Mini pod: Is now the time to ban unnecessary Christmas presents? With 100 days to go, Martin’s top tips to ease costs & stress

In this mini ‘100 days to go until the big day’ episode, Martin Lewis gives you his top tips to help you save money and ease the stress around the cost of Christmas, including: bank switches giving you free cash, toy sales, banning unnecessary presents, what’s basket bluff (and how to play it), and loads more! If you want to ask Martin a question, you now can! His Question Time podcast lets you ask Martin absolutely anything and everything (within reason!). So, if you’ve always wanted to know his favourite London bus route, how many pets he has, or you have a very complicated question about your finances, email it to [email protected] mailto:[email protected].

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:06Speaker 01

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• 1:45Martin Lewis?

  Right across the year, there are many banks that will pay you to switch to them. This is a perfect time to grab the free bank switching cash. Sometimes the best gift may be releasing someone from the obligation of having to buy for you. Would I suggest people agree a no unnecessary present pact?

• 2:04Martin Lewis?

  Hello and ho ho ho. I'm Martin Lewis and this is the cunningly named The Martin Lewis Podcast. I do wonder what that's going to be about. And this is our big topic episode where each week we lead on one main subject to help you save. Now, normally it comes from my BBC Radio 5 live show with Adrian Charles, but not today. Oh no. This is a pod only, pre-Christmas preparation special. A host of things that if you do them now, should save you cost and more importantly, stress on the big day. In this podcast, a free £240 in time for Christmas just by switching bank. Then there are a host of toy sales on right now, the early ones, but often the best time to buy in time for Christmas.

• 2:48Martin Lewis?

  Then the big one, is this the time for you to ban unnecessary Christmas presents? Let's de-commercialise Christmas and bring it back to what it's meant to be. We'll move on then to how to play basket bluff. No, it's not a game for Christmas Day. It's a way you can manipulate online stores to get them to give you a discount voucher. I also want to talk you through why you should beware of gifts, cards and vouchers. And there's lots, lots more. Play the theme tune. Whoa there. This is about early preparation, not early celebration. Nobody needs jingle bells in September. Play the normal theme tune.

• 3:40Martin Lewis?

  Hello and welcome to this week's podcast and it's pod only this time, but I'm joined by podcast producer Matt. Hello, Matt.

• 3:50Speaker 04

  Hello.

• 3:50Martin Lewis?

  Now, Matt is fresh from the Question Time podcast. How was your commute from Question Time podcast over to the Big Issues podcast?

• 3:56Speaker 04

  Long and arduous.

• 3:57Martin Lewis?

  Yes, I mean, sat in the same studio, we're recording one after the other, so it should all be fine. And we're going to be talking Christmas today. Are you a big Christmas doer?

• 4:07Speaker 04

  Uh, yes.

• 4:08Martin Lewis?

  Because you don't have kids, so it's always slightly different for people who don't have kids. Where are you in there? Is it a big, big time of the year for you or is it just a day?

• 4:15Speaker 04

  Christmas Day itself, yes. I don't like the run up to Christmas. I don't like winter. It's too cold. It's too grey, gets dark too quickly. But Christmas is a nice bit of like celebration, seeing family. So I like Christmas Day and I like Boxing Day.

• 4:27Martin Lewis?

  Yeah. So, I mean, it's glad we've got you here because I, I mean, I should always say at this point, I'm a Hanukkah man, not a Christmas man. I don't really do Christmas, but we do Hanukkah and a lot of the rules are very similar for that. And it comes at a similar time of the year, though Hanukkah is on the lunar calendar, so it moves each year. It's normally sometime between mid-December and sort of mid-January and often can be around the Christmas time. And it's a similar jolly winter festival. So, look, the aim today, as I've already mentioned, this is about early preparation, not early celebration. So for those who do celebrate Christmas and other festivals, it is always a significant financial event. And that means it needs planning and preparation rather than a last minute grab and dash

• 5:08Martin Lewis?

  which only tends to lead to sort of extra expenditure and extra stress. So what I want to do today, I've got a list of Christmas preparation tips I want to go through. Some practical, some a little bit more philosophical and perhaps controversial. And we'll get to those when we get to them. I'll probably title the pod on that because then more people will probably listen when they listen to the controversial bits, but lots of practicals too. And to do this nice and smoothly, as it's pod only, I've given you a list. Do you have the list?

