The whisperings are there, in the background; a few Instagram pictures here, a few tweets there, the occasional PR e-mail. All of these things indicate that while Summer is still attempting to make a valiant attempt to show itself, Autumn is on its way and charging everyone out the way is… Christmas! Furthermore, Imight have ordered one of The Boy's birthday presents yesterday on the Internet.
The problem is that when you're on a reduced family wage due to my part-time hours then you need to budget carefully. Nowadays, there seems to be an awful lot of family and friends to think of at Christmas time, and as there is such a wide age-spread in my nieces and nephews it's becoming increasingly difficult to know what to buy them. I've started to buy them gift cards because I don't know what to buy a 16 year old girl, let alone a 13 year old boy. Gift cards give them the freedom to get what they want but show a little more effort than money. And the easiest bit is that they can bought at supermarkets during the weekly shop so the cost is absorbed and not so noticeable.
Now one of my favourite supermarkets, Morrisons, has come up with a genius idea which utilises the high street gift cards that it sells, in order for you to benefit from them as well. By buying a gift card for one of thirty four high street stores included in the scheme, they will provide a coupon giving a discount off every litre of fuel purchased (1p a litre for every £10 spent).
The nifty thing is that some of the stores included are actually places that we shop in each month anyway (Pizza Express, Boots, iTunes, Next, Toys R Us amongst others) so if I buy a gift card with the equivalent amount on there, then I can get a voucher to save me money off my petrol as well! The online calculator below provides an idea of how much could be saved each month:
This fuel saver scheme ties together so many great ideas in order to help lessen the impact of rocketing petrol prices. It cost me £68 to fill up my car this month; ten years ago it only cost me £35. It's a lot of money each month and buying gift cards either to give as presents or to purchase your own goods, seems like a really sensible thing to me.
When I first started driving a full tank would me about 30ish quid too. How times have changed 🙁 i love morrisons and this is a nice little idea. I wish they would do a lot more stuff like this (and online shopping too!)