Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yr
the Order Kerni Whoalbury and a waddery woman. And before we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country, acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and the storytelling of you to make a difference for today and lasting impact for tomorrow.
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She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. Today my loves it is Friday, which means it is time to get our team together and celebrate you our incredible She's on the Money community. Today we're going to be sharing our favorite money in as well. That's actually just a great geys job.
Hello.
We're going to be helping answer a juicy money dilemma, which this week is all about how to record information on your tax return, and we're going to be unpacking something new slid into our DMS, about which this week is all about how to have a conversation about splitting group gifts with friends, which I think is gonna get a little bit spicy.
But we like spicy in this team, Yes, we do, certainly do.
My loves.
How have your weeks been, Jess, Let's start with you, because I always feel like we throwed a beck.
Oh I was not ready. I look, I looked. It's been good.
It's been a I would tell, like a normal good week, just like doing things. It's a short week this week, happy good Friday, be good if if you're listening.
I have the day of him. We're going to do an Easter egg stop. I'm so excited. There's so many little humans in our friend group and family at the moment, and I just feel like times like this I just made so much more special when there's like little people who are excited about fantasy, Like isn't it like Easter Bunny's coming?
And they're like, holy, Holy, is that not the most fun thing? Ever?
Yeah, how excited they get about it is the best. My personal favorite part of the long weekend is the day after the long weekend when all of.
These chocolate.
I will be buying every available part of kind eggs that exists. Hold up kindo egg I think I don't know they're officially Bueno, but they taste like Bueno mini eggs.
Okay, if I see any I will pick them up for you.
Because I'm a nice person, so kind, and I also know how to bribe.
I'll bring something.
She's not going to share. You know what she's going to do. I'm onto Jess. She is incredibly generous, but she's going to bring all of her Cadbury solid eggs that she doesn't want anymore and share those with the team. Ah and Gate keep the kinder Yeah maybe actually okay with that, he's still got some Ye, she's still incredibly generous, But like the ones she's sold us on, you got to leave her house.
I see, I see, I see saving the best for the best.
For the last, Like when you share a meal with somebody. I was talking to Steve about this the other day, and I save my favorite part of the meal to the very end. If there's like a good bit or something crispy or like I don't know, really like mashed potato, I will like leave that till last and eat or may not favorite things first. Steve just eats it first. Is that rogue?
To you?
That is rogue? My best friend does the exact same thing, she says, in case she gets full, she wants to eat the best thing first. No, no, no, you had to get it over and done with. But what about do you eat?
Like if you have a plate with four like you've got some corn, some peas, some mashed potatoes, and some tofu.
You don't eat meat?
Do you go section by section? Or do you have a little bit of peas, a little bit of corn, some taties and jump around?
If there's a boiled broccoli, this is so I'm going to go a boiled broccoli, boiled carrot, buy itself first so I can get it out of the way. And you don't use those as vehicles for the mass like a wetness, like to quench your thirst while you eat. Sometimes I do, but I prefer to just get it out of the way.
Where is this going quench your thirst while you beat the carrot?
You get it?
It's juicy, I know it's moist.
No, I like hop around the plate and I kind of it's like the other day I got sushi rolls, right and like I love like I think they're called the Californian roles, but I don't get the California, and I get like the tempura veggie and cucumber, and then I get like there's like a tiarchy tofu and anyway, so I get three of those rolls, I will psycho or what, I will bite all three, taste all three
of them, and decide which is the best one. I will then put the best one to the side, eat the other ones, and then go back to my favorite, so that I end on my favorite because I don't want to start one of those roles and then realize that that was the best role that I had.
Yeah, and they're saying they have the same stuff and they don't.
I don't want to eat that.
And then like get to the teriarchy tofu one and it's not as good as it usually is. So got to taste test all of them. And yesterday the tempio vegetable and cucumba was elite, so I just I saved that for last. Then go and if I'm getting a bit full to counteract your best friend's behavior, if I'm getting a bit full, all right, well I'm going to give up the middle food and go directly to the end and have all my favorite food and then we're done.
And now you know more about us than you ever needed to know. Anyway, there, how are you? How's your week going? My wek was so sick. The comedy vessel had started. Oh my god. Yeah, so I into two shows already. I want to fit in more though. I want every second of my day to be crammed, jam ACKed with love.
Comedy.
Such a Melbourne thing, isn't it? The comedy fast? Like I say, tore it, but like it's so iconic, it's.