• 5:35Speaker 04

  I can see the list.

• 5:37Martin Lewis?

  Because you're here, Matt.

• 5:38Speaker 04

  I'm here.

• 5:38Martin Lewis?

  And I don't want you to get all over excited about this role that you've got today. Bullet points are very important. Without a bullet point, you wouldn't have a story. Without a bullet point, nothing would come forward. So you're going to give me a subject and then I'm going to riff on that subject like we were some time of financial jazz programme.

• 5:54Speaker 04

  How exciting.

• 5:55Martin Lewis?

  There we go.

• 5:58Martin Lewis?

  So what is your first bullet point, Matt?

• 6:00Speaker 04

  My first bullet point's on free cash from bank switching.

• 6:04Martin Lewis?

  Yeah. So the reason for doing this right now is right across the year, there are many banks that will pay you to switch to them. They are effectively legal bribes for new customers to come in and move their bank account. So if you love your existing bank account, you might not want to do this. But if your bank account isn't special and you don't like it, then absolutely, this is a perfect time to grab the free bank switching cash. And it really isn't a big deal switching bank account. Most people tell me it's easy and hassle free. You do have to pass a not too harsh credit check. It's not as harsh as a credit card credit check normally. And you must use what they call the seven working day switch service of the new bank. Now, seven working days is in practice about 10 days. What this does, closes your old bank account for you, moves over your balance.

• 6:49Martin Lewis?

  So any money in it is automatically moved over, moves over your standing orders, moves over your direct debits. All this is done for you and any payments made to the old bank account are automatically forwarded to the new one. Though you would want to tell people your new bank account details, but this just means you've got time to do it because the money wouldn't be lost. You know, if they pay you, you'll still get it. There are loads of them at the moment. I'm going to give you a bit more detail of the few top pairs and then just run quickly through the others. Now, even then, because it'd make very bordering podcasting, I'm not going to dot every i and cross every t. You do need to look up the full eligibility criteria. Normally you need to move a couple of direct debits across and stuff to qualify. But let's just try and run through a few and I'll tell you when I give you a payment date.

• 7:32Martin Lewis?

  That is, if you fulfilled all the criteria as quickly as possible today, on the day we're putting the podcast out, which is a Friday, the date that you would be paid by. Here goes. So the biggest payer of free cash at the moment is the Santander Every Day that's giving you £240. To qualify it, you need to pay in a total of £1500 within 60 days. That literally means you have that amount going in. Now, if you put £100 in, you could take £100 out and you could put more money in. It's just the money going in that counts. And you also have to fund its linked 8% regular savings account with over £200. Again, that can be withdrawn. Do all that and the quickest you could have the cash paid if you did it today would be the 17th of December.

• 8:15Martin Lewis?

  Next top, and they're all for newbies, remember? So if you've got one of these, you can move to a different one. HSBC is giving you £220 for free and you need to pay in a total of £2000. Again, you can do that in bits and bobs and put £500 on its debit card. Do that, the cash could be paid by the 24th of November. First Direct, which is a good all-rounder account, it gives you £210 for free. It's top rated for service. It's got a 7% linked regular savings account. Most people get a 200% zero percent overdraft. It's got a top overseas debit card. To qualify for that, you just need to pay in a total of £1000. Again, you can do it in bits and bobs and make five or more debit card payments and log into its online banking. Then you could get the cash paid by the 20th of October.

• 8:59Martin Lewis?

  And then you've got a new account from Club Lloyds, which is a free £200 and it also gives you 12 months Disney Plus and got some other good perks too. That is a minimum payment of £2000 a month. You could get that by the 8th of October. You've got NatWest Reward, which is £200 quid that could be paid by the 25th of October. You've got Nationwide Flex Direct, which is £175 that could be paid by the 5th of October. And if you earn over £100,000 a year, then you've got a couple more out there. HSBC Premier that'll give you £500 and NatWest Premier Rewards that will give you £500 too. Go and look all those up if they sound interesting to you. But the big message from me at the moment, ho ho ho, free cash to boost your coffers for Christmas just by changing your bank.

