Christmas 2023: budgeting tips to save money on gifts, food and travel

Nearly half of UK adults are planning to cut their spending on Christmas festivities this year as budgets continue to be squeezed by the ongoing cost of living crisis.  

The survey from TopCashback also found that people were aiming to reduce their spending on average by £280 compared with last year. 

With this in mind, Which? rounds up ways to save money on presents, food and travel in the festive period as well as the best ways to budget.

You can use the links below to jump to each section:

• Tips to budget for Christmas
• Ways to save on presents
• Cut down on food costs
• How to make travelling cheaper

Tips to budget for Christmas  

Setting a budget early will stop you from overspending and can help you save money. Some of these ideas might need to be saved until next year, but it's not too late to put some into action now.

Try budgeting apps to keep on top of spending

If you have multiple bank accounts, it can be hard to keep track of your outgoings, but there are apps that could help you get a better overview.

Some have been specifically designed to help with budgeting, such as Emma and Snoop. With these, you can see all your accounts in one place, helping you to identify spending you can cut down on.

Some banking apps also have features that make it easier to stay on top of bills. For example, Starling Bank offers Bills Manager, which allows you to set aside money each month just for bills so you ensure you don't fall short. 

Getting a better handle on your essential outgoings can make it easier to see how much money is left to spend on Christmas.

• Find out more: best budgeting apps.

Put money away with a savings challenge

For those that have followed the 1p challenge since the beginning of 2023 – where you save 1p on 1 January, 2p on 2 January, and so on – you should have around £450 set aside by now. 

If you leave the cash alone, you'll have £668 by 31 December. But it could also provide a Christmas spending fund if you need it. If you didn’t take part in the challenge this year, think about it for 2024. 

If you haven’t followed this, see if you can try the Little Vices challenge in November to get a Christmas bonus. This involves cutting out any non-essential spending for a set period. So, if you currently fork out on a weekly takeaway and a daily coffee, you'd forgo these for a month and put what you've saved towards Christmas instead. For a £15 takeaway and £3 weekday coffee, there's the potential to save £120 over four weeks. 

Your bank may also provide a 'round-up' feature where it rounds up purchases to the nearest pound and puts the change into a savings pot for you.

• Find out more: best savings accounts 2023.

Use a supermarket Christmas savings scheme

Many supermarkets have Christmas saver schemes that allow you to save throughout the year when you do your weekly shopping and be rewarded with a bonus to spend during the festive season. 

This comes in the form of vouchers or a card combining your savings and the bonus, which can usually be spent in December – although, some offer spending all year round.

• Find out more: which supermarket offers the best Christmas savings scheme? 

Ways to save on presents  

You may have already started buying your Christmas presents this year. According to American Express three in 10 people started shopping back in September.  

But if you're not one of them, there are lots of ways to reduce what you spend on gifts. 

Sort your present strategy

When we asked people how they saved money for Christmas, many said that they would be cutting down on presents. This might not be the worst thing considering one in four received an unwanted gift the last time we checked.

You don’t have to give presents to all your friends and family. If money is tight, think about doing Secret Santa so everyone only has to buy one gift. 

Some of you had other strategies in place. One Which? member told us that they give their children 'one present they actually want, one present they need, something to wear and something to read'.

One of the most popular ways people were saving money on presents was not to buy any at all.

• Find out more: 8 things to do with unwanted Christmas gifts.

Stick to your budget

If you are going to give a gift, make sure you get the best value for your money and stick to your budget.

If you're in need of ideas, we’ve created a Christmas gift guide with a selection of products at different prices to suit all budgets. 

All gift ideas have been tried and tested by our experts, and performed well in our tests. Some have our Great Value recommendation, but you’ll need to read our full product reviews to find out which picks are Best Buys.

• Find out more: early Christmas gift ideas for 2023: perfect presents for every budget.

Shop around and compare prices

If you know what gift you want to buy, make sure you compare and track the price.

Websites such as Google Shopping, Kelkoo, PriceRunner and PriceSpy can help compare product prices from online retailers, to see where you can get the best deal. For Amazon products, CamelCamelCamel tracks product prices over time, allowing you to see whether its sale price is actually offering you a bargain. It works best if you’ve already narrowed down your search to specific items or models.

• Find out more:best deals in the October sales revealed by Which?  

Hunt down discount codes

If you’ve got your eye on a particular purchase, signing up to a retailer mailing list could net you discounts – from introductory offers, to personalised codes that appear in your inbox if you abandon your shopping cart. Some retailers also offer discounts if you refer a friend.

Elsewhere, Coupert and Pouch are free online shopping tools that offer to automatically find and apply discount vouchers to your basket, so could be worth a try.

• Find out more: best advent calendars 2023 

Get cashback on your shopping

Doing your shopping via a cashback site such as Quidco and TopCashback can earn you money back on your purchases – just make sure that you click through via the cashback site link before making your purchase or else it won't be registered.

To boost your cashback you could also use a cashback credit card, the best deals on the market pay a 5% rate in your first three months. This means if you were to spend £500 a month for the next three months, you'd earn £75 cashback on your Christmas shopping. 

