Creating a Holiday Spending Plan #131

healthy habits when it comes to holiday spending. Man. Yeah, Matt, there's a status is consumers say we'll take more than three months to pay off their balances after the holidays. That's a big problem. And so yeah, we've got some thoughts that we want to share in order to help people avoid that. Because it feels nice to buy people fancy gifts for the holidays, but then January comes, you get the credit card bill in the mail, and that's

what really sucks. That's what it's not good. And so it makes that spending it like kind of taints it. I feel like the tainted holidays. I know, right, you don't want to be there. You don't want to be there. It sounds like a lawsuit or a band I don't know. All right, but before we get there, Matt, what do you want for the holidays? Any anything that you want in your stocking or under the tree. Maybe a little

more sleep? That's actually that sounds really good. I wish someone could wrap that up and give it to me, like take the bags out from under my eyes. Yeah, we each have had our babies on the scene now for a couple of months. I'm still not getting great sleep. But actually, so related to that, I had a story to share with you about venmo. All right, I want to hear how venmo equals no sleep? Like what how

did these tie together? Here's the thing. So we thought that the reason Weston wasn't getting great sleepers because we kind of have this different sleeper, this bedside sleeper units, and he was sort of getting turned diagonal a little bit and we'd wake up and see him kind of crammed in the corner. It just didn't look like he was very comfortable. So we thoughts, you know, what, he needs to be laying on something flat, maybe just a

little bit nicer bassinet. Maybe we went cheap and got the least expensive safe option, and we're paying for it because we're not getting any sleep. Now, Yeah, that's not worth it right there, man, I've trade hard cash for sleep any day of the week. Well that's exactly what we did. So Kate found something on the neighborhoods selling swap. It was a basically brand new bassinet. She had found it online as well. It had great reviews and it was an amazing deal. I went over to their house.

I saw it, you know, as brand new, didn't have spit up on it or anything to hold it under a black light to makee no black light. But keep in mind how I mentioned that I haven't got much sleep, right, and so I'm halfway aware of what's even going on while I'm over there, Like I probably fell asleep, just kind of leaning against the wall while the lady was talking about and so she told me her Venmo name,

because that's how you do stuff, right. You don't really carry around cash, right, I don't, at least know most people don't anymore, especially people in their twenties and thirties. They're totally used to sending money virtually through Venmo and cash. Yeah, exactly. And I'm very used to it as well, very used to punching in someone's name accurately. But in this particular instance, man, I did not do that. I got her name. Let's say, for example, her name was Cassie Smith, and I like

the made up names, very nice one. In fact, she said her name was Cassie Smith too, and so I was like, done, got it? So I punched it in and popped right up. I was like, gotcha, I see you right here, clicked it, punched in thirty bucks, send it to her and she was like, all right, he let me help you take it out to the car. I didn't take much of it, took a home. We're done right until an hour later I get a message from Venmo from Cassie Smith too that says wrong person.

And I was like, what is she just messing with me? Because I pulled it up right with her right there, and I mean Cassie Smith too, right, Like how many Cassie Smith's two are there? Well, turns out there's at least two of them. It totally was the wrong person, and I wanted to share the story because you need to make sure that you have the exact right screen name or handle when you're using cash app or when you're using Venmo, because those companies they don't have any

control over the money that you send to people. Once it goes into their account, it's their money and they don't have to send it back, right, Yeah, And there's no protections for anybody if you send money. Whereas if you use a credit card and you don't receive the items right that you purchased, you have the ability to do a chargeback. Well, there's there's nothing like that when it comes to Venmo or cash app. And with Venmo, it's easy to see the people that you've paid before.

