whenever I got a stocking I always had the obligatory – “Well, why I was a child, we were lucky to just get a couple of apples in our stocking” – Apparently people were happier in the olden days so why not give your child the joy of a frugal stocking.

10. Make Sure Presents are Valuable.

I did a deal with my sister. I will buy her £30 in book tokens, she will also buy me £30 in book tokens. It is easy to buy, and we will both be very happy on receiving the present. You may say this is very boring present. But, if it is boring, no harm. I would rather have a boring present than a useless present.

Do I Need this?

This is the most important criteria for deciding whether to buy an item. If we really ascertain whether the item is necessary, many impulsive purchases will be avoided. Also, when we examine its importance we are not swayed by sales tactics or buy out of boredom

Patience

Sometimes we see a good we like, and can’t wait to buy it. Therefore, we buy it at the first available opportunity. However, the first place we see a good / service is not necessarily the cheapest place to buy a good. A frugal spender will wait and check out various different options before buying it. This may mean waiting 5 days to have it delivered. However, in the long term being patient can save hundreds of pounds.

Happy to Buy what is necessary.

A frugal spender does not mean a miserly spender, who will try every available means to avoid paying 1 dollar to park a car. A frugal spender is happy to part with his cash when it is helpful and necessary. Frugality just means that we are careful with money, not that we wish to horde onto as much as possible.

Content with simplicity

A frugal spender feels no obligation to keep up with the Jones’ and buy the latest gadgetry just to impress. When we feel obliged to buy the latest models just to impress other people, it opens the floodgates for reckless spending. A frugal spender will happily buy a slightly outdated model if it provides better value for money.

Budgeting

A frugal spender know his budget and within reason sticks to it. By planning our spending it becomes easy to avoid debt and unnecessary interest payments. In the long run this provides more money to spend – rather than paying a high % of income to debt payments

See also: 7 ways to prevent overspending