I’ve done my family’s Christmas shopping for just £10

FOR most of us the dreaded annual scramble to buy Christmas presents is only just beginning.

But coupon queen Kerenza Richards has finished her shopping already – for less than £10. By using online voucher codes, special offers and competitions over the past year, she has managed to bag children’s toys worth £600.

The mother of two, from Highbridge, Somerset, has also snapped up a designer watch, hair straighteners, perfume and alcohol, bringing her total savings to over £1,000.

The only thing Miss Richards, pictured right, still needs to buy is the family Christmas dinner, but she is confident that she will be able to use coupons to feed five adults and three children for free – instead of the typical £200 cost of a festive spread.

‘Christmas can be really expensive, especially when you’ve got children as well, but if you use coupons it can cost you next to nothpaid

‘Everything’s wrapped and it’s stress-free too’

ing,’ said the 27-year-old. ‘This year I’ve spent a fraction of the price of most of my friends, and I’ve got everything wrapped up nice and early so it’s stress-free too.

‘I started my Christmas shopping for this year as soon as the post-Christmas sales hit last year. January sales are always a great place to pick up gifts and other Christmas things like decorations and crackers for a fraction of the price.’

As a result of her savvy shopping, her children Chloe, ten, and Connor, four, will be spoiled with the latest toys and games she collected, mostly from entering competitions. But she also collects coupons and keeps an eye out for supermarket points, newspaper offers, cash-back promotions and special offers.

Miss Richards managed to get a Buzz Lightyear toy for free, while two Furbys – worth nearly £100 – cost her just £1. The most for any item was £3.50 for a Paw Patrol toy using a discount coupon. She has recycled a lot of her Christmas decorations and got her tree at a car boot sale for £5.

One of her top money-saving tips is to write to companies directly praising their products. Miss Richards says she is often rewarded with free samples and money-off vouchers as a result.

She claims to have saved nearly £30,000 since she and her partner David Dancy began couponing three years ago after he was made redundant. Miss Richards a freelance marketing professional, now dedicates more than an hour a day to hunting down bargains and entering competitions.

‘Once you get into it, it becomes really addictive,’ she said. ‘On everyday items I must save at least £30 a week

‘It’s quite time-consuming. You have to be very organised with it, it’s like a military routine – I have a photo album that I keep all my vouchers in.’ Her money saving efforts been so successful that friends and family seek her help and she has started her own blog, Coupon Mama.

‘A lot of my friends ask me to help them save money – this year I’ve done my motherin-law’s Christmas shop as well as my own,’ she said. ‘I like to help out other people too, and if I end up getting lots of things I don’t really need I give them to local homeless shelters and foodbanks.’