They're kind of in your history. Same thing with cash app. But if it's somebody exactly, that's what it's the most difficult. So if it's somebody that's done work at my house and it's the first time I've paid them, I just have to make sure I show it to them physically, like is this your right screen name? That's what I should have done. Yeah, So that's like really the only way around it is to actually pull it up and show it to their face and say is this your

actual screen name? And they have the scan future too, like you can pull it up, pull up your profile and it pulls up the what do you call it, the bar you know, like the square with like the different coded shaded sections, so just to ensure that you get the right person. But again, it wasn't a big deal and I thought, surely that's you. Didn't think much of it. So did fake Cassie Smith too? Did she or other Cassie Smith who I should call it, she's a real Cassie Smith too? Was she above board? Did

she send that thirty bucks back? Well, eventually it's like a lot of conversation back and forth. But the fact was was she was a that I was trying to pull on on her because it was totally random. And I looked into this because I thought there's no way

that could actually be a thing. But it is. There's been some reports of fraudulent payments being sent to people and then them saying, oh, no, rob person, and then they asked for back and somehow that person who sends it back, they're out that money because the the initial money wasn't maybe fully in fully deposited. I'm not exactly sure how it works because I'm not a criminal, but that's something to take into account. So if you ever get money sent to you, you know, be above board,

be cool, send it back. But if it seems fishy, right if they have like a weird history, or if it's a brand new user, definitely something worth reaching out to Venmo and just letting them know that, like, hey, this is going on. Should I be doing this? And I think that could be a really healthy and safe way to be above board but still take advantage of those different apps. Yeah, I've heard about that with fake check.

So you get a check in the mail, right, and then and they're like, send me back six bucks, but I give you a check I overpaid. It's like, it's okay, I'm still walking away with a ton of money in this situation. But really, they check is fake. It looks like it clears, and then it doesn't. Then the bank realizes that it's not a real check, and then they want their money back, and it's just, yeah, that's a hairy situation. But I've not heard about that with Venmos.

That's fascinating and terrifying at the same time. Yeah, I mean, overall, still very safe, but like we said, make sure you have the person's name right at their handle exactly correct, yep, yep, show it to their face. All right, mat, let's get to the beer that we're having on this episode. Today on the show, we're drinking a beer called Timely Surrender by Archetype Brewing, and this was sent to us by

Brad and Corinna, who brewed the beer themselves. Right, Yeah, they are the owners or founders of Archetype Brewing up there in Asheville, North Carolina. So thanks so much for sending us this beer. Yeah, Monday's I p A was excellent and I love me a good Sason, So I'm excited to drink this one and talk about it at the end of the episode. Yeah, man, me too. Alright, Matt, let's get onto the subject at hand. Today on the show,

we're talking about creating a holiday spending plan. The problem is most people don't have a plan for how much they're gonna spend and who they'll be buying for this holiday season, and their budgets get wrecked because they overspend, and lots of Americans will have a holiday spending hangover and be paying off those unforeseen expend is well into

the new year. But if we start saving money now and start planning for how we're going to spend, we can avoid that kind of January nastiness and the ridiculous bill that we don't actually have the money to pay off. Right. You know what I love around the holidays like a nice fresh blanket of snow like outside for Christmas and some fresh credit card debt. Well, in Atlanta, we're not getting snowbuddy, But we're also not getting credit card debt either. Yeah,

that's true, man. So a few main points before we dive into just how to set up a spending plan is just overall, you want to make sure that you're not going into debt for the holidays, that you're not going into the red spending money on gifts. You want to only spend the money that you actually have, and so make a commitment to not going to debt over holiday spending. No one's gonna love you more just because

you spend more than you could actually afford. And if they say that, they'll love you more because you spend more. And that's not somebody you want to hang out. No, No, those are keepers, right, that's a bad friend. But you know, here's the thing. If you just love giving gifts and you want to spend more, just be creative about it. Find other places that you can cut back onto, increase

the amount you have for holidays. Sending. So for example, if you change cell phone providers to save maybe fifty bucks a month, like that is going to give you more gift money to spend every single month. Yeah, no doubt. I love the idea of looking at your budget, finding places to cut, and then allocating that money towards the

positive things that you want to do. So, like, if gift giving is really really important to you, but you don't have the money to make it happen, well, finding ways to cut your current budget so that you can allocate more money towards gift giving is an awesome way to do it. Also, another thing you need to do, probably right now, if you're into online shopping is install the plug in called Honey or or something similar. There are other plug ins that do similar work, but Honey

is just probably the best. Honey is the best. It's great. It's so good. Yeah, so people should install that right now. It helps with coupon codes and really it's just gonna help you save money when when shopping online. Honey can help you see like the price history of a particular item. It can give you notifications of price drops if you sign up for that. And also it will kind of do this automatic searching for coupon codes, so you're not going down to Google Rabbit hold to try to find

a cupon code for that website. So I would do that now if you're into online shopping, nice man, A nice little plug for a plug in. Another thing is we want to encourage folks to start early. Another reason we're talking about holiday spending this early in the year, this early in the season is because last minute Christmas shopping is the worst, right, It's hard for planning and you will end up spending way more money that way.