• 9:44Speaker 04

  Who could say no to that?

• 9:46Martin Lewis?

  Well, loads of people who like their existing bank, but it's just an idea that you might want to do it. What's your next bullet point?

• 9:51Speaker 04

  Next one, toy sales are now on?

• 9:53Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, people often think, it's quite funny that we're in September at the moment and toy sales are on. These are the early Christmas sales that money savers tend to go for. So those people who know what they want to buy their children, this is a good time to go and stock up on those toys. You've got Argos is up to 50% off. Now, we did 10 random items on this to see how good the sale is because when they say up to 50%, what does that mean? I mean, it could be 1% is up to 50%. So 10 items picked, random items, randoms picked at item?

• 10:23Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 10:23Martin Lewis?

  10 items picked at random had an average discount of 29%. Asda also has an up to 50% off and random items there were 30% cheaper. And Tesco larger stores has a 50% off that ends on Sunday, the 1st of November. So if you shop in any of those places and you're looking to buy toys, this isn't a bad time to do it. Next bullet.

• 10:42Speaker 04

  Next bullet. Apparently you say there's still time to spread the cost to ease the pain.

• 10:46Martin Lewis?

  Yeah. So we're starting to get into, look, the problem with Christmas is it's a typical cost of £700 for people. And if you don't plan, that has to come from December's income. Now, that's quite hefty. I mean, most people wouldn't do that on the summer holiday. They would have money put aside to pay for the summer holiday. And Christmas is akin to that. So if you haven't put any aside yet, you could try and squeeze a quarter of what's needed from your September pay, your October pay and your November pay too. Then coupled with the December pay, you have the money. You can put it into top savings like Spring is paying 5% and up to £5,000. Or Kahoot is paying 5% and up to £3,000 in the meantime. So you gain a little interest. But it's less really about the interest you gain.

• 11:29Martin Lewis?

  It's more that what you don't want to do is be paying for each month after Christmas for what you've spent and having to pay interest on top. Far better to pay each month before Christmas and get them to give you interest on top. So it's just a little call. If you are going to be spending at Christmas, Christmas debt is a nightmare. Leads to a huge financial hangover. If you haven't thought about it yet and it's too much to pay out of December's income, start putting money aside now if you possibly can. Okay. And what is on the list that you've got in front of you? I mean, I know, but otherwise it'd just be me talking the whole way through.

• 12:01Speaker 04

  Is it time to ban unnecessary Christmas presents?

• 12:04Martin Lewis?

  Yes. So this is the big one. And it's really important that we're doing it at this time of year. Now, years ago, 15 years ago, when I first wrote about this, I was really nervous and expecting a backlash. Instead, the response was from relieved people who feel that on the back of this, this isn't about a law to ban unnecessary Christmas presents. This is about talking to your wider group of friends and family and saying, hey, shall we just chill it a little bit this year? The response I got from people was that they get more time, more space, more enjoyment. Some people have got in touch with me to say it's reinvigorated Christmas for them because it brings them closer to what Christmas is about. Now, let's be very plain from the start.

• 12:47Martin Lewis?

  We're not talking about gifts from parents and grandparents for children or for close family. This is about that ever widening circle of friends, colleagues and relatives that we feel we need to buy for. And my big message here is sometimes the best gift may be releasing someone from the obligation of having to buy for you. And that's why now is the right moment. Because if you leave it too late and someone's already bought for you, it's gone and you can't really do this. So doing this now in September, before we started to get into the main shopping period for most people for Christmas gifts is absolutely important. And there is a big, long philosophy behind this.

• 13:30Martin Lewis?

  Christmas gift giving isn't, doesn't follow anthropologically the reason that we traditionally did gift giving. I mean, we simply swap presents and we feel an obligation to reciprocate. Now, the reason gift giving started in ancient societies was it was a form of social banking. So if you think about it like this, when you would go to a wedding, older, more affluent members of the community would give gifts to younger members of the community to help them start off their life. And then as those younger members of the community aged, they would become the older, more affluent people and they would give it to the new group of younger people. And you can see what I mean by social banking. But at Christmas, it's a zero sum game. There's no net movement of money or goods.

