MISS MONEYSAVER

From freezing your cheese to bagging a bargain bike...

From today there are just 85 sleeps till Christmas. That may seem a lot to those who wait until December 24 to rush around and grab whatever they can. But for ‘early preppers’ like myself, a longer run-up helps to spread out the cost and avoid a crippling bill that takes months to pay off.

I’m not the only one who thinks like this. According to research by American Express, 16.5 million Brits have already started their Christmas shopping, and surprisingly it’s the young leading the way with more than a third of millennial and Gen Zers revealing their festive shopping is underway.

Granted, I’m the sort of person who starts buying presents in the January sales. But there are still plenty of bargains to be had now. my first port of call is always charity shops to hunt for unopened gift boxes of bathroom goodies and stationery that I can give to family and friends. These handy gift items tend to disappear by the end of october, so go and grab them while they are still in stock. Charity shops are also a goldmine if you are creative-minded. A friend of mine looks out for pretty cups and saucers and makes candles in the cups — a gorgeous gift for her girl friends. Second-hand vases and pots also make a great present when they are pepped up with fresh flowers or a houseplant. You can also create some professional-looking hampers for just a few quid. We have instructions on my website, MoneyMagpie. com, on how to make these, but essentially all you need is some sort of box, tray or basket, some stuffing (like coloured straw, from £3.99 at Amazon), cellophane (from £7.99 a roll at Amazon), old ribbon and tags from last Christmas. Then it’s up to you what you put in them. It could be homemade cakes and sweets (made closer to the time), or a selection of oils and pasta from Lidl’s Italian range (all priced below £2). Better still, why not pick up potential gifts for free? my favourite website is Freecycle.org, where you can sometimes find toys and homeware in near-perfect condition. You need to check the site daily, though, as the good stuff gets bagged within minutes.

Gumtree also has all sorts of Christmas goodies listed, including a 5ft Christmas tree complete with fir cones for £20.

There’s also a new app aimed at parents called Young Planet, where you can pick up free second-hand children’s toys and clothes from other parents.

It’s a great place to look if your child wants a bike for Christmas. Start looking now to give yourself the best chance of picking up the right size for free.

You can buy all your other presents at a discount over the next few weeks if you look around as there are sales on across the High Street and online. Bargains I spotted include a bottle of Calvin Klein CK obsession Night eau de parfum for women (100ml) for £27 (down from £49) at Lloydspharmacy.com.

For full-price purchases, it’s worth using cashback sites like Quidco or Topcashback to get money off. At Quidco, for example, you could get up to £100 back buying items at Curry’s or 10 per cent cashback on purchases at Boohoo.com.

If you’ve been collecting your Boots, Nectar, Tesco and other loyalty points during the year, keep collecting them and then deploy them closer to Christmas to get

the maximum freebies. Spend your Nectar points at partner brands eBay and Argos; Tesco points can be used to buy ‘experience’ presents for friends such as a restaurant meal or indoor skydiving; and Boots points can be used in-store or online to buy all manner of gifts including a Fenty Eyeshadow set for £19.50 (was £39), or FCUK sports holdall Gift Set for £20.50 (was £42)

I never leave my food shopping to the last minute either. With the price of turkeys set to be between 13 per cent and 25 per cent higher this year, due to the rocketing price of feed, use the handy ‘turkey finder’ at Countrysideonline.co.uk to find local suppliers and book your bird early.

A crown is more economical than a whole bird. They can be slightly more expensive per kg, but you save energy on cooking time. An average turkey (4kg) takes around four hours while an average crown (2kg) takes 1 hour 50 minutes, which halves the electricity cost.

The cheapest option, though, is to get a frozen bird from the supermarket. Last year the cheapest frozen turkey available was from Aldi. A 4kg one (serving 6-8) cost £11.49, while a similar sized fresh turkey from Aldi was around £18.

SprEAd the cost of all the trimmings by picking up a few of the non-perishable foods each week during your normal supermarket shop. Asda has tubs of Quality Street, Heroes and Celebrations for £4 right now and 85g packets of stuffing for £1.05 in the Just Essentials range.

You can also get Christmas chutneys and condiments, cheese biscuits, chocolate biscuits and Christmas puddings from all the supermarkets, which will still be in date by december 25. Mince pies are best bought later.

Keep your eyes peeled for bargains at discount food website Approvedfood.co.uk, which has Christmas puds (140g) for £1.49, boxes of Christmas chocolates and biscuits for £5 (down from £25).

Make use of your freezer, too. Cheese freezes well, for example, and can be kept for up to six months so start building up a cheese ,board now. potatoes can be roasted in advance then put in the freezer. There’s a great recipe at bbcgoodfood. com/recipes/freeze-ahead-roasties

Grab some bargain plonk at Sainsbury’s, where there is a 25 per cent off deal if you buy six bottles or more that finishes today. Tesco, Waitrose and Amazon’s 25 per cent off events are expected in November, but no dates have been confirmed yet.

It pays to be organised if you are travelling over the festive season. Book your train tickets now and you can save up to 50 per cent on your journey. The best deals are for tickets booked for specific dates and times.

For those flying abroad, the best bargains to be had are usually for Christmas day itself. If you are willing to travel then, you are likely to make a considerable saving.

With just 85 days to go, I would also suggest prudent budgeting to free up cash in december for any last-minute purchases. Cut out one High Street coffee five days a week and you could save £170 over ten weeks, as the average cost these days is £3.40.

Forgo that Friday night takeaway twice a month, and over ten weeks you could save £150 (based on the average takeaway for two people costing £30).