You actually want to make sure that you're thinking like a retailer, like retailers are thinking about the holiday season like the following year. And you know what, that's not a bad approach. Yeah, retailers would prefer for you to buy all your gifts between like December. In December, I mean, that's when they want you to buy because they're not running sales anymore at that point in time. The biggest

price competition is in mid to late November. Really, that's when you're gonna find the best deals on things, maybe creeping into early December. But if you want to save the most money on gifts, if you want your dollar to stretch further this holiday season, and you are planning on shopping on line in regular bigger retail stores, locally small businesses, the best sales, the biggest discounts, you're gonna

find those earlier on in the holiday shopping season. And if you wait too long, if you are a last minute shopper, you're gonna pay a heck of a lot more. And and that could end up really throwing a big wrench in your budget. Unless you're just like me and you love waiting to the last second, because that used to be my m O back in high school, back in college even I used to totally wait until until Christmas Eve. And do you feel like you paid a

lot more because of it? I don't know. I was a very presconscious was in high school or in college. I was just kind of like, I gotta get something for mom. I waited too late, And I was totally the guy that's like parking up on the curb because there's so many cars at the mall. Do you remember them all, by the way, Yeah, I think they still exist. Actually I don't think they do there, so I'm not all of them, that's for sure. They're they're going the

way of the Dodo bird. It's interesting to see how malls are being reconfigured and the companies that are buying malls to do something different with them, because people just don't shop at malls like they used to go to the mall and work, you know, like it's just the we work now, like you can go there and get work done. But we were kind of joking about thinking like retailer, but you really do need to think that

far in advance. If you can even start thinking about the next holiday season now, that is going to put you in an even stronger position. Consider opening even a separate savings account where you can funnel just however much you need to maybe twenty bucks for fifty bucks a month for next year's holiday spending. It's just about having a plan, having time on your side so that you can implement and execute that plan. Yeah, I mean, some people might think we're crazy for doing an episode about

holiday spending in October. Yeah, it's like when the Christmas decorations go up and it's not even Halloween yet, right, Right, That's that's what this episode feels like. But it's even crazier that we're talking about creating a holiday spending plan for right, But really and truly, if you want to make sure you're fully prepared for Christmas, it takes budgeting in advance. It takes setting aside that money every single month, because you in all likelihood know roughly what you're going

to spend for Christmas based on last you're spending. And we're going to get into more on that and how you actually create a solid spending plan right after the break. All right, girl, we are back from the break. We're talking about holiday spending. And like the title of this episode says, this is about creating a holiday spending plan, and so having a solid spending plan is just so clutch. And here now are some specific steps you can take

to get started. Jill, you just hinted at taking your cues from last year's spending, right if you don't even know where to begin now, it's not a bad idea to base this year spending on what you spend last year, assuming that you didn't overspend. Think about who you bought for. Did you buy for teachers, maybe some distant relatives, third cousins or no, go, you don't have to buy for them, forget them, But at then ask yourself, do you plan to buy for those folks again, and if so, like

what seems like a reasonable amount of money. This will give you a realistic starting point for how much you can save and set aside. And before the break, you know, we talked about setting aside like twenty forty or fifty bucks a month. Well, this is when you actually determine that amount. When you take that total and you've got your annual spending for the holidays, you just take that, divide that by twelve, and then set that money aside

every single month, just like you would towards an annual bill. Yeah, and make sure you're adding in new people. So, like, let's say you've got a girlfriend or a boyfriend and you didn't have one last year. Looking at last year spending can get you a long way. But don't forget about it. Yeah, yeah, looking at last year's we'll get you like ninety five percent of the way that right. Like that, you still need to make some small tweaks, but that's I mean, that's exactly what we do every year, dude.