• 14:14Martin Lewis?

  And the crucial thing here is this can result in misprioritising somebody's spending. So, so let's take it this way, Matt. If I gave you, and we're mates, as opposed to the relationship that we have at the moment, which we are friends, but you know, we're colleagues.

• 14:28Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 14:29Martin Lewis?

  If I gave you a £40 scarf, what would you feel you needed to do?

• 14:34Speaker 04

  Return a £40 gift to you.

• 14:36Martin Lewis?

  Exactly.

• 14:37Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 14:37Martin Lewis?

  Exactly. And without even the bullet point you did that.

• 14:40Speaker 04

  That's marvelous. So much like I'm good at my job.

• 14:43Martin Lewis?

  Yeah. So you would have to buy back something of similar value. That's what the social convention is. And while that's fine if both people can afford it and they've got the time. If you're feeling, I'm going to be generous and to give to somebody who's struggling, they will still feel that need to reciprocate to you. And that could effectively mean they're spending £40 on the gift you gave them. So £40 on that scarf. And whereas they might have preferred to spend £40 on feeding their children or paying the bills than giving that gift to you. So when many people talk to me about what about the gift of giving? This is why I go back to that phrase, sometimes the greatest gift is releasing someone from the obligation of having to buy for you.

• 15:22Martin Lewis?

  And we add to that, that this tit for tat nature of giving means far too many people end up with tat. You know, unwanted, unused gifts. I don't want to stop the festive fun, but when people are just buying things for the sake of it, misprioritising other people's financing and ending up with a load of crap that just needs to end up in the landfill, it isn't good for anybody. So this is why, this is the point of the year when I suggest people agree a no unnecessary present pact, a pre-Christmas knock, a pre-knock.

• 15:55Speaker 04

  No unnecessary present pact? No? Okay, thanks, Matt.

• 15:58Martin Lewis?

  A no unnecessary present pact with your wider group of friends or family. Most people tell me they broach it and they're scared to do so, but then there is a collective sigh of relief when they talk about it. If a no unnecessary present pact is too hardcore, Secret Santa will work with a spending limit, agree to spend time together, to make gifts instead or to give money to charity. All of that works. And I just think this is the time of year, especially when many people are facing pressure at the moment, that we need to be a little bit thoughtful, a little bit of step back on this and a little bit of saying, how wide am I going to spread the net of Christmas giving? And remember, you can't unilaterally decide to reduce your Christmas giving because other

• 16:42Martin Lewis?

  people will give back to you, which is why it's a good thing to talk about right now. I'm very happy for you to blame me. I'm very happy for you to open the conversation, say, I was listening to Martin Lewis talk about this. What do you think about it? And if they go, oh, terrible idea and he's an absolute, right? That's fine. I don't mind, but if that helps you open the conversation.

• 17:01Speaker 04

  And if you've had this conversation with your family and friends about not giving unnecessary gifts, we'd love to hear from you. Send us your stories. [email protected]

• 17:10Martin Lewis?

  And a final note for those who have young children. I did an experiment, oh gosh, this has got to be, also about 15 years ago. We went into a primary school with some, I think they were year one children, so about five or six. And we gave them boxes that were wrapped up. And I said to them beforehand, I want you to know there really aren't any presents inside these boxes. And they all looked and I said, but if you want to open them, you can open them. And they were like, please can we open them? I said, if you're sure you want to open them, there's no, please can we open them? And so we gave them these boxes, these big, big wrapped boxes. And the kids were so excited and they opened the boxes and they were so excited, even though there was nothing in them.

• 17:54Martin Lewis?

  And then they turned the boxes into tunnels and things to jump on and things to mess around and they played with each other. And they were playing with a huge level of excitement for 50 minutes with just big, empty cardboard boxes. Now, that is not me saying that you should give your young children an empty cardboard box for Christmas. What it is, though, is young children especially, they're not retail snobs. They don't judge a present by the cost. We as adults psychologically judge how much we're giving them by how much we had to pay for it. But while you have very young children, try and step away from that. They, you don't have to spend a fortune on that.

• 18:37Martin Lewis?

