Free fizz and festive hot drinks: this week's deals and discounts
There’s a great bunch of money-saving deals and discounts for you to grab this week, including free fizz and festive hot drinks, and a way to get unusual charity gifts.
But remember, a bargain is only a good deal if you were planning to splash out on it anyway.
Free fizz
You can get a free bottle of house Prosecco this week at Italian restaurant group Zizzi if four of you are planning to eat there.
You need to book a table for four at any one of its restaurants before Friday and download a voucher.
Take the voucher to claim your free bubbly. The deal is valid until 15 December 2017.
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Spend Nectar points on charity gifts
If you collect Nectar points, you can now use them to buy Oxfam unwrapped gifts which can make unusual and welcome presents for friends and family.
The life-changing gifts start from just 500 points – that would get a source of safe water.
If you have 1,600 points that could help feed a family while 5,200 points could get you a goat.
Go here to get full details and see all the Oxfam unwrapped gifts available.
A kiss for a festive drink
On Thursday coffee chain Costa will try to break a Guinness World Record for ‘Most couples kissing under the mistletoe (multiple venues)’, but it needs your help.
If you’re going to be in shopping centres in London Stratford, Bristol, Reading, Leicester or Glasgow on 14 December you can join in and get a free second Christmas drink when you buy one.
If you take part you’ll be given a flyer which you’ll need to get stamped at the end of the record attempt.
Show the stamped flyer at any participating store on Friday and order two Christmas drinks and just pay for one. Full details here.
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Free elephant bath toy
Kitchen store Soak is giving away 10,000 free Elephant Bath Toys to publicise its new Christmas advert. All you have to do is fill out a simple form here to get your own Tully the Elephant.
Cheap Lynx and Dove Duo gift sets
Superdrug has reduced the price of selected best-selling Lynx and Dove Duo gift sets from £4.50 to £2.49.
The offer ends on 19 December.
Taking the Liberty
If you’re travelling to or from London on Eurostar this month, you can get a voucher for £15 off a £100 spend in-store or online at luxury London department store Liberty.
For more information go here
A fifth off dash cams
Halfords is offering 20% off a range of Nextbase dash cams until Christmas Eve.
For example, the Nestcape Dash Cam 112 is down from £49 to £39 while the 612GW has been cut from £249 to £199.
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Tip of the week
The average total cost of Christmas is £1,551, reckons American Express. That’s a financial burden that most will find a struggle. Sarah Coles, personal finance analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, has come up with some seasonal money-saving ideas to help:
1) Talk to your family, and agree not to buy presents for some people. The easiest approach is just to buy for the children. Then do a Secret Santa with the friends you usually buy for so you only need to buy one gift each.
2) Arrange to see people after Christmas and exchange gifts then – which you can buy in the sales with your December pay cheque! If you’re on a really tight budget, when you see people after Christmas, you could even use the opportunity to re-gift anything you received on the day.
3) Get creative. If you are crafty you can save a fortune. Even if you’re desperately uncreative there are clever solutions. You can, for example, use a large jam jar and add the ingredients for biscuits in layers. Add a heartwarming label and an old piece of ribbon, and you’ve produced a thoughtful, homemade gift for less than £1.
