Coupon queen’s £574 Xmas cost £4!
Christmas is an expensive time of the year for anyone with a family. Unless, like Jennifer Drew, they happen to be rather canny with coupons.
the mother-of-one reckons she has bagged the cheapest Christmas in the country – after shelling out just £4.05 for food, presents and decorations worth £574.
mrs Drew kept costs to a minimum by using supermarket loyalty schemes, cashback and discount websites such as Groupon and offers from newspapers and magazines.
it meant the only money the she spent on Christmas was £4 on a £98 toshiba soundbar speaker for her husband Neil, 33, and 5p on a large carrier bag. she got the soundbar for a fraction of the cost after it was reduced to £24 in a pre-Black Friday sale, then ‘doubled up’ £10 worth of tesco clubcard vouchers to pay £20 towards it.
her other bargains include a free Christmas tree worth £40 courtesy of the Daily mail’s mymail rewards club, a free £10 turkey, free £25 Paw Patrol toys for her two-year-old son Nicholas, £83 of gifts from Boots paid for by loyalty points and £200 of amazon and PC World goods paid for through cashback accrued via the Quidco website.
the thrifty 32-year-old from ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire – who quit her job as a secondary school teacher this year to start her cou- pondetective.co.uk website – estimates she saved more than £20,000 through bargain hunting this year.
she has amassed a ‘stockpile’ of discounted goods so large through ‘extreme couponing’ that it has taken over her garage.
‘Prices at Christmas time can be ridiculous and it all adds up, par- ticularly when you’ve got a young child’, she said. ‘Collecting coupons is a great way around it.
‘Once you get to grips with the process, it’s very simple. What people don’t realise is that a bit of research can save hundreds of pounds... i get a real buzz every time i save money. it’s like an addiction.’