  Once they're teenagers, they're going to be demanding brands and other things and you are going to have to spend more money if you've got it. If you don't, don't let Christmas ruin your new year. But I just think while they're young, take a step back, stop thinking, and I've heard so many people say this, I can't get them that because it only costs £5 or £10. That isn't enough. They don't think like that when they're young, and nor should you.

• 18:59Speaker 04

  Right. Right. Next one?

• 19:00Martin Lewis?

  Hopefully you've got something a little bit, little bit less philosophical and more practical.

• 19:03Speaker 04

  Yeah. What's Basket Bluff?

• 19:06Martin Lewis?

  Okay. It's not a game that you play on Christmas Day.

• 19:08Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 19:10Martin Lewis?

  So this is about a nice sneaky trick to get, trick to get yourself a bargain. I've talked about it before, but it does work really well, especially at this time of year. So what Basket Bluff is about is if there's something that you want from a retailer, an online retailer where you've got an account, you've got to have an account set up, especially because you've got time at this time of year, if you're buying something for Christmas or over the next couple of months. Go and put your shopping in the basket online. And then don't do anything. Do not complete. You give them conniptions. The retailers are sitting there going, what's happened? Why isn't this person transacting? I thought they were going to buy. And you would be staggered at the amount of times that within a couple of days, they send you a discount for that shopping basket. Do you see what I mean?

• 19:55Martin Lewis?

  So, you know, whether I've got a list in front of me, a place that people have reported it's been done. Argos, Asda, Boden, Cotton Traders, Deliveroo, E-Bookers, Evans, Lloyd's Pharmacy, Morrison's Ocado, Princess Cruises, Sainsbury's, Shark, Tesco Groceries, Very, Virgin Media, Virgin Wines, Waitrose, Dorothy Perkins, Emma Bridgewater, Furniture Village, JD Sports Next, and a whole lot more. ASOS, Boo Who Man, Boo Avenue, Brand Alley, Buy a Gift. I could keep going on. So let me just give you a few case studies of people who've got in touch with me. Kate got in touch with me on X. Hi, Martin. I did this with Shark. They sent me a 20% discount for an item left in my basket and I then bought the Hoover. So I think the item left in your basket was a Hoover. I see what a detective I am.

• 20:40Martin Lewis?

  Charlie was browsing ASOS's wedding dresses yesterday and added one to my basket, then left the site for the night. This morning, I had a nice surprise email from ASOS, offering 20% off as they'd noticed me window shopping. Got £37 off my wedding dress. C S Chamberlain got in touch with me on X. This is my favourite game to play. I've named it this year Basket Bluff, so it now has a name. It's my favourite game to play with Boden. Leave a full basket a few days and a £10 voucher turns up in the post every time. Do you like that? Have you ever done it?

• 21:10Speaker 04

  I like that. I do it with food delivery apps. I will go on it, open it up, have a look around, go off it, leave it for a bit, and then they'll always send a discount code.

• 21:18Martin Lewis?

  There you go. You see, Basket Bluff.

• 21:20Speaker 04

  Basket Bluff. I like that. I'm going to play it more often.

• 21:22Martin Lewis?

  There we are. Couple left, haven't we? What have you got?

• 21:25Speaker 04

  Yes, beware of gift cards and vouchers, you say?

• 21:28Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, this is my seasonal warning. Many people in Britain, we don't like giving cash. Would you feel awkward sending somebody cash?

• 21:35Speaker 04

  I don't really do. I buy gifts. I'm a gift giver.

• 21:38Martin Lewis?

  But people do gift cards instead because it's more socially acceptable. More socially acceptable, Rosie, Isabel? So Rosie and Isabel, they're both saying, because they don't talk on air, they're sitting in the corner silently fact checking me. They're both saying they get cash. I think it's still, I think cash from close family is fine. I think it's wider groups who tend to give gift cards. And now, look, I get it. The two key things to remember about gift cards are if a store goes bust, gift vouchers usually become worthless. And so I've had this so many times over the year. A big shop's got, and people go, I've got a gift card. What do I do? And you're like, not much. You're just a creditor to the company. You're unlikely to get anything back. So certainly if you're giving gift cards, you want them to be things that people are going to spend pretty quickly because obviously the shorter they're holding them, the less chance there is of the firm going bust. And also think about that company.

