Christmas is just around the corner. That magical time of year where we enjoy time with our family and friends, exchange gifts and revel in the festive cheer. But that’s only after we panic and stress about the number of Christmas presents we need to buy. This year help future you by shopping earlier and getting the present buying out of the way so you can enjoy Christmas and all the fun December brings.

Throughout November, our Black Tag deals will give you plenty of opportunity to upgrade your home or get a start on your Christmas shopping. Here are our top tips for saving in advance of this year’s sale…

Plan your Black Friday purchases

Make “fail to prepare, prepare to fail” your motto this November and December. Black Friday and Christmas shopping can be extremely overwhelming from trying to find that perfect gift to trying to budget everything you need to buy.

Instead of aimlessly browsing, make two lists. One list of Christmas presents and another list of your must-haves this Black Friday. Even better, make the list online and add a link for each item so you can quickly see the price reduction once the Black Friday sales start.

Set a realistic shopping budget

It’s easy to get carried away and justify spending more than you should. Use your lists by dividing it into things your needs and your wants. Start putting money aside for your needs to make sure you have enough in your budget for the essentials. If you save extra, great! Treat yourself to a few items from your want list.

Spend smarter

If you’re not great at saving, try a prepaid debit card to save your spare change. This is a great way of saving money without realising you’re saving. For example, you spend €3.40 in the shop, you can set up your Revolut to put that 60c change into a vault or even multiply your spare change so you save more.

Consider credit

If you’ve found your dream TV, fridge, or laptop, but don’t really have the funds for it now, consider buying it on credit. Not with a credit card but paying off your purchase in instalments.

With us, when you buy anything over €559 in any of our 16 stores, you can spread the cost over 6, 12 or 18 months. Just give a 10% deposit and once the balance is paid before the end of the repayment period, there will be no interest to pay!

Shop earlier rather than later

Although you may think you’ll get the best deal on Black Friday, don’t wait. Like Christmas, retailers start their Black Friday sales earlier every year. For the whole month of November, we have our Black Tag Event where you’ll find massive savings across all our product ranges. If you’re shopping in-store, it also means you avoid queues and busy shops.