I was watching an unfortunate victim of the Farepak fiasco being interviewed on television the other day. She had been saving £25 a week for months with the Swindon-based firm which ran a savings scheme for 150,000 people for vouchers and Christmas hampers until it went into insolvency last month. Her Christmas would be ruined, she said.
Although I felt very sorry for her, I thought there were probably considerably worse things that could happen to ruin Christmas. Indeed, I felt the Minister for Consumer Affairs, Ian McCartney, went a little over the top in describing the situation as a ‘national emergency’! A fund has now been established to try and help people affected by the collapse of Farepak but for those who are worrying about the looming expense of Christmas, here are a few ways to save up some money in the intervening weeks….