A SAVVY saver has revealed how he stashed away almost £1,000 for Christmas with three clever savings tricks that anyone can do.

Sammie Ellard-King, 35, can now enjoy spending the cash on presents, food, decorations, plus all the trimmings without having to worry about breaking the bank or going in to debt.

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Along with his partner, Charlotte Johnston, 35, Sammie has been building a festive fund which involves him capitalising on a clever feature that comes with online bank, Monzo.

This is a facility which automatically “swipes” a set sum of money into designated virtual jars.

Sammie, who is self-employed and runs financial website Up the Gains to help others learn about money, told The Sun: “I first set up ‘savings pots’ with Monzo around four years ago and now have around nine in total.

“Some are joint with my partner, such as the one where we are slotting money away for the festive period.”

The couple, who live in Fleet, Hampshire have saved a regular amount here every month since January.

Sammie said: “Generally speaking, I set this at around £50 a month, but sometimes squirrel away more.

“It only takes a matter of seconds to set up a pot, and you can then earn a decent rate of interest on your hard-earned cash.

“It’s great having a dedicated pot building in time for Christmas.”

While rates can fluctuate, Sammie is currently earning 4.22% on this pot.

That means on savings of £1,000 he makes around £3.50 a month, or £42 a year.

He said: “I like this ‘ring-fenced’ approach because it means I never accidentally dip into my savings.”

ROUND IT UP

The money aficionado also takes advantage of another of the digital bank’s features known as “round-ups” to help boost his festive fund.

Sammie said: “Say, for example, you buy a £2.75 coffee using Monzo, the bank rounds up your spend to the nearest pound and adds 25p to the pot where you’ve turned on ‘round-ups.’

“I’m a big fan of automated saving – for me, it’s a complete no-brainer.”

It’s free to set up current account with the digital bank, which doesn’t have any high street branches.

Monzo bank offers pots as part of its current account, and customers can round up money automatically as well as scheduling regular deposits.

These types of features have now become common among many online and high street banks.

Plum, Chip, Chase and Starling are among the apps and digital banks offering auto-save features

Sammie said he has used several of these in the past to take advantage of the best rates on offer at the time.

Before moving your money to a new savings account, it’s vital to choose the right account for your needs – and to check the rates on offer.

You can do this with a site such as moneyfactscompare.co.uk.

Using Monzo isn’t the only hack Sammie uses to build his Christmas savings either.

SUPER-CHARGE SAVINGS

Sammie also has another clever trick to “super-charge” the amount he has to slot away.

“I run all of my spending through cashback sites,” he said.

Once you’ve found a deal on an item you want to buy, you just click through the link, and the kickback is paid into your account.

He said: “This hack really comes into its own in the run-up to the festive season when I’m spending more.”

The first part of Sammie’s trick involves him buying virtual gift cards.

“I usually do this through Everup or Cheddar,” he said.

“With sites such as these, I can earn cashback on purchases I make with gift cards.”

With Cheddar, users can get cashback while shopping at partnered shops automatically by linking their bank account to the app.

Users can also earn “instant cashback” by purchasing gift card credit to spend at certain stores, usually between 2% and 4% including at supermarkets like Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s.

With Cheddar, you can sign up for free (no credit checks or fees), and can claim a £5 bonus.

Similarly, with EverUp, you can earn cashback on gift card purchases. Both are free to sign up to and there’s noe fee.

Sammie then “turbo-charges” his earnings even more with another nifty move.

“Having bought gift cards, I ‘stack’ the money I earn from them by using the cards to make purchases via more well-known cashback sites such as Topcashback and Quidco,” he said.

“There’s a kind of ‘loophole’ which means you can do this, and essentially get a ‘double hit’ on the amount of cashback you get.”

With the likes of Topcashback and Quidco you can earn money on anything from everyday shopping to clothes, gadgets, phone deals and car insurance, just by making purchases with retailers via their websites.

Sammie said: “On occasions, thanks to a combination of cashback on gift cards from Everup and Cheddar – and then cashback from Topcashback or Quidco – I can get as much as 16% cashback in total.”

Remember when using cashback sites, you’re only saving money if you intended to buy the item in the first place.

Meanwhile many gift cards have expiry dates and if a shop goes under they could become worthless, so if you use the trick make sure you spend them as soon as you can.

MAXIMISE YOUR POT

One of Sammie’s top tips to make your money work even harder is to move earnings into an account paying interest.

“Lots of people make the mistake of leaving their cashback with the website where they earned it,” he said.

“But once I’m able to ‘cash out,’ I transfer my earnings into my Monzo pots, where the money can potentially earn more than 4%, paid monthly.”

While you might think all of this is time-consuming, Sammie insists this isn’t the case.