So good, it's so good. So and obviously short week, Easter, whole week has just been great. It was your favorite person you saw. I really like Alex Ward, which I know is she's not very I don't know, maybe she's famous, do you guys know Alex Ward? No, but like you're gonna make her famous putting her on this podcast. Basically she's like a friend and a friend and also and I didn't know that at the time, so famous. Well you know kin' well technically basically I don't know you that is not famous.
There's a difference between famous and infamous notorious. I guess it's a good thing.
I see, I see. I'm gonna have to Yeah, I'm gonna have to try and figure out what those two meanings are. But she was really really good.
Have you ever seen any No, No, Because at the moment I think we've spoken about it, I'm not living close to the city at the moment while we finish our renovation, I'm like an hour and a half away. And this year when I was trying to work out what I could go to, I just I couldn't be bothered with the commute. And after the last month March for us was massive and we were, you know, traveling so much, I'm just like becoming really evasive of any
type of travel that is not necessary. Like, if you want to put me in a car, there's going to have to be a good reason for it.
This month fair enough. So yeah, I couldn't justify it.
Is that perhaps some money when you're saving on fuel. Let that go with that excellent segue from me.
Actually, sorry, Discourachi, before we continue, Our producer is deathsperate to talk about because actually, all morning.
We not give up enough about how weird we are. When we explained our process of elimination of vegetables, on our plat think we've opened.
The door and we need to This is the only opportunity you're going to get.
I mean it's Easter, so like this doesn't come up often.
No, So we just want to know because all morning we have been eating Easter eggs, unwrapping them carefully, hollow Easter eggs.
The big boys, yeah, like time, but I do it with the tiny ones.
To do it with the tiny ones, and then smoothing the hell out of it until it is within an inch of its life.
It's like you iron the foil with your fingertip.
Yes, or some people scrunch, which no, no, no, that's like I behavior.
We have agreed that in this team, we all are smoothers, except for our producer and also who apparently just rips up foil like a psychopath.
I wish I had known that before I became a friend.
I don't know if she's going to continue being our producer, but I'm not who doesn't meticulously unwrap a foil egg and then smooth out the like the foil and then if it doesn't get any rips, This particular one that looks like glass on the back of a water bottle lid yeah, yep, I did that one, and then I gifted it to Beck because it was like a book.
Like a magar. Give it a little shake. I'm going to give it a little shake in the mic for everyone listening at home. You can how smooth it?
That's starting ISMR. It's a money win that I gifted that to you. But Jessica, let's segue into the community money wins, because honestly, we're gonna lose a lot of people who listen to this podcast if we continue on the currentry trategery.
All right, well, let me start with a goodie this week from Catherine, who said, I went back into working in childcare after taking many years off. I found out that my children get a sixty percent discount because I work in the industry. So helpful considering I've got two kids in daycare at the moment.
That's probably a really good money win.
Very good money when I feel like we might have a few childcare workers out there. If you didn't know that, now you know.
I actually love that. You guys deserve it as well, because you're already underpaid from my perspective, So getting a little bit of a money wins sixty percent that command.
That's good, not bad.
My next win comes from Vanessa, who said I sold some shares that had increased by just over five hundred dollars. They didn't align with my values, and I'll be putting the money into an ETF instead.
Oh see, that is a solid strategy. So I think when we start our investing journeys sometimes we pick things that in a couple of years when you know more about investing. Here, oh, I wouldn't have had that, But that doesn't mean you need to dispose of them immediately, like waiting for a circumstance where they're up, they're putting you in a good position. You can then dispose of them and put them into something else like that's just smart investing behavior, guys.
And as I said, you'll have some capital gains. But her brother is an accountant and he'll sort it out for her. A tax time, double warnings, sick, double weird. My next one comes from Tanya, who said I had to credit the dentist for what I thought was going to be major work. Turns out just a normal scale and polish and it was twelve dollars after my health insurance raved dollars. Who's ever gone to the dentist and walked out being what is this nineteen sixty two?
The dream just so good?
Yeah? How cool is that?
Yeah? The economy's five. We're all wrong, we were all wrong. That's actually incredible.
My next money comes from Danielle, who said, I managed to consolidate my debt and now instead of having an all a most twenty percent interest rate, it's going to be sitting at around the eight percent mark. Huge.
