Episode 196 - How to Battle Holiday Financial Stress and Pressure!
Welcome to episode #196 of the Debt-Free Dad Podcast. Tis the season to be jolly, but for many, it's also the season to be financially frazzled! The holiday spirit can bring not only cheer, but also a sleigh-load of financial stress and pressure. Fear not, though, as we're about to embark on a merry journey to discover some fantastic ways to keep your holiday budget in check, all while ensuring your celebrations are full of joy, not debt. So, grab a cup of cocoa, cozy up by the fire, and let's unwrap the secrets to battling holiday financial stress with a dash of festive fun!
What You'll Learn
- Learn some tips to help you breeze through the holiday season without breaking the bank. Discover some helpful tips to create a realistic budget, stick to it, and enjoy the festivities stress-free.
- Discover tips to make your celebrations more affordable, ensuring your wallet stays happy while you enjoy the holiday spirit.
- Give yourself the gift of financial peace this season. Say goodbye to the stress and hello to the joy of the holidays.
Resources Mentioned
- Brad's Totally Awesome Debt Freedom Planner
- For more help, and a step-by-step process to get started, enroll in Brad's FREE online course, LIFE WITHOUT PAYMENTS.
Free Tools and Downloads at www.therealdebtfreedad.com
Connect With Brad
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Thanks For Listening
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Episode Transcript:
Brad:
Hey everybody, welcome to episode number 196 of the Debt Free Dad podcast. So it is the season to be jolly, but for many, it's also the season to be financially frazzled and stressed out. The holiday spirit can bring not only cheer, but also a sleigh load of financial stress and pressure. Fear not, though, as we're about to embark on a merry journey to discover some fantastic ways to keep your holiday budget in check, all while ensuring your celebrations are full of joy and not debt during this upcoming holiday season. So grab a cup of hot chocolate, cozy up by the fire and let's unwrap the secrets to battling holiday financial stress and pressure with a dash of festive fun. Stay tuned, guys.
Speaker 2:
You're listening to the Debt Free Dad podcast with Brad Nelson. Brad and his co-hosts experienced the anxiety of living paycheck to paycheck before learning the fundamentals of financial security. They are now on a mission to empower regular people to pay off their debt for good and enjoy happier, less stressful lives. Keep listening for inspirational interviews, tips, tricks and practical advice to gain financial freedom.
Brad:
Hey, hey, hey, how is everyone doing today? You can find us on Facebook, TikTok, youtube and Instagram. Just search Brad Nelson, debt Free Dad. And, as always, guys, welcome to today's show. Remember to get all the resources, show notes and links for today's show and all of the other episodes here at the Debt Free Dad podcast. You can head over to thedebtfreedadpodcast. com and check out episode 196. You can also watch it on YouTube over there on that website. So, guys, today we're talking about Christmas holiday shopping, and I think you know, I think we say it every year, but it's just hard to believe that not only are we doing this episode, but we are almost wrapping up our 2023 podcast season as well, and it's crazy how fast time has gone and that we're doing this episode.
Ryan:
Yes, it has. It's the time of year my wife hates Christmas vacation.
Brad:
Wait, wait, wait the movie, or actual vacation, oh the movie.
Ryan:
Oh, that's like what I mean. She I shouldn't say hate, but she just like every time I'm like, okay, we've got to watch it. She's like all right.
Kati:
See, I'm that way about Christmas story. I'm just not a fan. We love home alone in our house.
Brad:
You don't like the Christmas story.
Chris:
I thought you were about to go on an actual vacation. I was about to get excited for you.
Brad:
Yeah, I don't know, christmas, like, obviously this year is going to be very, very different from me and for us. It's just, it's very odd to even coming up to the holiday after losing my wife and trying to figure out, like what the heck we're even going to do. So it'll be interesting this year. No, no, no doubt about it. I'm trying to come up with just new ideas and new things to do, different things to do. But yeah, christmas vacation, I would kind of agree. Like it is just worn out, it got worn out. It's worn out for me. Like it's, it's okay, but it used to be so good, I don't know, I don't know Ever since. Like it just. I think it kind of like blew up. I think we talked about this on episode that we did a couple of years ago about this movie. But don't you guys think that it's gotten just way out of hand with all the memorabilia and everything? Now Ryan's like no.