“It really isn’t that complicated or long-winded,” he said.

“The key is to download the relevant gift cards onto your phone before you go shopping.”

That way, he adds, even if you buy a £100 gift card, but only spend £65, you’ll still have £35 ‘rolled over’ for the next time you shop.

“The gift card ‘lives’ in the app,” he said. “It’s just a case of getting into good habits.”

“Another simple ‘win’ is to buy presents on ‘special events’ like Black Friday when there are some great deals to be had.”

The annual shopping event takes place on November 29 this year.

With just under 10 weeks to go until Christmas Day, Sammie and Charlotte, who works as a producer, have close to £1,000 in their Monzo Christmas savings pot.

This is down to a combination of regular monthly saving, round ups and topping this up with cashback.

Sammie said. “Having this money squirrelled away means we can really enjoy the festive period.

“We can buy lots of presents, treat ourselves to nice food, and go out with friends, without having to worry about money.”

Another of Sammie’s top tips is to start saving early.

“Once this year’s festivities are out of the way, it’s worth setting up a Monzo account with a dedicated pot ready for next year,” he said.

“Then you can make regular savings each month – and also look into setting up ‘round-ups’ – helping to make Christmas 2025 a lot easier on the wallet.

“It’s all about thinking ahead.”

In addition to Christmas, the couple have pots for an emergency fund, a sinking fund, a holiday fund – and a fund to furnish their new home.

In total they save around £300 a month in to nine different pots, adjusting the allocations depending on the priority at the time.

“Once the festive period is over, Charlotte and I will channel more into the ‘new home’ fund, said Sammie as they prepare to move from their their two-bed house in Hampshire to their “forever home” in Ramsgate, Kent.

“We are saving hard so we’ll be able to afford things like fridges and sofas when we move in – hopefully in early 2025,” said the financial whizz.

“This will mean we won’t have to buy stuff on credit, reducing the risk of us getting into debt.”

Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing money-sm@news.co.uk.

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Festive season should typically mean good times for consumer goods makers. Instead, companies like Nestle and Hindustan Unilever are grappling with slowing urban sales, as consumers impacted by food inflation spend less on packaged goods. To add to it, inflation in key raw materials like palm oil and tea is also biting, forcing companies to hike prices in a few segments, which while protecting margins raises the spectre of impact on volumes.

Just a day after Nestle India pointed to muted demand, especially in the foods and beverages space, rival Hindustan Unilever (HUL) too has pointed to moderating growth in urban markets.

On Wednesday, HUL reported a 4 per cent year-on-year decline in standalone net profit for the July-September quarter at Rs 2,612 crore, from Rs 2,717 crore. The maker of Dove soap and Bru coffee said revenue for the quarter rose 2 per cent from a year ago to Rs 15,319 crore from Rs 15,027 crore. Volumes (number of packs sold) in the quarter rose 3 per cent. In the June quarter, volumes had grown 4 per cent. 

Company officials pointed that in the base quarter, there was a one-off indirect tax credit from a favourable resolution of past litigation, which benefited both topline and bottomline in the beauty and wellbeing segment.

Over the past several quarters, urban growth had led the growth, while rural growth had been impacted due to poor monsoon rains last year and volatile food prices. The tide now seems to be turning, with rural markets continuing to recover gradually, but major metro markets now emerging pain points.

“FMCG market has witnessed moderating growth in urban market, while rural continued to recover gradually. Even at MET levels, volume growth has slowed down over last few months,” said Ritesh Tiwari, the chief financial officer of HUL.

The company has seen a slowdown in two major segments – personal care and foods and refreshments. Personal care segment declined 5 per cent with negative pricing and low-single digit volume decline. Foods and refreshments declined 2 per cent with also a low-single digit volume decline. 

“There are so many macro factors in this complex big ecosystem of the country that are in play. Its quite logical to assume that real wages, inflation, the agri-economy and employment levels all have an impact on the economy. But, we are not equipped to comment on. What we really know well is what is happening to our business. What we do read is a trending down of urban, a sustained but a gradual increase in rural and therefore an overall tepid growth this quarter. We expect it to probably stay there for the near-term,” said Rohit Jawa, the CEO amd MD of HUL.

HUL is taking calibrated price hikes in the current October-December quarter in tea and skin cleansing segments, to offset rising prices of tea and palm oil respectively. How this impacts demand going ahead is something that will have to be watched out for.

Last week, Maggie noodles maker Nestle India had also reported disappointing earnings for the September quarter, with consolidated net profit declining marginally. 