Just remember to pay back your full balance each month to avoid cashback gains being wiped out by interest charges.

Some debit card providers also offer cashback. For example, Chase pays 1% cashback on everyday debit card spending for the first year after opening your account. 

Your debit or credit card provider might also have cashback offers with specific retailers, so it's worth checking to see if there are deals before you spend.

Buy second-hand

Second-hand selling sites such as Depop, eBay, Facebook Marketplace and Vinted are a great way to save money on gifts. 

Alternatively, you could try looking for gifts in local charity shops or check out car boot sales. 

If you want to earn some extra cash for Christmas, you can also try selling some of your own items.

• Find out more: where to buy and sell second-hand online.

Get creative

As an alternative to buying a gift, why not try making one? After all, it’s the thought that counts.

You can get gift inspiration from places such as Pinterest and watch tutorials on how to make just about anything on TikTok and YouTube. 

For example, you could try tie-dying some socks or T-shirts to give them a new lease of life. Or make some festive decorations – you can make a great homemade snow globe using just pine cones, used glass jars and glitter. 

 You might also be able to get free craft materials on neighbourhood apps, such Freecycle and Olio.

Use Which? to prepare for Black Friday

Black Friday sales can offer some great discounts, but sadly not all Black Friday 'deals' you see advertised are good ones.

At Which?, our experts track product prices throughout the year, which means we are able to cut through the retailers' spin and bring you the deals we consider to be genuinely good value.

Our Black Friday insider's guide pages will highlight the best deals we've found, along with guidance on how to avoid the duds.

• Find out more: Amazon Black Friday sale 2023: what to expect .

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Cut down on food costs  

The cost of festive feasts can really add up, especially with prices rising steeply for certain foods, but there are ways to cut the cost of your Christmas dinner and avoid getting stuck with excess food waste.

Plan ahead

Pre-planning meals and writing a list of exactly what you need is one of the best ways to save money. 

It should help you stick to buying the essentials where possible and reduce waste, too. The earlier you plan, the more time you'll have to compare prices in different shops and possibly buy what you need in stages to spread the cost. For example, any tinned or frozen products could be bought weeks before you need to use them.

• Find out more: how to spend less at the supermarket.

Choose a cheaper supermarket

Every month, we compare thousands of prices at the UK's eight biggest supermarkets – Aldi, Asda, Lidl, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose – to reveal the cheapest place to buy your groceries and household essentials.

Aldi has been the cheapest supermarket every month so far this year for a basket of groceries. 

In our analysis of a bigger trolley of goods, where we doen't include Aldi or Lidl due to range limitations, Asda has been cheapest every month bar one.

While the cost of your Christmas food will vary, this shows it can be worth trying out different stores to see if you can cut down on what you would usually spend.

• Find out more: supermarket price comparison

Make the most of loyalty schemes

Coupons, vouchers and reward points can help your money go further. 

For coupons, check supermarket magazines and newsletters, promotions on food packaging, websites such as CaringEveryday and SuperSavvyMe, and money-saving apps such as Checkoutsmart and Shopmium.

Then there are supermarket-specific offers, most of which tend to reward loyal customers. As well as Sainsbury's Nectar and Tesco's Clubcard, you could try Asda Rewards, Iceland Bonus and Lidl Plus, which offer savings and discounts – not to mention schemes offered by retailers such as Boots and Superdrug. 

Each Clubcard point is worth 1p in Tesco, so 150 points would be worth £1.50 to put towards your shopping. However, points are worth twice their regular value if you spend them with Clubcard partners, of which there are around 100.

Nectar Points are worth 0.5p, meaning 500 Nectar points are worth £2.50. They can be spent at Sainsbury's or with almost 300 other companies including Argos. 

Signing up for the Clubcard and Nectar loyalty schemes will also give you access to loyalty prices at Tesco and Sainsbury's. Which? research has found the average saving on a member-only offer is 21%, however, it's still important to compare prices as loyalty discounts might not be as good as they seem.

• Find out more: loyalty schemes compared

How to make travelling cheaper 

Travelling to visit family or friends during the Christmas period can be expensive, but planning in advance is the best way to save money. 

Buy train tickets in advance

If you're planning to travel by train, you can usually book cheaper advance train tickets up to 12 weeks before you intend to travel, so most rail firms have already released tickets for the Christmas period.

As a tip for next year, set yourself a reminder to check for advance Christmas train tickets from the end of September at the latest as some firms release tickets even earlier than 12 weeks in advance. 

Once you're able to book, it's also cheaper to travel during off-peak times if you can, and also see if you can cut your fare by splitting your ticket.

Use a railcard

Find the cheapest petrol

If you're planning to drive, avoid using premium pumps at the petrol station – super-unleaded fuel can be 10p to 15p per litre more expensive than other products.

The price of petrol and diesel can vary dramatically across the UK. Comparison site Confused.com compares prices at forecourts and can be used to find cheaper options near you.

It may also be worth trying to fill up your tank when you go food shopping, as our research into fuel costs has previously found that supermarkets offer cheaper prices. 

• Find out more: 11 ways to save on transport costs

This article was first published on 28 October 2022. It was updated on 19 October 2023.

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