I have to admit to being a lazy shopper, on the whole if I see something that I like or the perfect present, I tend to get it straight away. I am not a fan of walking round and round the shops in search of the cheapest price if it is only going to amount to a few pence savings. Obviously on big purchases I do some research before I buy. I have for years though been a fan of online shopping, especially at Christmas ( bug bear is struggling to carry bulky items & bags), however I have never used a price comparison website before. So when Idealo.co.uk set me a challenge I was slightly daunted at first. Idealo are a UK based price comparison site and have been carrying out some research on the average amount parents spend on their child’s Christmas stocking. Apparently in 1995 the average spend was £75 but for Christmas 2010 was up to £168…wow, that is a huge difference.

The challenge was to see if it is still possible to make up a stocking spending no more than 1995’s average spend of £75. I was given £75 worth of spending courtesy of Idealo but could only use using online sites to make the purchases. I decided to stick to presents for my four year old son M as I know he won’t be sneaking a peek at my blog anytime soon but I can’t vouch for the older children. 😉

Here is the finished haul before it was wrapped…

and broken down into prices after using Idealo to find the best prices at the time. All prices include postage and packaging, if applicable.

Having never used a price comparison website before it took some getting used to and a while to navigate myself around. I found that it was much better if you already knew what you wanted rather than going ‘in blind’. Being faced with thousands of items that weren’t suitable made the job quite difficult and time consuming but once I got the hang of it I found it very easy.

I always ask Father Christmas to get an annual for the children and an activity so that they have something to do first thing in the morning after the initial excitement of Christmas morning. So, this time as it was down to me I got a Fireman Sam annual, one of M’s heroes and a Crayola 80 page colouring set in Disney’s Cars theme. That should keep him going for a while before we all get dressed and breakfasted. Another activity is the Octonauts puzzle, hopefully that will keep him busy for at least fifteen minutes more. I always make sure Father Christmas gets the children something off the childrens Christmas lists and this year M is going to be thrilled because he has asked for both a Buzz Lightyear dressing up outfit and a light saber. The light saber will mean that he doesn’t have to point all manner of strange long objects at us anymore. M will be delighted to find an Octonauts playset in his stocking this year, he spends hours playing imaginary games with small figures. The DVD will be something that the whole family can enjoy together on Christmas afternoon, a classic too with lots of extra features, and lastly a VTech Kidiminiz interactive Puppy. I think I will have one happy little four year old on Christmas morning, what do you think?

Yes, I could have got a lot more smaller items for £75 but having five children I have to consider the space they take up.

Here is a breakdown of the savings made using the price comparison site Idealo

As you can see I made a total saving of £16.24 simply by spending a little time comparing prices. Multiply that amount by five children and there is a huge sum of money to be saved potentially.  I had always thought that with this type of site you bought the items directly from them but in actual fact they find the best price available leaving you to then make the purchase from the company selling it. I would be a fool to not do this everytime I want to buy something now and it is indeed what I shall do from now on, thank you to Idealo.co.uk for opening my eyes to this!