We I mean, we'll take eighteens Christmas spending XCEL file. I will copy and paste that, change it to twenty nine seen and then we'll just open it up and Kate will go in there and kind of tweak some numbers, maybe add somebody, maybe cut somebody. But it's really that easy, and that will get you most of the way there. But don't forget any special significant others who may have

joined you in the past year. True, all right. And also it's important to round up have an amount specified to that you can factor in if you go over So if you can allocate five more than you thought you would spend, well, that can help ease the pain if you do overspend on a gift for a loved one. That way you don't feel quite so cramped or tempted to throw in the towel if you blitz through the

budget that you had set for yourself. I know, sometimes you find that perfect gift for somebody and you had let's say thirty dollars allocated for their gift, but it's a fifty dollar gift and it's perfect. You really really want to get that for them. I think there are ways to try to see if you can get a better deal on it, whatever, But if that's ultimately the gift that you want to buy for somebody, having that

excess amount budgeted in for overages. It's just super helpful so that you can go over occasionally on that perfect gift for that right person. Yeah, the idea here is that you have a number man, that's realistic, right, and that you have a number that's not so low that you completely burned past that and like you said, you

just completely quit and give up on that budget. And so once you have that list put together, and man, personally, I do feel that like a Google sheet or an Excel file is perfect for that because you've got all your mouths you keep their totals running. I just write it on my hand and pen. That's my way of keeping. And then you swept profusely wipe your brow and you're like, oh, no, my budget well, and then my friend like sees it and they're like, oh, you're spending twenty bucks on me

for christ, it really gets awkward. Well, here's the thing. After looking at last year's list, what you want to do. If it's looking like you're setting yourself up to fail to spend maybe more than you can actually afford, then it's gonna be time to start making some cuts. It's time to get really picky at this point you'll either need to maybe limit the folks that you buy for, like altogether, or maybe some combination of both. I think Joe and I would both recommend that you just cut

everybody off your list. Actually, boom problem solved, joyful holiday is in store for all. I'm sure if all those fails just Scrooge mcduckett, all right, that's one way to do it. Probably not the best advice for Matt on that. One. Another thing you should do in this whole process is is be tracking the whole time. Like Matt said, an Excel spreadsheet could work. I don't actually write things down on my hand and pen. That just wouldn't work out

very well. But once you've created your holiday spending budget, you want to keep trying as you're buying the gifts. If you get a great deal on something and spend less on somebody because of it, well they give you some wiggle room to spend more on others. This is how you can have even more flexibility and freedom within

your budget. You want to be sure that you stick to the overall budgeted amount and you don't want to go over that, but there is some wiggle room inside of that if you do score just an incredibly low price on the perfect gift that you've been looking for for somebody. It just gives you that ability to spend

a touch more on somebody else. Yeah, Soul, this is such an important step, right because you're not only just coming up with the plan, but this is the follow through, right, Like, this is the actual execution, and we're not only just tracking those expenses, you're comparing it to the numbers that

you have decided that you're going to spend. Um. This isn't a situation where you just kind of close your eyes and crush your fingers hope that that it works out after you set that number at the very beginning.

This is something that you are going to track and follow and monitor because, like you mentioned, man, there's gonna be times when you need to make some tweaks and adjust the amount that you're gonna spend on somebody else because you know what, like I really wanted to spend more on this other person, but we're sticking to the budget. We're sticking to the plan, and really that's the hardest part.

That's kind of what it all comes down to. Yeah, mat And as we're kind of thinking about tracking our purchases. One interesting way of doing it I think that can be really really helpful is considering going cash only for the holiday season. If you pull out the exact amount of cash that you've budgeted to spend, it really helps you be disciplined in sticking to that number. And granted, that can be hard to do because so many of the presidents that we buy for each other are are

online purchases these days. But going to that cash system can really help curb unnecessary spending and can help us be a little more focused as we're buying gifts for the people that we love. Ye man, setting up those constraints can be a great way to help folks. But here's the thing, if you're not into that, discounted gift cards can be an awesome gift and it can be an awesome way to actually save you money. When you're going to buy specific gifts for folks. You can check

