Buying Christmas presents can often be expensive but money guru Martin Lewis has revealed exactly when you should be looking to purchase gifts this festive season
Money guru Martin Lewis has revealed exactly when the best time to buy Christmas presents is, and if you’ve already missed it.
The festive period is a very special occasion as families come together to eat, drink and give gifts. But, for some, this can be very expensive, especially for those with larger families.
Whether it’s a skincare gift set, bottle of perfume or brand new bike, presents often do not come cheap. And with the cost of living crisis still impacting millions of people across the UK, families up and down the country are watching their pennies now more than ever.
Luckily for us, Martin Lewis shared when everyone should be buying presents during his Martin Lewis Money Show Christmas special. In the episode, which aired on ITV on November 19, one viewer asked the following question: “When is the optimal time to buy Christmas gifts? Often I find items are discounted before I even give the gift. And are gift vouchers to be avoided?”
Mr Lewis candidly responded: “The optimum time to buy Christmas gifts is in January.” He added: “Generally in the January sales it’s cheapest. There’s two ways to do this, you can buy them very early or give someone an IOU if you’re brave enough and say ‘I’ll buy you it when the prices are lower’. Then we’re not held hostage by this retail festival we seem to live in.”
Providing a more “practical” take, based on research his team conducted by comparing Black Friday and pre-Christmas sales prices on some 50 items, he continued: “70% of items were cheaper on Black Friday, 12% were cheaper in the pre-Christmas sales, and the other 18% were equal.
“So if you’re going to be buying before Christmas at this time of year, Black Friday is the time that you want to be buying. I know it gets badmouthed but as I’ll be running through in the festive forecaster, if you get the right item and it’s something that you needed it is the time to buy.
“As for gift vouchers, I’m not a fan. Two reasons; one, they have use-by dates people don’t know about which means they’re not valid. Two, if the company goes bust they are worthless. So obviously Amazon is very unlikely to go bust but if you know a local restaurant if you’re giving gift vouchers there is a real risk with that.
“The best form of gift voucher for me is about this big, it’s flappy it’s foldy, it’s got a picture of the Queen or soon to be the King on it and it’s cash, because it’s flexible everywhere you can use it everywhere and people will take it. I’m not a fan of gift vouchers unless it’s a big firm that isn’t going to go bust and you tell people when the use-by date is.”
