We may have just bid farewell to the festive season, but this clever trick could help you start squirrelling away funds for the next one.
The post-Christmas period often leaves us feeling the financial strain. After splashing out on gifts, food, and possibly even travel to see relatives we don’t usually visit, our bank balances can take a significant hit. That’s why it’s never too premature to consider putting some money aside for the following Christmas, ensuring that when the holiday season arrives again, the financial impact won’t be as severe.
There are numerous strategies for saving for Christmas 2025, such as setting up a monthly savings account or stashing physical cash in a piggy bank. However, one savvy saver has devised an especially enjoyable method that could help you accumulate up to £166 – a sum that will undoubtedly be a welcome boost to your budget come next December.
Sharing her tip on the Extreme Couponing and Bargains UK group, a woman displayed one of the large Smarties tubes that are a common sight during the festive season and disclosed that the diameter of the tube is the perfect size for a £2 coin. One tube can hold a total of 83 coins, which means that if you deposit all your £2 coins into the tube over the course of the year, you’ll have amassed £166 by the time it’s full – ideally just in time for next Christmas.
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Alongside pictures demonstrating the technique, she took to Facebook to share: “You may all know about this, but I thought I’d share after I saw the envelope trick. If you have any of these tubes at home, basically you can just save £2 coins in them over the year and when it’s full you’ll have £166 towards Christmas.”
This hack went viral on TikTok as well, and users appear keenly interested in trying it out – particularly if it means a sweet treat beforehand. One enthusiast commented: “So we need to spend our money on Smarties first? Sounds like a plan to me.” While another agreed: “That’s a good idea.”
Triggered by the popularity of the “envelope challenge” which suggests people could save up to £5,000 a year using numbered envelopes, this new idea seems more accessible.
The challenge requires you to number envelopes from 1 to 100 and shuffle them up, before drawing two envelopes every day and setting aside cash equivalent to the number on the envelope you picked.
Despite the original trick’s appeal on social media, critics point out that not everyone can manage to save such an amount, especially if large numbers are drawn in the same week, with one remarking: “£5,000 a year means you’re saving £400 per month. Not many people can do that. This ‘trick’ is only for people who can afford that.”