Amber:
I never liked it, so I'm out.
Brad:
Shocking, shocking Amber Has no appreciation for those types of movies. None none no Christmas movies at all.
Amber:
No, I love Christmas movies. It's just funny ones. Silly. They're not fun, they're stupid funny ones.
Brad:
Yeah, she doesn't like those. Okay. So, basically, anything that Paul thinks is funny, I think is funny, and she doesn't like any of that, no, okay. So what do you guys can we talk a little bit about before you guys got out of the debt, like, how did you, how did you guys approach the holidays? I think we're going to get some funny answers, but, like, as far as it came to paying for the holidays prior to getting out of debt, like what, what did that preparation look like for you guys?
Amber:
What preparation Like. We totally skipped bills and stuff just to make the holidays happen.
Brad:
Yeah, I'm sure there's a lot of people who do that.
Kati:
Somehow Christmas came up as a surprise every single year, like there was no planning ahead, and it's like oh my gosh, how is it already December? And okay, what credit cards do I have a little bit left on that I can swipe for gifts, because everybody needed to have a gift and if somebody gave me a gift, okay, now I have to get them a gift and yeah, no, it was a problem for me personally.
Chris:
That may be one of the toughest questions you ever asked, Brad, and here's the reason. I don't know what we did before we started budgeting. I know my wife's always handled the Christmas shopping. I'm assuming she just used the credit card but I have no idea. I can only remember back to the point where we started consciously making these decisions. Here's how much we're going to set as the budget we're going to save up for it, and that's what we have to spend. So I couldn't tell you what we did prior to jumping on the bandwagon.
Kati:
Do you think that's the case? For most dads? It's like all of Christmas is a surprise when the kids open up with under the tree Most of them.
Chris:
Hey, you're usually putting them together the night before, so it's not like it's a complete surprise. I just don't know how we financed it or how we paid for it. How do we? I don't know. And that sounds, yeah, it could be the dad side of me, so maybe that's part of it, but I just I don't remember what we did. I'm assuming there had to be credit cards involved, but I couldn't tell you. You should. I should have looked at the notes before I got online here and asked my wife and she's. She's not here where I'm at right now, so I can't ask her yeah, I don't know how we did it either.
Brad:
I mean it's an honest, I mean it's a fairer answer. I think I I don't know how we made it work, let's put it that way, you know. I just I mean, I'm assuming we used credit cards and probably just couldn't afford to do much of any of it and. Probably took us quite a while to get it paid off, as my guess.
Chris:
I mean, I know we bought stuff, Stuff was purchased and stuff was given, but I don't know how we pay for it.
Brad:
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and by the way, I'm sure, Kati, there are some couch potato dads, but I'm not one of them. I actually know, like Christmas. I actually have always liked it. It's always been. It's always been fun to come up with ideas for the kids and all that kind of stuff. But yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure there's plenty of dads that are just as surprised on Christmas morning as the kids are.
Chris:
There will be some that says I'm not a debt-free dad anymore. Yeah right.
Ryan:
Yeah, my kids definitely loved Christmas. Pre-getting out of debt, oh, I'm sure I like to. I like I always like to spoil them, and my wife it was always. She, even to this day, she really Like Christmas is for, at least from our opinion, has just gotten very over Marketed. You know, like you know, we're already in. You know, before, before Halloween or even before fall, you're already seeing Christmas stuff up in the stores. And but yeah, prior, I mean, yeah, it was 100% charge, charge everything. We're gonna give them the best Christmas ever. They're gonna love it so much. And it was Christmas morning. Everybody tear everything open. I'd help them put it all together. It was so awesome. And then I'd usually spend the next week or two in deep regret and wondering like why did we do all this? They'd like the thing I thought they thought was gonna be amazing. They pretty much were like this is cool, and they haven't even looked at it yet, right?
