Top 5 money saving tips

With only 85 days to go until christmas(!), I thought I'd post a list of my top money-making/saving ideas that I'll be using to make christmas shopping as stress-free as possible.

1. Sign up to emails from a consumer expert website such as www.moneysavingexpert.com or www.hukd.co.uk. Here you'll find the latest deals on everything from utility bills to vouchers for restaurant offers. Every week Money Saving Expert send out a weekly email with that weeks top tips to cutting your bills, the most popular bargains on the forum and details of any new vouchers and giveaways. You can take a look at this week's weekly email here and sign up to get it straight to your inbox every week.
2. Sign up for store loyalty cards. Some of the most noteworthy ones include the Boots Advantage Card, which gives you 4 points for every pound spent in-store, and regularly run double and triple points events, as well as having ACM machines in most stores which give card holders exclusive offers and extra points vouchers. You can use your points on almost anything in store, including the christmas gift sets which are on a 3 for 2 offer.
   The Tesco Clubcard is another worthwhile store card as you can convert your points into rewards on the clubcard deals site for up to 4 times their value; £2.50 worth of clubcard vouchers can be converted into a £10 restaurant voucher for cafe rouge, pizza expressive, strada or one of many other eateries. The range of rewards is impressive and covers days out, gifts, travel and even holidays. Alternatively, several times a year Tesco run a promotion where you can double the value of your vouchers to spend in certain departments, and often includes clothes and some electrical appliances.
3. Have a good clear out and list your unwanted items on Ebay during one of its free listing weekends. Make your descriptions as clear and precise as possible, including all the information you would like to see when purchasing an item, including the item condition, size and brand and several photos. Always make sure the winning bidder has paid before you send the item, and do be prompt in sending off goods, let buyers know if there will be a delay and package the item well to ensure your feedback is positive, as a high positive feedback number will encourage more people to bid on future sales.
4. Join a cashback website such as Top Cashback or QuidCo to receive cashback on your online purchases, simply by clicking through the cashback site to your retailer of choice. I prefer Top Cashback as QuidCo have a £5 annual fee to retain your membership, and you can get cashback on every purchase from major retailers online. For example, Office Shoes currently have 10.1% cashback advertised on Top Cashback, so for every £1 you spend you get 10p back. Whilst this might not sound like a huge amount it soons builds up and Top Cashback pays out via paypal, direct bank transfer, amazon or love2shop gift vouchers.
5. Sign up to survey websites to earn a little extra money. At Pinecone Research you earn £3 for every survey you complete paid via paypal, although these can be as sparse as 1 survey every 2/3 weeks. Another good website is Valued Opinions, where surveys are a lot more frequent though typically between 50p and £2 each, and paid out by your choice of voucher, which include amazon, topshop, argos and M&S. Other popular choices include OnePoll and Lightspeed Research.