out card Pool as well as gift card Granny. Those are both sites where you can buy or sell gift cards. Yeah. I think really those websites are so helpful in lowering the overall amount you spend on gifts because two things. If you're buying a gift card for somebody, you can get them a gift card at the same store you're planning on actually going into the physical location, or buying it on that store's website, and you can buy it at a site like gift card Grannier, card Pool, and

you can just get it for less money. That's one way I think these websites are really helpful. Another way is if you know that there are items at those stores, those particular stores are where you're going to do your holiday shopping, you can stretch your dollar and make it

go further. So, for instance, let's say you're planning on spending a lot of money at a store like Target or Old Navy or wherever, you can buy that discount of gift card on one of those discounted gift card sites, and you might be saving eight percent or twelve percent or fifteen percent on the gifts that you're buying for folks from those stores, just by having taken that one additional step of buying a gift card that somebody else didn't want and snagging it at a discount. So I

love that kind of approach. If you know kind of the stores that you're planning the shop at, it can be really helpful and just kind of driving down those overall holiday spending costs. Yeah, man, And it actually almost works like hash right, Like we're talking about sending those constraints. When you buy a gift card, you're going to be less likely to overspend because you have a set amount that you've already spent. And so I think that's another great way to kind of control and curb your own

spending on others. So later on the show, we're gonna talk about some more practical ways that you can actually save money. But real quick, man, before we go to the break, let's talk about kids, because there can be a lot of pressure when it comes to kids and presents around the holidays. There are expectations from previous years, maybe what they're seeing in advertising and even what they see their their friends getting right, this can be the perfect time to talk about and live out what you

actually value. What a great way to start some of those money conversations with your kids in order to set some realistic expectations, and instead you can turn the focus to traditions and that time spend together as a family. Yeah. I think the hardest thing is when you don't communicate well with your kids about what the holidays are gonna look like, about where time is going to be spent, about the way Christmas Morning is going to look or

whatever holiday you celebrate. You can be upfront and communicate with them. I think your kids are way more likely to understand and to be okay with the direction that you've chosen your kids. Let's make sure you know about crampus right exactly exactly, that's what we're setting their expectations for. Yeah, just kidding. But again, that's why we're putting this episode out so early in the season, because these are the kind of conversations that you need to begin having now.

It's really crummy if you start telling your kid they're not going to get very many presents on December three, that's a bummer and they're not going to take it

very well. But if you can start building up the idea of what the holidays mean to your family and actually follow through and make the holiday season more about time together, more about traditions, more about family events, your kid might be bummed that they don't get the latest Nintendo Switch or whatever it is it's on their list, but they'll have more of an appreciation for the way your family views it and the way you guys spend

your holiday time. Yeah. Man, that's a great point. We're gonna talk more about communicating and talking about these expectations, but first, let's take a quick break, all right, Joe, we were just talking about communicating with our friends and family about maybe how we might be spending less this year. We want to encourage you to not be afraid to

talk about your spending or the lack thereof. Maybe others they might even be relieved to know that the gift giving this year is gonna be kind of toned down. Oh my gosh. Have you ever had that conversation with someone in your family and they're like, please, thank you, Oh my gosh, are you too good? Thank you for taking the reins on this, because it was killing me that to have to kind of meet this crazy gift

giving schedule that we had set up. Yeah. Well, I mean, the fact is is, it's easy to spend less when you and everyone you know, when you're on the same page. But like we're saying, it's important to communicate that clearly and specifically why it is that you might be cutting back this year. You want to make sure that you can let that friend know that's not getting that gift, Well,

it's because that you don't love them anymore. That's always a fun conversation have, right, Yeah, I feel like I've been kind of in a joking, bohambag kind of mood. And it's not even the holidays, talking about crampus, talking about telling your friends you don't love them. Yeah, And I think one way to kind of help approach that conversation is is to talk about the bigger goals that you have and letting your family know that that's part of the reason that you're not able to spend as

much on holiday gifts. So, for instance, if you're intently focused on paying off your student loan debt, or you're saving for a down payment for a home, or you've got medical bills or some other financial setbacks going on in your life, those are great reasons to spend less. But the people in your life that you love might not know that about you. They might not know that