Brad:
right? Yeah, I would definitely agree. I think, over the years and just I, I don't know, I don't know, am I just getting old and crabby? Though? You know, maybe that's why Christmas and the whole thing isn't as fun anymore. I don't know, because it's exhausting and it's like you go through all this work just for this little bit of time. It's just like, is it even worth all of that effort? Yeah, I totally agree, but here are some holiday spending and statistics that you guys you guys have kind of brought a little bit this up and sharing what you guys used to do, but this is from 2022 because obviously we haven't figured out what's going on in 2023 just yet. But in 2022, around half of Americans 52% incurred credit card debt when shopping in 2022 and among them, nearly a third 31% have still not paid off their balances, and this is an article that was shared from the Harris Pull and partnership with Nerd Wallet, and this Was just a recent article here, just this last month that they wrote. So, yeah, 31% of the 52% that incurred credit card, that's wow. That's over half of them. Still they haven't paid enough.
Ryan:
That's crazy part of that. I would have been part of that 31% for sure, right.
Brad:
And now and now.
Kati:
There are Christmases from 10 years ago I'm still paying off.
Brad:
Most of this year's holiday shoppers will put gifts on credit cards. That's what they estimate. Nearly three quarters of 2023 holiday shoppers 74% plan to use credit cards to buy gifts. They plan to charge $680 on average. Cutting back is the priority for some. About a quarter of 2023 holiday shoppers 26% have discussed or plan to discuss limiting holiday gift spending this year with friends and family. So about you know quarter percent, you know quarter people. So. Article from USA Today written by Madura Lee buy now pay later apps so it's not just credit cards. Buy now pay later apps will get a heavy use this holiday season as well, and they're they're sharing that. It could be worrisome because obviously, if you know people have their credit cards maxed out, they might use like a buy now pay later program to afford their holiday shopping. But this is expected to surge to record levels this holiday season, according to a new forecast. And with so many young buy now Pay later shoppers already in debt from the short term financing tool, what risks does it pose to their budgets in the coming months? Buy now pay later is expected to generate 17 billion dollars in online holiday spending this year, up two and a half billion or nearly 17 17% from last year. According to Adobe Analytics examination of commerce transactions online, one in one in five Americans plan to use buy now pay later to purchase gifts during the holidays. According to Adobe, which surveyed more than 1,000 US consumers buy now pay later spending should hit 9.3 billion in the month of November, making it the largest month on record, with Cyber Monday as the largest record day, at 782 million is what they're estimated. Even as it's a popularity source, there are warning signs. It's financially unhealthy for many Gen Z and millennials, typically around 40 years and younger, who tend to use the short term financing which allows shoppers to buy items and pay for them over time in several equal installments. It says users could be on the Precipice.
Amber:
Did I say that right.
Brad:
Precipice. You did Good job, good for me. A financial hardship from debt overload, said Jamie Toplund, a financial services analyst at Business Intelligence Company Morning Consult. I don't know what do you guys feel about this Shocking?
Kati:
No, I mean people are paying for their fast food orders with Buy Now, pay Later. So if they start adding all of their Christmas gifts and extra shopping that, then they're used to the rest of the year. It's that death by a thousand paper cuts that we always talk about.
Ryan:
I think we brought it up on. I think I brought it up on the last, maybe on a podcast or two ago. To me, the Buy Now, pay Later is just kind of the new, the new way companies have figured out how to get people to spend money Right. And I think it was in the early 90s when Burger King started accepting credit cards and they were interviewing people and people were just like disgusted by it. Like how could you dare use a credit card to buy fast food? And I think the Buy Now, pay Later is just I think we see it. But I think from my perspective, it's just one of those. It's kind of like when my, when our parents may be seeing the Discover card first come out. That's how I kind of view Buy Now, pay Later. It's like these new there's finding new ways in order for people, for you, to be able to spend money, and that's that's. People are using it. So of course, they're going to ramp it up and market it like it's the best thing ever.