Oh how good is that? And I know that obviously being in personal debts not something we all want, but at the moment, I feel like a lot of us are going to be leaning on this and we just need to have open, honest, transparent conversations about what it takes to get by. And if that's the case, just find the best solution for you. Don't just go with
the first one that comes across. And if you've got a number of personal debts, have a chat to a finance broker who could maybe sit you down and go, okay, cool, you've got you know, three debts across a credit card and maybe two personal loans. How about we whack them all together and get a lower interest rate for you.
Eight percent versus twenty percent. I Fegel got down here, so your money will be something there. Yeah, and then very on them. For my last money win today from at Tina, she said, free local Easter egg hunts are going around at this time of year. Our local real estate agent put an Easter egg hunt on for kids under twelve, free ice cream and coffee prize and color and competitions, and then our daycare center will also be putting on an Easter egg hunt.
Oh love. This made me think a lot.
My local council does one every year, so I feel like, if you've got the kiddies and you're a bit strapped for cash, it could be a fun way to do something special.
Cue.
That was one of my radio tips. So for those of you who still listen to the radio, I have a radio segment on Kiss FM and Gold one oh four I believe and also Mix which is wild and every day I give like money tips and tricks. Yeah, that was just one of my tips and tricks for this week. Was like check your council websites and check your Facebook groups and stuff and see what's going on. Because as the cost of living continues to increase, like free activities way more sexy than they used to be.
Three used to be good.
Now free is epic.
We love free, especially when it's free chocolate.
Yeah, oh yeah, one hundred percent. I'm very excited for Easter, like given given there are so many kids around, so many chocolates around. But I'm making people do Easter activities like we are doing an egg and spoon race. We are doing we are channeling school fate, but in Victoria's backyard this week weekend. Yeah, don't wait to update you guys. All right, let's go to a really quick break on the flip side. We're going to come back with a
money dilemma. We want to talk about how to record information on your tax return, but then we're also going to be talking about how to split group gifts for friends, because I think that that can get a little bit topical, a little bit spicy, not so diplomatic. So don't go anywhere, guys. We will see you on.
The flip side. All right, you know what time it is? Money dollar time?
Yeah?
Hi, there, have you got a money dilemma you just can't solve. The Sheese on the Money Team is here to help. Every week we tackle your dilemmas, both big and small to answer your most burning money, career and life questions. To get involved, simply head to our website and leave us a short voice recording and you might just find yourself on the show. Now, let's take a listen to this week's money dilemma.
Hi lady, I love your work, love your podcast, and wondering if you can help me with some information about software or an app or an interface of some kind to help me with my tax time each year, just collecting my expenses and my income in an easier way than I do it right now, which is by hand. So thanks so much, I can't wait to hear what you've got to say. And lots of hugs from Mandy. Thanks by lots.
Of bugs right, a billion hugs right back. I am oh so wholesome.
But also such a good question, very good question.
So many of us are probably still doing it manually, and I'm even a little bit guilty of this while I'm still the girl with the shoebox, Like I still have a shoebox full of receipts and stuff. It's like beside my desk, it's a designer shoebox. Does that help?
Does that okay? Or maybe worse.
I'm not claiming the shoes though, so that's maybe better. Moving on. It's a really good question. And there are a million different apps and stuff if you tie up tax into the app store, and it's not helpful, right, But the best app that I have come across is the most boring recommendation. Are you ready for this? The Australian Taxation Office have an app?
Really I do if I have it on my phone.
No, it's called the ATO app. They're probably real proud of this one. I love them. I think they're doing a really good job. But the ATO app is essentially a really simple and easy way for you to access and manage your tax and super on the go, which is.
Sounds like a it does sound like I'm trying to sell it to you, which I am, and you have and I have call.
But it's free. We love that. If you're an individual, or you're a soul trader, or you even have a business, you can access your personal tax and SUPER information on that app. But there are also a whole heap of really helpful features like tracking receipts really and keeping track of things, and you know what it does, files it away so when you do.
Ride that I believe, correct me if I'm wrong. But they also have if you're someone who claims travel in your car because you use the log book method more often than not, I'm pretty sure there's a feature in that same app where you can track your travel. So it's all plugged directly in as well.
All right, we'll just take the words right out of my mouth, miss Treat. They also have another app. They don't just have one app, They've got two apps.
Look at them.
Go is called my Deductions brilliant, and it is a record keeping tool so you can actually keep record of all your work related expenses like vehicle trips, Jessica huge that you make in general expenses so maybe like the cost of managing your tax affairs, or like gifts or donations that you make, and then you can upload these records a tax time to make lodging your tax return a whole heap easier. I promise it is actually really easy.