“While there are some greenshoots like moderation in CPI inflation, a good monsoon and populist announcements by some of the state governments, the overall expenditure increase by states remains modest. The consumer is still facing high food inflation. Raw material costs have started inching up and telecom tariff hikes could also hurt FMCG,” Kunal Vora of BNP Paribas Securities had warned in a recent report.

CLEANING your home is a dreaded chore most of us hate to tackle.

But you could be spending hundreds of pounds more than necessary to get your pad sparkling, according to one expert.

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In the lead-up to the festive season and the ongoing high cost of living, every penny counts.

With a few simple tidying and cleaning tricks, you can make some big savings sprucing up your living space, according to specialist cleaning and home organisation expert, Heidi Phillips.

She owns cleaning firm Tergo Specialist Cleaning. You can find her on Instagram @tergospecialistcleaning.

Here she shares her top tips…

USE OWN-BRAND – £85 a year

Own-brand cleaning and laundry products are a snip of the price of branded items and usually do the job just as good.

Consumer brand Which? found that the most expensive laundry detergents can cost 53p a wash while switching to a own-label powder is just 12p a wash.

Using your machine four times a week would save £85 at these prices and even more if you us your machine daily.

And it’s not just laundry, Heidi says: “You can save loads of money by ditching the big-name cleaning brands and using a supermarket’s own-brand range.

“I really like Sainsbury’s own-label, it works really well and smells divine.”

DITCH DISPOSABLE WIPES – £156

A branded pack of antibacterial wipes comes in at around £3 – if you go through a pack each week that amounts to a whopping £156.

However, they are totally unnecessary.

Heidi says: “Disposable wipes are very expensive and you can just as easily spray a cloth with a bit of anti-bac and it will do the same job.”

Sainsbury’s antibacterial spray is 85p and you can just rinse a cloth and spray.

BAN DISPOSABLE SPONGES – £58

You can also get rid of disposable sponges for wiping and light cleaning.

A pack of two comes in at £2.25 meaning if you used one each week, you’d end up spending around £58 in a year.

Even reusable microfibre clothes are another expense that you can cut out. A pack of five is £4 from B&Q.

Heidi says: “You can save money on cloths by cutting up old clothes that are heading for the bin. T-shirts work really well.”

AVOID SPECIALISED PRODUCTS – £48

You can get specialist cleaning products for just about any task but these tend to be expensive.

For example, some of the branded kitchen or bathroom-specific cleaners are £4 a pop – buying just one of those each month amounts to £48 a year.

And there’s a cheap alternative that we all have sitting at home already.

Heidi says: “Much of the time you don’t need specialised products.

“Washing-up liquid is absolutely amazing for getting rid of grime and you can follow up with a couple of sprays of anti-bacterial to make sure you’re getting rid of any germs too.”

Own-brand washing-up liquid is under a £1 at most supermarkets.

There is also another way to avoid have to use specialised products for limescale or mould, which again can be pricey.

Heidi says that simply cleaning more regularly will mean you’re less likely to get build-up which requires expensive specialised products, and possibly more specialist tools.

She added: “For example, if you clean the bathroom every week you can easily take care of a small bit of mould but if you let it go on, you’ll start to need black mould cleaner.“

CLEAN YOUR DRYER – £25

Consumer group Which? tested a range of tumble dryers and found that after 20 loads of washing, some used 50% more energy on the last load compared to the first.

This was simply because of the filter getting blocked with lint and dust reducing the machine’s efficiency.

The group found the average achine costs £50 a year to run but this could be £25 higher if the energy use increases by half.

Simply cleaning out the filter keeps your machine running to its best without adding any extra costs to your bills.

Good morning. Today, our Russia correspondents report on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s move to thumb his nose at the west with a productive visit to Russia, and our parliament correspondent details how the enlarged far-right contingent in the European parliament is already throwing its weight around.

The Sultan and the Tsar

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan arrived in Kazan yesterday for a meeting with Vladimir Putin, in which the Turkish leader flaunted his easy camaraderie with his Russian host — and reminded his western allies of his power as a go-between, write Charles Clover and Daria Mosolova.

Context: Russia and Turkey have historical ties and Erdoğan has sought to stay close to Putin in recent years despite Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, walking a diplomatic tightrope that takes into account Ankara’s membership of Nato and its similarly close links with Kyiv.

Erdoğan was greeted upon arrival with a taste of chak-chak, a traditional fried dough from Tatarstan, the heart of Russia’s Turkic cultural past, ahead of a 55-minute meeting with the Russian leader.

Erdoğan was the only Nato member among the 24 national leaders in Kazan to attend a summit of the Brics group. That represents a genuine diplomatic coup for Putin, and was conspicuous if not surprising for Erdoğan, who frequently chafes against his western allies by acting as a would-be middleman for Moscow.