Brad:
Right. So how would you guys I guess OK, knowing what you know now going through where you've gone through and and? you know, most of us on here are debt free outside of our mortgages. Kati's still working her way out of debt, but obviously in a much, much better place than where she was. So, like you know you got, holidays are approaching. Now how are you guys going about getting ready for this? And I guess, what's different? Because I mean, I mean, would you guys admit, I mean a lot of us feel the stress and pressure to. You know, one participate, number two, to spend more than we should. You know there's the whole comparison game. Did I get my kids enough? Are they going to get as much as everybody else? You know, it's just, it's all of this emotional, just garbage we go through during the holidays when it comes to financial stress and pressure. So what are your guys's thoughts on preparing for this? Like, what are some things that have helped you guys over the years, reduce a lot of this and so the holidays are just more enjoyable?
Chris:
Well for me, I've got grown adult children now, so I can just give underwear and socks, and you know what, chris you know what, chris?
Brad:
I just bought my son underwear and socks. I was like holy crap, this stuff's expensive. Like I would be a bicycle though I would be pretty happy with it, though Like that's a pretty good gift in my opinion.
Chris:
Well, I mean, as you get older yes, and I was, and Ryan mentioned his kids enjoyed Christmas pre-getting out of debt. I had to wonder is the reason they'll enjoy it now because they're getting underwear and ties and socks as opposed to toys? But now, all kidding aside, you know, going back to 2005, and we started this whole thing, we always set a number well ahead of time and that was the number that we were going to have available Come Thanksgiving, because traditionally Christmas shopping has always started on the day after Thanksgiving. Then it became the day of Thanksgiving and now it seems like for a month now we've seen Christmas stuff in Home Depot and other places already, and we're not even you know to. Thanksgiving yet.
Ryan:
Yep.
Chris:
But we always set a number, saved up that number and that's what we had to spend. And my wife knew what that number was ahead of time. She would ask the kids you know, what do you want? And she would have to make a priority list from there. And then she had to factor in, you know, my parents, her parents, her sisters, my brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, and that all had to come out of that one number. And you, just you didn't spend more than you had. And when we got out of debt in 2008,. We've just kept that up. Now that number has gone up, and it went up a couple of hundred dollars more this year because of inflation and our ability to spend more. And we talk about why do you want to get out of debt and why do you want to do the things that you do. It's because, eventually, you can spend more on Christmas if you choose to do so, because you have that, that bandwidth, you have that money and the ability to do so. So we do increase it, and we increase it again this year, even though, jokingly aside, we don't have a lot of those big ticket purchases anymore, like we used to. We can still buy for everybody, and when Christmas day comes, everybody opens their gifts and I don't have a credit card bill. The money's out of my account, obviously, because we spend it, but we get to enjoy Christmas because we don't have to worry about, like Ryan said, going oh my gosh, what did I do? Yeah, so the big thing is just been having a number and knowing what that number was and saving up ahead of time, having it ready to come Thanksgiving so that my wife could go out and buy the stuff, right.
Brad:
Well, what would you do, though Like, so say, someone who hasn't had the time to do that, like what would your suggestions be? Or what were your guys' suggestions be like starting now? I mean, we're right now facing Thanksgiving, you know, the holiday shopping season is like right next door, are there? Some things that we can do to help like people right now who haven't saved or had the opportunity to save.
Chris:
Well, I think you still got to establish a number. I think that's the key thing. What is the number? Now? You never may not be as high as you would like it to be, but based on your financial situation and where you are, how much cash can I come up with between now and the day before Christmas, I guess? And that's the number that you have to spend, and we've talked about this on this show multiple times. Sometimes you have to tell people this is my goal, this is my dream. I want to get out of debt. We want to stop being living paycheck to paycheck. We want to get out from being underneath the water and people will understand they're not going to be up. We all have it built up in our mind that people are going to be upset Based on something. I know this is not Christmas related, but give me allow me like 45 seconds here to tell a quick, quick story. One of my workers she's done a lot to help me out this summer. Her son graduated from boot camp a couple of days ago. Well, I had to go over and watch her animals take care of them for her. Well, she had mentioned about six months ago how she would like to have a new form of income. She would like to have new floors in her kitchen. So guess what we did? While she was gone down to watch her son graduate from boot camp, we put new floors in her kitchen. So when she came back to a surprise for her, she had brand new floors in her kitchen. And the point I'm trying to make is you, you have a number and you've got to stick with that number. But sometimes, eventually, when you set yourself up financially and you find yourself in a position where you can do extra things for extra people, that's when the real blessings come in. So sometimes you have to tell people no, but eventually you'll get to the point where you can bless other people that you're not necessarily on your shopping list. I hope that made sense.