that's something that you're going after really hard. And you know what, honestly telling people that that, hey, you know what, I've got this really small budget this year and it's just not gonna look like it has in years past, opening up those lines of communication and letting them know why things have changed for you. Honestly, I feel like that can be really really motivating to hear from a friend, and it can deep in a relationship by getting that

honest with somebody that you care about. Oftentimes we feel a little guilty or a little weird talking about money, talking about our goals, talking about what we're prioritizing, opening up those lines of communication, getting honest with the people

around you. That is, in and of itself, kind of this beautiful way to spend the holidays by increasing that level of relationship, by trusting somebody in your family or somebody in your inner friend circle enough to kind of let them know what's important to you, what you're prioritizing right now, and that can open up the lines of communication for further discussions about money that could be really impactful to you as well. Yeah. What a much more

meaningful way to to spend the holidays, right. Yeah, it's not an excuse. I think we can feel like an excuse if you're like, hey, I can't do it because of this, But if you can have a heartfelt conversation about heart to heart your limits and what's going on

in your life. I feel like that can be really helpful totally, And another great reason to discuss with your friends and family why you might be cutting back this year when it comes to spending around the holidays is because maybe you feel a moral obligation to cut back on the amount that you're spending, on the amount of consumption that you are a part of. Honestly, presents like

sometimes they can be a bit overrated gift giving. It's a love language for some people, but for a lot of folks, they just get sucked into that advertising and that consumption mindset. Dozens of presents under a Christmas treet doesn't make for a better Christmas. But the thing is make sure though that when you share this with your friends and family that they know for you it's a personal decision that you've made and that you're not judging

them because they're into the gifts. Right If they're bigger spenders, that's totally fine. Just ask them to not include you with their holiday spending or you know that sounds a little negative, you know, so it maybe instead they can donate that money that they would have spent on you to a charity that they really care about. I think that's an awesome way to make some positive change in our world while at the same time not participating in

over consumption. All right, Matt, And regardless of the reason that you're spending less, well, let's talk about some easy ways to actually spend less. So one way to do this is to make homemade gifts for the people in your life. If you're having a tough time thinking I'm at a great gift that's within your budgeted amount, maybe consider going homemade with it. Cookies, scarves, handwritten notes. It doesn't take a whole lot of money to let some

know that you care. Sometimes the best gifts that I've ever gotten are a card with a thoughtful note that let somebody know that they were thinking of me. It didn't have to be a physical item. And oftentimes some of those smaller trinkets that come as presents during the holidays, the smaller things, they end up getting discarded. But that kind of note, that sentimentality, that meaning, it lasts for

a long time. Yeah. And on the note of scarves, and on the note of gifts that you're gonna give me, I remember how you said you're gonna take up knitting and you're gonna knit me an Atlanta United scarf? Where's my scarf? Dog? All right, it's on my to do list. I'll see if it makes it in time for Christmas. I'm just messing with you, dude, although if you made me something, I probably would wear it. So another way that you can spend less is to make it a

priority to spend time with the people you love. How many crimmy gifts have you gotten that you just completely forgot about over the years. Time is almost always so much more valuable once you realize that the true value of time and how it's not something that you can make more of. Be intentional with the time that you have with your loved ones, especially around the holidays. And Joel a quick example of this. I'm thinking of the gift that I gave my dad last year for Christmas

for a day in Atlanta. And this isn't something that we've done before, but I think you and I we kind of talked about this last year when we're talking about spending around the holidays, and so I thought, you know what, this is something I'm gonna do. Gave it to Dad and we did that this year. Dude. It was so much fun. He came to Atlanta. We you know, first we had brunched with the whole family, which he

totally appreciated and enjoyed. He kind of got to see sort of a peek into our our lazy Saturday morning, right, and so he got to spend some quality time with the girls there in the morning. But then later that day, me and him, we went to a local brewery. We got some beers, which was a lot of fun, a good conversation there, and then we went to an Atlanta United match, which was a lot of fun. We won, that was the most important, but then after that we

went and got some barbecue. All the beautiful, perfect things in life, right, and it was such a good time. He had a great time. I had a great time. We got to talk about some things that we hadn't talked about in a while. Yeah, shared some different stories. It was just a way for us to connect and