• 22:23Martin Lewis?

  You know, think about the solvency and strength of that company. I mean, let's be honest, it's unlikely Amazon is going to go bust. But there are lots of shops that in this current time, it's everything's a little bit more uncertain too. So just think about who you're buying from. And the second one is many gift cards have expiry dates which often aren't made clear enough. It can be just a year or two years from the date of buying. Always check if you're buying someone a gift card and make sure the recipient knows when that gift card dates. So what's your next bullet for me, Matt? And do you know what? If it's a Matt bullet, is it a mullet?

• 22:57Speaker 04

  No. Do you know anyone who has a mullet?

• 23:01Martin Lewis?

  No, I don't.

• 23:02Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 23:03Martin Lewis?

  My next.

• 23:04Speaker 04

  At my age, I don't really know anyone's got hair. My next mullet is what haven't you used since last Christmas?

• 23:12Martin Lewis?

  Yes, and it's time for your annual domestic stocktake. Remember, shops don't just value themselves about the cash in their till. They value the stock that they have. We should do the same too. So at this time of year, especially if you're trying to free up cash and it's a good time to do it, take a walk around your house and look at everything that you have not used since last Christmas. Toys, old coffee makers, mobile phones, prams, gadgets, clothes, whatever it is. And then ask yourself, is it time to flog them for cash? And if you were to do it right now, whether it's on eBay, which is best for the pricey stuff generally, Facebook, best for larger items, wardrobes and so forth, Vinted, which tends to be best for clothes. If it's time to flog them, hopefully you could do it now.

• 23:55Martin Lewis?

  And this again could be a boost to those Christmas coffers.

• 23:59Speaker 04

  I'm doing at the moment. I need to sell my unused clothes. I can't play the wardrobe about.

• 24:04Martin Lewis?

  Are you going to put that you're Matt from the Martin Lewis podcast? I mean, it could put the price up or down. I'm not sure.

• 24:10Speaker 04

  Oh, God, yeah. Or would it put it really far down?

• 24:13Martin Lewis?

  Oh, no, I don't think it would. I think there'd be a whole load of, but the problem is because it's podcasts, people don't see you. If we ever move to a visualised podcast, that could change everything.

• 24:23Speaker 04

  Who knows?

• 24:23Martin Lewis?

  It could change everything. You know, because you don't get stopped in the street, do you, Matt?

• 24:27Speaker 04

  No.

• 24:27Martin Lewis?

  Have we yet had? So if you're only listening to the Big Topics podcast, Matt is a serious feature of the Question Time podcast. So this is, he's very well known for Question Time podcast listeners. Have you ever had anyone say to you yet, I listen to you, who doesn't work at the BBC? Have you had it? And they know it's you.

• 24:45Speaker 04

  No, not yet.

• 24:46Martin Lewis?

  Okay.

• 24:47Speaker 04

  I'm waiting for the time. I'm waiting for, to be sat on a train or something and then someone leans over and goes, are you from the Martin Nurse podcast?

• 24:53Martin Lewis?

  But they won't know visually.

• 24:54Speaker 04

  No, but they'd hear my voice.

• 24:55Martin Lewis?

  No, they do. Yeah, I have to say.

• 24:57Speaker 04

  I talk a lot.

• 24:58Martin Lewis?

  I get that from cabbies sometimes. I get in and they haven't recognised me. And then when I say where I'm going, they go, all right, Martin. And it works like that. So it does, it does happen. People do the voice recognition. Right.

• 25:07Speaker 04

  Right.

• 25:08Martin Lewis?

  What have we got left on the lift?

• 25:13Martin Lewis?

  What do we have left on the lift?

• 25:14Speaker 04

  What does demo-ho-hotivate yourself mean?

• 25:19Martin Lewis?

  Can you say that again?

• 25:20Speaker 04

  I can try. Demo-ho-hotivate yourself.

• 25:22Martin Lewis?

  Demo-ho-hotivate.

• 25:24Speaker 04

  Ho, ho, ho.

• 25:25Martin Lewis?