Amber:
Yeah, absolutely. I agree completely with Chris, and I made it. We had a number while we were getting out of debt and we still have a number now, but we also cut people off our list. We had to go through and we had to take people off our list. That might have been a friend or more distant family members, and we took them off and we prioritized our holiday list and that's just what we stuck to, and now we really focus more on experiences. So it's not necessarily a ton of gifts under the tree. We're doing stuff together before the holidays, we're doing stuff together during the holidays, and the gifts might entail doing things together after the holidays as well. But so were any of those people mad at you? Not that I remember. I don't remember ever having a discussion, though, like it just kind of happened.
Brad:
Well, I think. The reality is, though, is that there's a lot of other people feel the same types of stress, yeah, so when all of a sudden it's like, oh, we don't have to get good works for me, right, because you know they probably don't have to worry so much too, you know.
Chris:
Well, people have this impression that people are judging them. Part of that same story. When I went over there a few days ago for her to show me what she wanted me to do every day, I was counting those one by one. Stick down floor tiles. That's where she had in her kitchen. I was counting them to know how much flooring we needed to buy. She told me today she's. I thought you were looking at my floors and going, oh my gosh, these floors look terrible and judging us based on the quality of the floor. I'm like I wouldn't even pay attention to what the flooring was. I was trying to figure out how much square foot I needed to buy. But in her mind, when she saw that she didn't mention it to me the other day, but when she saw it she thought I was judging her. I'm like, no, that's not the way things work. People don't pay attention to stuff like that. They really don't.
Brad:
So what about the stress from that comes from the marketing side of this. You know just the unbelievable amount of marketing advertising that we see during the holidays. You know we Chris, you kind of mentioned it with the flooring and stuff and worrying about people judging us but like I've had, I've had people that we've coached that are legitimately worried, like if I can't get my kids as much and their friends are getting a lot more, like I feel guilty, like they didn't get as much, you know as as their friends, or you know why, and they might ask questions about why didn't we get as much, or you know. So how do you, how do you like navigate? How would you guys navigate this? How did you guys? I know, ryan, when you were going through this you had I mean, your kids were younger when they were doing this. So like, how did you guys deal with all that kind of stuff?
Ryan:
Yeah. So for for us, I mean we, I'm just more of a straight shooter, I don't. You know, I didn't want to, like, pretend with my kids, so we kind of just sat down with our kids and just explained what we were doing and that we made some mistakes with money and things are tight. We don't have this, we can't, we can't provide the same kind of Christmases we've been providing, you know, for a while, until we kind of get this fixed. You know, obviously we didn't go into great detail. I think my youngest at the time was probably, I mean, eight years old or something, and it there was a lot of guilt in that. There's a lot. There's, like you said, there's a lot of guilt. You feel like you want, you want to be able to provide your kid this Christmas that they're just going to always remember. And when Christmas came and it was smaller, it was just kind of eye opening because like they didn't care, they didn't like it really wasn't like you think it's going to be, it's going to be the end of the world. It's like we it's me and my wife were putting this pressure on it that they were going to be so disappointed, and it came and went the same day that normal they didn't have as much to open. But when it was all said and done, no one was like, no one was miserable. I mean, it was just it was still okay. You know and I think again the previous years, and I think part of that too is like when you have a certain amount to spend, you're more thoughtful about what you're buying, and so you know some of the things they got it's like oh, I really want this, or you know they're going to use it, whereas like before, when it was like credit cards, credit cards, we just buying all kinds of in my opinion, it's a lot of crap, just so there's more stuff to open. And more stuff to open meant just more stuff that gets opened and they play with it for five minutes and then they never touch it again. So we just so that's just from our standpoint is we brought our kids along, we brought family along, we had conversations about you know I would get really frustrated with like hey, I gave you a gift card, you give me a gift card. Can we just not do that? Like right, like I can just buy, I could spend my own $50 at my own store rather than you give me 50 to a store I really don't normally go to, right, you know. So we just had some of those conversations to kind of settle some of that down as well. And again, there's some guilt in that, because you're kind of airing out like are things tight? You know those going to breed questions of what's going on, is everything okay and it's like no, I mean, we're just really want to not keep overspending and we want to try to get out of debt. So yeah, we were just we were just kind of upfront and that worked for us.
