From giving deals a miss to cutting food waste – four Christmas spending traps to avoid which could save you £1k

SHOPPERS have been warned to avoid £955 worth of spending traps between now and Christmas.

From Black Friday “bargains” to Christmas Eve boxes, retailers are trying dozens of ways to part us from our money.

Sarah Coles, senior personal finance analyst at investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown, says: “You’ll be bombarded with things that people want you to buy, but no one can do everything, so think what’s important to you, set a budget and stick to it.”

Here we explain what to do . . . 

DISSECT THE DEALS

THE SHOPS are swarming with tempting Black Friday deals.

The offers are hard to resist, with shoppers set to spend around £400 over the annual sale weekend.

But you may be wasting your money.

Consumer body Which? reported that 98 per cent of products on sale on Black Friday 2021 were actually cheaper or the same price at other times in the year.

Check out websites such as Pricerunner, PriceSpy and, for Amazon, CamelCamelCamel to find an item’s price history and whether the sale deal is really worth getting excited about.

SKIP TRADITION TRAPS

THERE are plenty of new so-called traditions waiting to trip you up over the next month.

You might spend £30 on an Elf on the Shelf kit — or £70 on matching Christmas pyjamas for a family of four.

Catherine Thomas-Humphreys, a financial coach, enjoys watching The Snowman on December 24 with her family — a tradition that doesn’t cost a penny.

“Kids remember the time you had together, not the money you spent,” says mum-of-three Catherine (the fininfluencer.co.uk).

SWERVE THE DAYS-OUT DANGER

TAKING the family to a lovely light show could cost you around £50, while booking tickets to a celeb-studded panto could add up to £160 for four.

Even a trip to see Santa can easily cost £25 for two children.

Rather than focusing on what you can’t afford, make a family list of the things you can do.

WATCH FOR WASTE

WHEN it comes to food waste, families bin around £80 a month — and much more at Christmas, with half admitting they always end up buying too much festive food.

Shop sensibly, like you would at any other time of the year, and don’t buy foods “just in case”, as these often end thrown away.

Catherine admits: “I’ve been guilty of doing a last-minute top-up shop to buy extras on Christmas Eve.

“There’s a feeling of ‘you can never have too much’.

“But you’ll save money and waste by being more realistic.”

‘Instead of impulse buys, I put cash in a piggy bank’

HARRIET MORRIS bought a piggy bank last year to save money she would otherwise have spent on impulse purchases for Christmas.

The 53-year-old says: “I wanted to show my sons Louis, 19, and Tom, 16, how easy it is to spend on things you don’t really need.

“Every time I resisted buying something, I’d make a song and dance about it and put the equivalent value into the piggy bank or a special savings pot in my bank account.

“You could only get into the piggy bank by smashing it, so I couldn’t sneak any money out.”

The diabetes counsellor (theshiftinside.com) saved what she would have spent on GHD hair straighteners, down from £99 to £59 in the Black Friday sale.

She also resisted a plant and rug at Ikea, putting a further £60 the piggy bank.

Harriet, from Shrewsbury, says: “On a shopping trip, Tom and I swerved the coffee shop and added a tenner to the pot. When he went without a side dish on a meal out, we saved that bit extra.”

The family finally smashed open the pot before going on holiday, and found they’d saved more than £200.

Harriet’s just bought another piggy bank and plans to do the same this year.

She adds: “It stops me buying things I’ll soon forget about. Instead of spending a fortune in the run-up to Christmas, we’ll build up savings for experiences we’ll remember.”

Don’t attempt to copy what’s on social media

WRITE down in different categories everything you might spend over the festive season, from food and drink to the school Christmas fair.

Make the plan personal to your family and don’t try to match what you see on social media.

Rebecca Fearnley, budgeting lead at the Money and Pensions Service, said: “On Facebook or Instagram, people show off, but they won’t have the same budget as you.”

Look at the MoneyHelper website for tips on budgeting, and talk to kids about money.

Financial coach Catherine Thomas-Humphreys suggests going through your bank and credit card statements and supermarket apps from last year to help see where you can save.

She says: “If you’ve seen you’ve got a habit for overspending on Black Friday, you can prepare so it doesn’t happen again this year.”