Super Savvy ‘Coupon Mama’ Saves £1000s for Christmas
Kez Dancy, also known as Coupon Mama, has saved thousands of pounds over the years, through couponing, competitions, and cash back apps.
The mum of two from Highbridge, Somerset, saved around £1,500 last year for Christmas, but her best deal was once doing all her Christmas shopping for free.
Kez, who writes at Coupon Mama UK, spends all year planning her Christmas savings, but says the huge savings make it worthwhile.
She has shared her tips on the best ways to save money and have a stress free holiday period, with her top tip being to start looking for deals as soon as possible.
Top tips and tricks for money saving at Christmas:
Start early
Kez said “my best tip is to start as early as you can. I start Christmas shopping in January by looking in sales and charity shops.
“Every year at Christmas, I wrap up some books for my kids and we open them as part of an advent calendar.
“I get the books for around 20p in charity shops in January.”
Kez also makes the most of unloved presents put in charity shops after Christmas, “I re-wrap unwanted presents and give them as gifts for next Christmas.”
Find coupons to cut costs
Kez has become best known for her extreme couponing, which saved her around £1,500 last Christmas.
“Christmas can be really expensive, especially when you’ve got children, but if you use coupons it can cost almost nothing.
“I’ve mainly used coupons to cut down by Christmas spending, once you get into it, it becomes really addictive.
“It’s always worth saving up coupons that don’t expire until after Christmas, I have managed to save up hundreds of pounds worth of coupons to spend on Christmas shopping.”
Use cash-back apps
Although couponing is how Kez is best known, she now prefers to use cashback apps.
These apps allow you to get money back on products, just by scanning the bar-code.
Kez said, “cash-back apps can be used in all major supermarkets and are much more convenient that couponing.
“I saved up £150 through the year using these amazing apps.
“You use the app by scanning the barcode of the product, and it gives you money back, I’ve saved hundreds by doing it.”
Enter online competitions
Kez enters online competitions, mainly on Facebook, to win prizes that she can use for Christmas presents.
“All you need to do to enter some competitions is share a Facebook post, and when it’s that easy I can’t scroll past.”
Kez now shares online competitions, and runs some of her own, on her Facebook page, Coupon Mama UK, which has almost 400,000 followers.
One year Kez won over £250 of toys and other items that she used as Christmas gifts for friends and family.
You can find over 100 new competitions every day on Latest Deals
Write to companies
Kez has saved money through writing to companies and praising products she loves.
Companies have then sent her free samples of the products or money off vouchers for future shops.
Signing up to be a product tester for a company is also a great way to save over Christmas.
Websites, such as BzzAgent, allows you to sign up to be a free product tester.
Kez said, “I’ve applied for loads of freebies and have recently discovered product testing. All the lovely toiletries, cosmetics, and other freebies can be used to make Christmas hampers.”
Earlier in the year, Deepak Tailor, author of How To Live For Free, shared free template letters you can send to companies to ask for coupons. You can download and use the templates here (you will need to be a member of the Latest Deals Facebook group).