Chris:
And I agree with that 100% is just be upfront with your kids, be honest with them. Don't don't hide things Again. You don't necessarily have to tell them how bad it is, but I have said on this podcast and I was a guest on your show a couple of times prior to that I've always said, as parents be upfront with your kids, use it as teachable moments, be an adult and think about the longterm picture of what you're going to be able to do for your kids when you get out of debt. But that may mean some short term sacrifices and Ryan's absolutely right, they're not going to remember most of it. They're not going to remember, though I didn't get this or that. And if you want comparisons because I think that's the gist of the question is you know if you're getting your kids something may not be what somebody else's parents are getting their kids, but there's a lot of kids that have nothing Right, right, and your kids listening out. You know if you're listening out there. Your kids know that some of their classmates, some of their friends, are not going to get anything for Christmas, so they're going to be thankful for whatever they get, particularly if you just sit down and explain to them. We're doing this for a reason, and it's to set us up in a position to be able to to do different things down the road, and for us it was you know, Ryan I know that we sort of have a different opinion on this but to be able to put our kids through college debt free. We were able to do that because we got out of debt, but I took, you know, a couple of years of saying we're going to have to sacrifice and say no or say you know a little bit less, to be able to get to that point.
Kati:
Yeah, and I would say my family, especially before my sister had kids, was a lot of us. All of us had moved and downsized in most situations or moved across the country and it was like we don't need more stuff. So can we just not buy each other junk anymore? So we started to do a lot more donating to charities, food pantries, things like that, as kind of just like a family group project or experience, and that was awesome. And then my sister had kids. So of course we have to spoil the kids. But my sister even still says please don't get them stuff like books, pajamas, you know those kind of things. Their toys they have whatever 300 million of them and right, they play with the three things that they've always played with and swap in a few here and there. So it's like now we're still focusing their five and we're focusing on more experiences. So like we just did a family weekend getaway and rented a house up north and then we're planning a family cruise in February. But we're like, okay, but we're not doing like a bunch of Christmas gifts because we're all saving up for this trip and the experience is going to be much more memorable than the stuff that they opened under the tree and, as you were saying about you know, kids who have less. Reminder to the parents out there that if you, if Santa, delivers gifts to your kids, it shouldn't always be the biggest best gift that should come from you. You worked really hard for that. Santa can give the little stuff because kids go to school and talk about what Santa brought them and it's like wait a minute, you got a such and such. I got I don't know pajamas and like comparing it that way, it's like why doesn't Santa love me as much? So it's. It's a thing like we do all compare, but just be mindful of you know that aspect of things too from the marketing perspective.
Brad:
Yeah, like as a parent, my worst and most stressful part about Christmas is figuring out what to do with all the crap once it's in the house. Because it's like you know it's not only the stuff that you know they get from Santa and their parents and all that, but it's like all the, all the Christmases you go to after that, it's the gift that the teachers gave them, and the gift it's just like, it's just like so it's like a pile of stuff. Now you have to reorganize and figure out where to put it all. You know it's it's crazy, but I would say, make sure you're also making. You know, I think one of the cool things about Christmas which you which you suggested earlier on is just plan early, because when you plan early and you have cash, not only that, but you can also save and get really great deals around the rest of the year, not just around the holidays. So you give you an opportunity to shop smarter as well. I think so do you guys? Do you guys do that? Do you guys shop outside of the holiday season? I have a really hard time with this.
