The simple saving tricks that will make this Christmas more affordable

Jody Allen loves Christmas, and so does her family.

"One of my favourite parts is putting up the Christmas lights with my boys," she writes on her website Stay at Home Mum. 

"Then we love to head out and look at all the light displays everyone else has in their front yards around town. It's just magical."

Christmas can be expensive, however, once you factor in the presents, the food and the Christmas lights Allen adores. 

1. Savings apps

Allen says the first step is to download a savings app on your phone.

"There's one called Raise [previously called Acorn] that connects to your bank account, and every time you spend any money it rounds it up and puts those savings away," she explains.

Or you can do it yourself, as Allen does all year around.

"I put in $7.50 away each day, and it adds up really quick and that's my Christmas fund," she says.

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2. Shopping points

Allen recommends saving all of your shopping points.

"If you've got a supermarket rewards card, rather than getting discounts off every shop, you can save them all for Christmas. You just go online and pick that option," she says.

Allen says she saves up all of her reward points during the year and then when it comes to December, she uses them for her big Christmas shop.

"So it saves you money without you having to spend anything," she says.

3. Gift cards

"Buy $5 gift cards every time you do the food shopping," Allen says of her next genius tip.

"You can buy gift cards just at the check out of any supermarket -- $5 or $10 spare -- and just add it to your shop."

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Allen says by collecting these throughout the year, by the time you get to December you have plenty of money to spend on gifts and food.

"There's all your Christmas shopping done," Allen says.

4. Planning

When it comes to gifts for her boys, Allen says she tries to think about what she is going to get them at the beginning of the year, and then keeps an eye out for sales of those items.

"If you can, avoid buying everything in December," she says.

"Spread it out throughout the year."

Allen says being organised will save your money and best of all, won't cost you anything.

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