Their bilateral meeting was overshadowed by a terrorist attack in Ankara earlier in the day, which killed five and wounded 22.

Erdoğan voiced a desire for Turkey to join Brics and also invited Putin to visit Ankara, a high stakes move if it went ahead given Turkey’s Nato membership and proximity to Europe.

Putin stayed away from last year’s Brics summit after South Africa warned him it would have to comply with an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (of which Turkey is not a member).

Putin said being a Nato member should not prevent Turkey from joining the Brics, and clearly being a Nato member has not prevented Turkey from doing a number of things with Russia — such as maintaining good relations throughout the Ukraine invasion, while also selling Bayraktar combat drones to Ukraine.

While the two backed opposing sides in civil wars in Syria and Libya, they have typically found economic reasons to maintain warm relations: Russia struck a deal to sell cheap gas to Turkey in 2023, giving the country a key economic lifeline ahead of Erdogan’s most recent re-election.

But there are other signs that Ankara knows it needs to play both sides.

This week the FT reported that Turkey has secretly barred exports to Russia of US military-linked hardware after Washington warned Ankara of “consequences” if it did not halt the trade. Ankara has in recent weeks adjusted its customs systems to block exports of more than four dozen categories of goods of US origin.

Chart du jour: A punt on Pyongyang

Vladimir Putin is betting on North Korean troops to retake Kursk from Ukraine, with Pyongyang’s “Storm Corps” becoming the first foreign army contingent deployed in Russia’s war.

Budget bust-up

The populist right which surged in June’s European elections is beginning to flex its muscles in parliament, with a shock vote against a resolution on the EU’s 2025 budget, writes Andy Bounds.

Context: MEPs did agree on a budget proposal. But a bewildering set of votes on an accompanying political resolution saw a far-right amendment to allow EU money to build border infrastructure pass before those who proposed it rejected the overall resolution.

Parliament has three hard-right groups. With increasing extremism, they are the ECR, home to the party of Italian premier Giorgia Meloni; the Patriots, dominated by Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National of France, and the Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) which includes the Alternative for Germany.

ESN put forward the amendment on funding border walls to keep out migrants and the Patriots, ECR and the centre-right European People’s party backed it. Migration has surged up the agenda in recent weeks to become one of the bloc’s most politicised issues.

Though the European Commission allows spending on watchtowers, cameras and similar infrastructure, it has consistently said walls could breach its legal restrictions on human rights grounds. 

This led outraged liberal and leftwing groups to reject the resolution. Fabienne Keller, of the liberal Renew group, said she “deplored” the EPP’s alliance with the far right”.

“The parliament is becoming ungovernable,” said one centrist party official. 

Three weeks of talks with the council of the EU’s 27 member states will now begin, as the parliament fights to restore €1.5bn of funding cuts before a final vote in November.

What to watch today

1. European parliament president Roberta Metsola visits Italy, meets Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

2. Slovakia’s President Peter Pellegrini visits Germany, meets Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Now read these

Leading insurer Star Health Insurance admitted to a shocking data breach after private data of millions of customers were compromised.

The leaked data not only includes personal info like names, dates of birth, mobile numbers and email IDs, but also sensitive details like PAN, salary, residential addresses, policy numbers, pre-existing conditions and other health details

Who hacked Star Health Insurance?

A user, identified as xenZen, took responsibility for the hacking, alleging that Amarjee Khanuja, the Chief Information Security Officer at Star Health Insurance, sold the data to them directly for $43,000. 

The insurance details of the customers have now been put on sale by the hacker who allegedly leaked 7.24 TB data consisting information about more than 31 million customers. The whole data was offered for $150,000 while they were partially offered in bundles of 1 lakh customer records at $10,000.

The incident camme to light when X user Deedy Das raised alarm about the data leak, saying “Nothing is private in India.” Deedy alleged that Khanuja contacted xenZen through Tox, an encrypted chat messenger, on July 26. They allegedly cut a deal for $28,000 Monero, a cryptocurrency, in exchange for the data. Following this, hacker made the payment and accessed the data using login credentials and API details allegedly provided by Khanuja via ProtonMail.

Khanuja allegedly sold more data for another $15,000 on July 20. Deedy alleged that Khanuja, however, revoked the access within a week, demanding $150,000 for senior management. But the hacker refused and later the data was listed for sale online. In September, a website was set up to offer customer data through Telegram bots.

However, Star Health has dismissed allegations about its involvement in the “targeted malicious attack”. It has filed a lawsuit against the hacker as well as Telegram, where the data was leaked initially

Claiming its operations are fully functional and services to customers are unaffected, the health insurer said a probe is being carried out by its cybersecurity team. “We continue to work in conjunction with authorities to ensure that customer data remains protected,” said the company.