Kati:
We do bad about it.
Brad:
I'm terrible I don't.
Amber:
My mom is like done shopping by September and I'm not even started. I don't know how she does it.
Chris:
We do a little bit of it, not much, but a little bit. Again, we spend most of the year trying to come up with the money, not come up. Trying to come up with it's probably a terrible term of getting to the point where we've got the money, if that makes sense. So, but we there were a few things this year that we have we've picked up, particularly for nephews and nieces on my side, because I've got younger nephews and nieces to give to them Nothing over the expensive, but we've done that. And I'll piggyback this and say you know, while you're trying to figure out, if you're just now realizing, oh no, christmas is here in a few weeks, what do I do? Go ahead and start planning for the next one. It's simultaneously All right. What can I do different? And that gives you 13 months to be ready for it. And finally, I guess one thing I'd like to say here is I've heard both Kati and Amber use a phrase that I use a lot and it makes it actually makes me feel very happy to hear those terms, and that is experiences. You can do experiences that don't cost a whole lot of money. The kids are probably more likely to remember, particularly if they're really young, so that's something that my wife and I we talk about. What is our why in life? It's to have experiences, and so it's nice to hear other people say the same thing.
Ryan:
Yeah, I would say, and that was for us. I mean so, basically, starting January, we do kind of the sinking funds envelope system and we have, starting January, there's so much money that goes in that envelope every month and then it's just building throughout the year. So at Christmas it equals this, but throughout that year, kind of. Like you said, my wife does kind of watch things and if the kids mentioned like, oh, I kind of want this, or she kind of hears like we already have money and they're starting in January, so usually by August, september, she's starting to do Christmas shopping based on things that the kids have said you know this, that or the other thing, so that again. So I would say I would agree if, if you're like thinking, yeah, I can't, I can't do nothing this year, but you can start January, immediately after Christmas is over, and say, starting January, I'm gonna save X amount so that next year I can pay cash for this.
Brad:
Yeah, also don't be afraid to like and I know that this is. There's probably this huge. You know people might look down on this idea because it's not brand new, but you'd also save a ton of money by buying used items too. Like one of the things that we bought our daughter two years ago now Was a power. Wheels at Christmas is probably like you know I don't even know what a brand new power was was like four or probably four or five hundred bucks, to be my guess, and we we bought it for a hundred bucks and we've had for two years and this girl like rips wheelies in this thing, runs into everything with it, like the front end is has has a lot of damage. So it's like I'm really glad that we we bought that used right. My son we've. We got him a used MacBook Pro like Four or five years ago and it's still working today. It's crazy. So I mean I think you know it's I can be looked down of. Oh, it's not brand new, right, but if money is tight, man, and you know what your kids want and you're, you're willing to like, you know, dig and look through, like Facebook, marketplace and things, and there's a lot of good deals out there too. You can save a significant amount of money and still have a pretty good Christmas.
Amber:
You know we did one year we totally did a re-gift from our house, like we had to pick something from our house with as a family and we went to our family how at Christmas and we had to re-gift something from our own home and we just did a gift exchange. It was so fun as Finding the crap that we got.
Brad:
That's when you get. That's when you get rid of that spare tire behind the shed right, you never know.
Kati:
Also, don't be afraid to make Christmas gifts. It's okay to like. I come from on my dad's side, a lot of my family are farmers and so Like we would get butter and homemade applesauce and all different things. And I'm like now. I'm like, yeah, give me the butter butters expensive in the grocery store like. I'll take it and my aunts. Homemade applesauce is like one of my favorite things, so we it doesn't have to be huge. I love practical, functional, also edible gifts, so yeah, bring it on.
Brad:
Yeah, or like a bottle of Titos. You know you drink that, the bottle just gets thrown away. I love that.