grow our relationship at a deeper level. And that's not something that you know, he would have gotten if I would have gotten him a tie, And there's nothing wrong with a nice tie, but just a gift or an electric shaver, yeah, exactly, which, by the way, I totally I think I needed not a new electric shaver, but I wanna get some clippers, like some new hair cliper. Yeah, you gotta have those to do the self trim to

be able to come my own hair exactly. But but that's just a small example of just quality time and how much more meaningful and impactful that can be. Yeah, one more way to kind of spend less is let's say you're doing like a family gift exchange. If you set a firm dollar amount, stick to it. I feel like in a white elephant gift party or in a family gift exchange with set spending limits, it's so the worst when one person goes way over and spends too much,

Like if the white elephant gift is something fancy. Yeah, it's like Bro brought a thirty bottle of wine. I want that right exactly. It kind of like changes the vibe. And so the same thing in your family. If you've got a spending limit, stick to it. And and that's a good way of making sure everybody spends less. And it's just better if everyone sticks to the limit that's

kind of been created. I follow the rules. Another example I'm thinking of too, Maybe it's like some larger families that have a lot of kids running around, Like maybe the adults could really care less right if they actually receive gifts or not, But what they really want is to make sure that the kids do right. And so in that case, make sure that you're getting gifts. You know, if you're a kid, so say you're eighteen or younger,

bom you get a gift. Or if there are adults though, who do want to do the gift exchange, then you can draw names, you know, Like that's what we do with our extended family, and that way you're not stuck with like trying to buy eighteen different gifts for all the different members of the extended family. Yeah. I love prioritizing giving to the kids because they appreciate it so

much more than we do. And I don't know about you, Matt, but but for me, when when people are asking me what I want for Christmas, there's just almost nothing that comes to mind because I feel like I have everything that I need. I know that's not the case for everybody, but I know for a lot of folks out there, we can be a little more content with what we have.

And that's kind of one of the last things that sticks out to me as an important way to spend less is to make a conscious decision to not spend on ourselves this holiday season as well. I think it can be really easy, especially when the killer deals come out and we can get a flat screen TV for bucks or something like that. It becomes really easy to

start spending on ourselves this holiday season. And I think if you budget a small amount and you keep it super focused, maybe on one item that you've been really meaning to replace in your life, something like that, I think it's okay. But for the most part, if you can cut that out all together, I think it's gonna make your holiday season more meaningful and it's gonna help you spend less. At the same time, if you're just not out there shopping for yourself this holiday season, yeah,

just be honest with yourself. You know why you're shopping those sales racks. Nobody else wants that stuff you do. Oh, I bought this ran Jenny, but I think it's gonna look better on me. I guess you wants a flat screen, but maybe really I do. It's also important to keep your ultimate goal in mind. That's hug of the moment can be to buy those nice things for the people around you, and you're gonna be even tempted to buy

those nice things for yourself. And that isn't a terrible thing to feel to buy, I guess for other people, right, but it could would leave you broke. So remind yourself of your overarching savings and life goals and to avoid overspending in the moment. For most folks, I think that the true reason for the holidays is to spend quality time with those who you love. Let's try not to allow over consumption to get in the way of that. Those are good thoughts, my friend. All right, enough about

the holidays. It's too early. Let's talk about the beer that we had on this show. Honestly, I did kind of feel that way when we were talked about doing this episode, because it feels like, oh man, Thanksgivings not even here, and all the Christmas trees are up, you know, it's like one of those numbers, Oh my gosh, Christmas trees. Christmas stuff has been up since mid September and a lot of retailers, which is crazy. So I know that it's on people's minds. I know people are thinking about it.

