There's under 100 DAYS until Christmas! Here's what you need to do now

Monday 19 September at 3:32pm

Tick tock, tick tock (ho ho ho), the clock’s ticked past the 100-days-left-till-Christmas mark. And our Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis is here with his top seven things you should do now that’ll save you when the big day comes.

Every January people tell me they're skint because of Christmas. Yet it's not an unexpected expenditure; it happens on 25 December every year. And while I don't like tinsel and Jingle Bells before December any more than you do, many festive savers only work if you do them early, so here are my key tips…

1. Agree to not give unnecessary presents. Yes, it’s the season of goodwill but that doesn’t mean you need to turn Christmas into a retail festival, by buying unnecessary gifts for friends and family because they bought you a gift. So make a pre-No Unnecessary Present Pact (pre-NUPP) with them, so you both don’t end up with gifts that languish unused in the back of your cupboards. Like Julia, who tweeted me: "@MartinSLewis, finally took your advice and told family I can't afford Xmas presents. What a weight off my mind. Thank you." See my full ban Christmas presents blog for more on the theory.

Or if you still want to give presents then agree to give them after Christmas, when you can buy the same gift at half the price when the Boxing Day sales hit.

Book your train tickets 12 weeks in advance.Wherever you’re planning on spending the festive season, if you need to travel by train, book your tickets 12 weeks in advance. That's when most cheap advance tickets launch, so you get maximum availability. As we’re closing in on the perfect moment – Christmas and New Year tickets are likely to start selling from the first week in October – keep a look out now.

3. Can you demoHOHOtivate extra cash? Small cutbacks now can save large when there are 97 days, 70 working days and 14 weeks left till Christmas. So, if you give up a £2 coffee every day, you’ll save £140, or cut back on a pack of cigarettes every week and it’s £150. I’m not saying you should give up everything completely, but make an active choice: would you prefer the cash at Christmas or the daily treat?

4. Earn 5% cashback on your Christmas shopping.If you’re going to be spending for Christmas you might as well do it on a card that pays you every time you spend on it. The no annual-fee Amex Platinum Everyday credit card pays you 5% cashback on your first three months' spending (maximum £100) followed by up to 1% after. Get it now and this coincides with the high Christmas-period spend. Though the cashback won’t be paid until a year later, and you need to spend £3,000 in a year to get any cashback, but then again that’s a bonus for next Christmas. Make sure you set up a direct debit to repay IN FULL each month to avoid the 22.9% rep APR.

5. Not saved for it? Do it now – then you can split the cost by four.A typical family Christmas costs around £800 - a huge amount from one month's salary alone. But if you haven’t started saving yet, there is still time. For example, if you put £200 aside from your September, October and November income, it’ll spread the cost. Save what you can, but if you really can’t, I’m afraid you’ll need to go cold turkey.

6. Set up a Christmas cupboard. Become a tactical shopper – work out now what you want to buy, and then if you spot a bargain, you can pounce on it when there’s a code, voucher or discount that’s cheaper (ensure you get the alerts from discount sites to be on top of it). Even better, as is part of many MoneySavers' Christmas arsenal, once you buy a present, bag it, wrap it, and pop it in a Christmas cupboard – gradually getting the chores done.

7. Not used it since last Christmas? Flog it. Walk around the house and examine everything; it’s time for your annual personal stock clearance. Many old items can be worth serious cash. And if you’ve not used things for a year, whether toys, prams, old coffee makers, mobile phones, gadgets, or even clothes, why not sell them?

Have a look on eBay to see if any of your bits are suitable for sale. There are also lots of recycling sites that will pay you for old mobiles and gadgets – just make sure you do your research first to find the one that’ll give you the most.