  I often talk about demotivating your spending. It's about, this is about small cuts that can make big benefits. And at this time of year, I call it demo-ho-hotivation because it works. So basically, if you're short of cash for Christmas, and that's what we're talking about, then it's time to consider if it is worth cutting some things out. I'm not saying you should. It's not for me to tell you what you should or shouldn't spend on. I'm saying it may be worth doing a little piece of maths. So for example, if you stop buying a daily matcha latte, darling, on your way to work, you could save over 300 quid by Christmas.

• 25:58Speaker 04

  That's a lot.

• 25:59Martin Lewis?

  That is a lot. So here are, here are the things that pay. There are 98 days to Christmas, which is 70 working days. So if you're spending £3 a day on a coffee, three times 70, 210 quid. Right? That's the maths you're doing. There are 14 weeks. So if there's something that you buy every week, let's say it costs a tenner, 10 times 14 is £140. So this is just a little question of whether you need the demo-ho-hotivation. I'm not saying what you should or shouldn't do, but I'm saying if you have those little discretionary spends, then it is worth thinking, am I willing to sacrifice one or two of them in order to have a little bit more money in time for Christmas? That seems quite a nice way to end. It does.

• 26:44Martin Lewis?

  So look, I go back to where I started. None of this is about early celebration. I hate Christmas music in the shops in October as much as the next Scrooge. But this is about early preparation. Christmas is a significant financial expenditure. If you can do a few of these things, it may take off a little bit of pressure. The last thing I want anyone to do is be borrowing for Christmas. If you're thinking that that's the only way you're going to get through it, then if you forgive the phrasing, it is time to go cold turkey on spending. Christmas is just one day. To have a New Year's financial hangover stalking you, ruining the start of 2027 and making life more difficult, isn't worth it. Cut back what you can if you can't afford it. Go cold turkey.

• 27:28Martin Lewis?

  And if you can afford it, then it is worth saying as well, one of the things that people get wrong, even if you've got money for Christmas, is they start off with a lost list. What are all the different things I want? What would give me the perfect Christmas? Forgive me, bar humbug. But I would suggest the best thing to do, start off with a budget. How much money do I have available to spend this Christmas? And hopefully some of the tips I've done today will give you more money in your coffers if you want to have a better Christmas. Then once you've got that budget, the real question to ask is, what's the best Christmas I can possibly have on that amount of money? Merry Christmas when you eventually get there. And I hope you have a happy and financial hangover-free New Year. And that's it for this week.

• 28:13Martin Lewis?

  We do tend to put out a new episode every Thursday and Monday, which is our Question Time podcast, where you can ask me absolutely anything and everything. If you've enjoyed today's show, please tell your friends you've been listening to the Martin Lewis podcast. And why not subscribe and leave us a review? Then your pockets will be pleased with you and we will be too. And if you haven't enjoyed it and you've been listening this long, bar humbug.

• 28:52Speaker 05

  Martin Lewis is the founder of MoneySavingExpert.com. But of course, other consumer and price comparison websites are available. You can get in touch with Martin's podcast production team by emailing [email protected]. The offers and rates mentioned in the podcast are correct at the time of recording. However, if you are listening on demand, it's worth double checking as details can date. Remember to subscribe on BBC Sounds and leave us a review however you listen.

• 29:28Speaker 06

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• 30:13Speaker 06

  And whether you're debugging code at midnight, building a financial model or strategising your next business move, Claude extends your thinking to tackle the problems that matter for problems worth solving. Get started with Claude at claude.ai/solve. That's claude.ai/solve. And check out Claude Pro, which includes access to all of the features mentioned in today's episode. Claude.ai/solve.

• 30:38Speaker 05

  This week on The Interface, millions of kids have grown up on camera with their childhoods turned into content. There's a new law in California that gives influencers the right to be forgotten, and it could impact adults too.

• 30:48Martin Lewis?

  And an attack on Russian data centres started a rumour that all the evil disinformation bots had been deleted from the internet. But the truth might actually be a lot scarier.

• 31:00Speaker 05

  For our take, join me, Jess Maddox.

• 31:02Martin Lewis?

  And me, Thomas Germain, for The Interface.

• 31:05Speaker 05

  Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.