Chris:
Brad, you mentioned used stuff. Here's another sort of alternative to that a lot of brands. If you look at their website, they have, at the very bottom, refurbished. These are things that have just been brought back, sometimes that the vendor has returned to them, but there's nothing wrong with it. I have bought a lot of things off of refurbished and save you 30, 40%. Yeah, so you know, keep an eye out on. We bought a iPod. Yes, way back before there was an iPhone we bought. We bought the first generation iPhone about four months after they came out, both of them refurbished and they lasted us for like five or six years. Yeah, I've got a vitamin mix blender, because vitamin mixes are not cheap. I got a vitamin mix. I think I got a hundred bucks off because it was Refurbished, but there was not a scratch on it. It just been returned, yep, and they were settling as a refurbished unit.
Kati:
Yeah and keep. I have a list of things that I'm looking to buy Throughout the year and I watch for sales and black Friday and Cyber Monday and all of those and it's like, okay, yeah, I know what this is supposed to cost and if I see a really great deal, then if I've budgeted for it and I can Jump on a deal, then that saves me money too.
Brad:
Right, or especially like places like I, like I know I know a lot of. There's quite a few stores that do this now, but like Kohl's is notorious for their Kohl's cash right, and if you're already gonna buy some of that stuff, you know shops smart. You know you can capitalize on the coupons that you get back. The secret and the key, I know Chris, you talked about Kohl's cash you have a family member that loves their Kohl's Cash. The secret, the secret to that Kohl's cash those when you go back in, you got to stick to the Kohl's cash amount. See, they want you to come back and spend more. So, but as long as you're diligent and you're disciplined at Kohl's cash, you really come in handy, because it's like you can use that now to make that dollar stretch even more. So, yeah, watch for the coupons and all that stuff. So the totally awesome debt freedom planner is helping so many people make consistent progress with their finances, whether that be building emergency funds, paying down bills, budgeting, tracking paydays, saving up for larger purchases, goal planning and Planning for those irregular yearly expenses that always seem to catch you by surprise. Now the debt freedom planner will help you take the stress Out of managing your money and if the thought is running through your mind, hey, I just need to have a simple tool to get my finances together. This planner is perfect for you. Head over to the real debt free dad. com. Click on the debt freedom planner in the menu at the top of the page and order your debt freedom planner today.
Amber:
And that sound means it's time for the celebrations of the show. And this week we asked our members of Roots how much debt have you paid off using the debt snowball? Patrice Johnson 96 thousand and twenty eight dollars.
Brad:
Yeah, that's incredible $96,000 and she's just going on just about two years now inside roots. That's awesome, terry Campitaro, I joined roots in September of 2022. In 13 months, I paid off fifty eight thousand eight hundred and nineteen dollars and fifty seven cents in debt, and I have twenty one thousand one hundred and eighty three dollars In savings, which is incredible. So congratulations to you, terry.
Chris:
And another big number from Brenda Phil Howard $35,000, with the debt paid off and money saved since March of 2022.
Kati:
Yeah, it's incredible and I get, I get to give my own update. So, five years and a couple of months, a hundred and thirty thousand one hundred and seventy seven dollars in debt paid off.
Brad:
In five years. That is incredible on a single income. And when and when you started again, I like to always ask you how much money you were making.
Kati:
Less than $13 an hour when I started 13.
Brad:
That's incredible. It's so awesome.
Ryan:
No, tammy Yankee. I've been a member of Roots actively since March 2021 and have paid off about $60,000.
Brad:
Yeah, awesome, awesome job. So again, more proof again if you know you're willing to sacrifice and do some things different, you can make some amazing changes. So congratulations to all of you guys. And if you're just getting started with our podcast, or maybe you've been listening for some time and you're interested in how you Can get started on the road to financial freedom, go visit our website at debtfreedad. com and sign up for our free Life without payments workshop, or I'm going to show you the first steps that have helped tens of thousands of people Just like you and I kick financial stress and worry for good. We'll see you guys next week.
Speaker 2:
Thanks for listening to the Debt Free Dad podcast. Connect with us on Facebook, tiktok, youtube and Instagram at Brad Nelson Debt Free Dad. If you found value in today's episode, please leave a rating and review. We so appreciate it. For resources, show notes and links mentioned in today's show, visit balancedcents.com. That's balancedcents.com. Catch you next week.