I think it is important for us to talk about it now for budgeting and preparation reasons. But yeah, I feel weird. I feel we're talking about that, that's for sure. But Matt, let's talk about the beer that we had on the show today. We had a brew called Timely Surrender by Archetype Brewing. This was a sayson. We don't have a lot of saisons, but I really really enjoy a good saison, and this, my friend, was a good says Yeah says On's farmhouse beers. The more I have them,

the more I enjoy them. It's sort of like the first time I had an I p A. Remember somebody telling me like, yeah, it's an acquired taste, like it's gonna it might take you a while before you enjoy an I p A And I remember thinking, yeah, it's gonna take me forever, But now is my favorite beer. And I think saysons are sort of like that for me. Same with the first time I had a sour. I was like, why anybody want to drink this? Oh? Dude? Yeah, And then like fourth one in, I was like, yeah,

I think I'm getting it. I think I understand that, and then now it's one of my favorite styles. Dude. I completely agree with you. I enjoy the fact that my palette is expanding and I'm enjoying different style of beers. But this one, in particular, it was pretty Brett heavy Itt and Brett is like a what is it a bacteria or a yeast? It's not a yeast. Yeah, it's a yeast. Is it really so? Bretta maiases? I think

that's how you say it. I always say it wrong, But they're oftentimes and Sayson's farmhouse beers, and then it has a real distinct, funky barnyard type of flavor a lot of times, and this one totally had it going on. But at the same time, it wasn't weighed down by that flavor. This was a really bubbly, effrofescent I don't know if you saw when I poured it, but it had a lot of bubbles going on, and it's like I was pouring a glass of champagne. It's really refreshing.

I really enjoyed this one, man. What were your thoughts? Yeah, it was. It had like a kind of like a great fruit zesty vibe going on, while at the same time having that funkiness. I really like the citrus in the funk kind of mixed in a Sayson, a little bit of earthiness. Really overall, A huge fan of this beer. I'm a big fan of Sazons in general, but this one is a really good example of it. So and I'm a big fan of this label too. Man, they're

they're so good. Yeah, their labels are really pretty. We didn't really talk about Monday's episode, but they're really graphic and a lot of you don't see a lot of graphic labels, you know, where where you see a picture instead of just exactly what's in the beer. Yeah, sometimes it's just a label with words the type of beer and maybe like a gear or a crank or something like this, whereas this it's just a picture of something. It's really graphic. It's really cool, very artistic for Yeah,

and I wanted to mention so bradon Karna. We should have mentioned this in the last week's episode when we're talking about real estate, but we have some things in common with them, and that they started managing real estate back in the day, and while they were doing that, they were living in a shed or like a garage in the back of one of their properties. So they're house hacking. They're yeah, they're totally saving a ton of money while they're sort of getting started down their own

real estate path. And so after doing well there, they decided to open up this brewer and so now they're also crushing it in the craft beer game. So brand Krenit, you guys are killing it. Thanks so much for sending us this beer as well as Monday's beer, as well as being a friend of the show. Yeah, we love friends of the show, especially once it brew beer that's the best. And next time I'm in Nashville, totally going to drop by Archetype Brewing. Alright, Matt, let's get onto

our final thoughts for this episode. There's just really a couple of things I think we need to hammer home, and one of the main things is that you need to start saving now and shopping early for the people that are on your list, because the closer you get to decembery, the more retailers are going to be charging and the more money ultimately you're going to be spending.

And when it comes to creating that holiday spending plan, basically what we're talking about is creating a budget right in the same way that you start with the previous month's budget. You know, month of month with your own personal budget. We're gonna do the same thing when it comes to our holiday spending budget. So look to last year spending. Start there, make tweaks, and then track that spending to make sure that you're staying the course and

don't forget to talk about it. Open the lines of communication with people that are closest to you, whether it's your significant other or your family and friends, just by letting them know that you're prioritizing saving or paying down debt and that you won't be spending as much on gifts this year. That helps set proper expectations and also can help connect you towards the people that you love in a deeper way, especially as you prioritize quality time

over fancier gifts. Nice man, you know, this is an episode that would have been great to have had one of our Christmas spears on. But this has been a fun episode. Man, I think that's gonna be it. You can find our show notes up for this one on our website at how some money dot com. Yeah, if you like this episode, if you like this podcast, we would appreciate it if you would subscribe and consider leaving

a review for us. On Apple Podcasts. And you know what, if you think Matt and I can do better, we would love to hear from you too. Please drop us a line. Just go to how to money dot com slash you do better and you can do that there alright, buddy, Until next time, best friends out, Best friends Out,