The amount of food we throw away increases by 80% at Christmas, according to the Waste and Resources Action Programme. “All of that food thrown away is simply money wasted,” says The Daily Telegraph, “so it pays to plan as much as possible to be sure you use every bit.” Start by writing a list of the meals you will be cooking and how many people you’ll be cooking for. Then go to Lovefoodhatewaste.com, where you enter how many people you’re expecting to cater for and it will predict the quantities of various ingredients you’ll need. Try Mysupermarket.co.uk to work out the best place to buy your food. This is, after all, the best time of year for internet shopping, as it means you can avoid the supermarket scrum and unnecessary impulse Christmas purchases.
• For really cheap goods, check out www.boffer.co.uk, says Jennifer Hill in The Sunday Times. The website was launched a month ago and sells surplus stock and goods from retailers who have gone bust. One new product goes online at 23:59 every day and popular ones, such as an iPod Nano worth £109, offered for £19.99, sell out fast.
• Stock up on cheap alcohol at moneysavingexpert.com – print off a voucher for 40% off wine at Threshers. It’s worth comparing prices with other stores before using the voucher, though, as Threshers tends to be more expensive than the supermarkets.
• Push down your petcare costs. Britons spend £93.6m a week on their pets. A dog costs us £9,000 over its lifetime, with a cat costing £7,200. But you can cut that figure down quite easily, says Kate Bendix on Moneymagpie.com. Start with the most important – and the costliest – aspect of pet ownership: vet bills. Get pet insurance and you could save yourself a fortune over the years as your animal ages and requires more healthcare.
• Another way to help cut vet costs is to keep your pet’s weight down. Like their human owners, fat pets are prone to health problems. Also, if you want to treat your dog, head to the butcher. They will usually sell bones for much less than a specific ‘dog treat’, and chewing on bones helps keep a dog’s teeth clean.