A mother named Shaniece Sturdy from Carshalton, Surrey, purchased £1,319($1,700) worth of gifts for £388.
97($506) by getting deals in high street retailers’ online winter sales, such as the Blue Cross sale at Debenhams.
Her haul includes at least 10 individual gifts, three experience vouchers, as well as a handful of makeup and skincare products, and stocking fillers. Her best finds are £115($150) Ralph Lauren jeans that she bought for £35($45) from Flannels.com, and a Julien MacDonald duvet set for £21($27) instead of £70($91) from Debenhams.
The 27-year-old single mom-of-one also purchased three cheap voucher experiences from Buyagift.com which includes a junior Porsche sports car experience for her son, a three-course meal for two at a Marco Pierre White restaurant and a helicopter ride for two.
She told The Sun: “I’m absolutely chuffed to bits with what I’ve saved. It’s hundreds of pounds and I’m delighted. Most of it – certainly shopping for some of the bigger presents – is already done. By the end of the month, it’ll all be complete.”
“I’m a single mom, so it can be difficult at times. This is about being resourceful and saving money where I can.”
“It also means that I haven’t got the stress and worry of finding presents last minute for everyone when they’re going to be so much more expensive.
“I wouldn’t say I spend any more time shopping than other people do in the build up to Christmas. I do most of it on my phone in front of the TV.”
Shaniece runs a cleaning business and spends between 20 minutes and a couple of hours a day surfing the web for affordable deals. She signed up to retailers’ newsletters and got extra discounts.
“I always Google before paying for anything to see if I can get a code that will give me more money off,” Shaniece added.
“Sometimes they don’t work, or you can’t use them on top of products in the sale, but it’s well worth it when it does work.”
She doesn’t only buy presents for Christmas as some of them will be used for birthday presents. She makes a list of people who she wants to buy presents for and what kind of things they like.
“I tend to stay away from clothes as they can go out of fashion really easily in a year,” Shaniece added, “but things like gadgets, tech, boots and children’s toys age well.
“I store them in a cupboard at home that I sometimes dip into if I forget someone’s birthday or something.
“I don’t wrap the presents in case I need to use them before Christmas – besides, I don’t know what my theme will be until closer to the time.”
“I’ve already bought a few things from Boots in the 50 per cent sale but I’m holding out for the big price drop,” she added.
“I never buy anything in the Boxing Day sales because the best deals drop in January and early February. That’s when you’ll save the most money.”
[rumble video_id=vbxpl domain_id=u7nb2]