I’m a mum and I haven’t spent a penny on Christmas in five years – how I get it all for ‘free’
MUM Sera Dinmore says she hasn’t spent a penny on Christmas in years.
The Avon lady, from Stevenage, Herts, uses apps to earn Amazon vouchers and saves up Tesco Clubcard vouchers to pay for her Christmas lunch.
Sera, 49, said: “I love a coupon and will get whatever I can for free. People are often envious of all the stuff I get and will say to me ‘You’re always buying stuff’.
“I explain that I’m not really paying for it. I bought a new house last year so I need all my wages to renovate that. I needed to fund Christmas by other means.”
Sera, who lives with husband Chris, 46, and four-year-old son Taylor, uses the Nielsen Mobile App, which tracks consumer activity on her phone, to earn Amazon vouchers.
She said: “I haven’t spent a penny on Amazon in about five years as I get so many vouchers. I use it to buy all my Christmas presents. My son is Spider-Man mad at the moment so we will be buying lots of Spider-Man toys and I’ve bought a night-light.
“The Nielsen app earns me between £150 to £200 worth of vouchers a year. Another app called Mobile Xpression also earns me around £20 of Amazon vouchers every six weeks.
“The apps just run in the background on your phone. You don’t have to do anything. They track what sites you visit but they don’t listen in.”
Sera saves up Tesco Clubcard vouchers to pay for Christmas food and drink and still has enough left over to pay for luxuries such as Disney+ for her son. She has mobile phone contracts and a credit card with Tesco to help boost her points.
She said: “It’s often only the three of us at Christmas as our families live abroad so we don’t need much, but what we do get – and we often have duck – I never pay for. I’m also a Tesco panel member and we are invited to test out various things each year. Once I did a food order and got the lot for free but sometimes it is things I can pass on as gifts.
“I also have an M&S Sparks card and they are doing an advent calendar through December allowing you to pick up free gifts. I’ve already got a free bottle of Prosecco ready to collect. I have an Amazon credit card and you can earn voucher rewards through that too.”
Bargain hunter Sera also works as a mystery shopper and uses cashback sites like Quidco.
She said: “I’ve been a mystery shopper and product reviewer: this means I’m sometimes given things I get to keep.
“Sometimes I’ll save these as Christmas gifts or I sell them on to make extra money. If I do buy anything on eBay then I’ll use Quidco so I get cashback on the purchases.
“This has earned me around £20 this year. I probably won’t even need to use that towards gifts as I have enough vouchers.”