The ATO have made that so that absolutely everybody can just access it and use it like it's a really simple interface, which, to be honest, and I think is really important. But that's what I would recommend. The at app, and then the my deductions app are both of them are government runs, so you know that it's not like trying to clip the ticket in the background or like sell you something else, and you know that you're not
going to have to ever pay for them. It's just a simple way to keep I guess your record straight if you don't want a app tholk. So there are going to be some people are out there that are like, you don't have a smart Troyer. Yeah, and if you're as lazy as me, so like I have a smartphone. Jess just can probably attest to this.
Back.
Do I use it efficiently?
Probably?
Not?
How many how many times do I answer the phone when you call? It's like, it's not that's not even what it's for.
I am convinced that I have a phone so that I can use TikTok Yep, that's it.
Don't try calling me machine.
Why are you, Jessica trying to interrupt me talking anyway? I am pretty basic, but I'm also the bit complicated because I have business expenses and personal expenses and all
of that. And when you have as many different entities as I do, I just I put it all in one place, and I actually have a folder on my phone called tax time two two three, and I take photos of all my receipts and pop them in there so that come tax time, I just go to the one album, like taking a photo of it, good, but actually filing it into an album so you don't have to like scroll back through the six hundred million photos
you've taken of your cat. Really extra helpful. Yeah, yeah, so that's what I do, the ATO app that my deductions are app and then if you don't want to do that, just taking photos of everything and keeping it in one clean and clear space so when you're doing your tax return it can just be a much cleaner and simpler process because it turns out having a designer shoe box beside your desk is not that sexy. And to be honest, my accountant last year threatened violence.
So yeah, well, you know what, talking about receipts and doing things the manual difficult way. This week, someone set into our DMS to ask about splitting expenses.
Did they not?
They did? And I feel like this can be a really do we want to call it? Like spicy topic?
Dam popped off? The dams popped off.
Our social media manager says, the dams popped off, it means it's slegit.
Guy is serified.
So this week we got a question and we posted it on our stories, and the question was, Hey, girls, I'm facing an annoying gamma at the moment with my friends and I. I have a big group of around fifteen girls, unrelatable content, and it is getting really hard buying everyone at a birthday present. I feel like I can never quite afford it, and it just feels like an expense that's unnecessary. Is there a way I can go about this with my friends or an alternative I
can offer. Someone offered the idea of everyone puts in what they can afford, but one of my friends didn't like how people who put in ten dollars get the same credit as people who might put in one hundred dollars, which I think is silly.
But anyway, I need.
Help, Okay, First week gift giving is not about getting credit. I understand that, especially as you get older made be you know your income increases and you want to give a better present. But I feel like the best gifts, and some of my favorite gifts that I've gotten have been gifts that perhaps weren't expensive, but they were very thoughtful. It's the act of giving. If you're giving just for the sake of credit, I feel like you're not really giving for the right reason.
Yes, I mean I gave beck that piece of tin foil before because I was really proud of it and I knew she'd appreciate it.
How do you save our life? Yes, this is this is a free We would say maybe money. We made like forty cents for the egg, but.
I didn't even Analsa bought them for me. She says it was the Easter bunny, but I know she did it.
I'm pretty sure I saw a bunny though.
Oh okay, well, you know what, I just don't believe Analisa, because it's not time. Well it's not time for Easter Bunny to come, is it? So what's he doing in my office?
That's a fair question. That's a fair question.
And then I don't like being lied to.
No, Well that's okay. Look, this is such a relatable topic. I think I definitely have this exact same anxiety like year round for anything, Birthdays, Christmas, Easter, wedding, wedding weddings are hard, Hen's parties, babies like so many gifts you gotta buy all the time. Again, unreal. There are some friends that I have and it's we've genuinely come to a mutual decision to not buy each other gifts, and
that's something we're both gonna stick to. You know, when you come it comes to your birthday and they're like, oh, I know that we said we're not going to buy gifts, but I just bought you this sort of thing. None of that, None of that. So I guess like in this instance, maybe having that conversation with the group of friends, it seems like they're buying for each other anyway. Having a conversation with my.
Teen girlfriends that you buy for to me is wild.
I don't know what that feels like real friends. Yeah, one of them's jests.
Believable.
Let's all agree not to buy each other gifts. Done, and that's what you No, I'm not. I'm done, but I'm going to be that friendly.
But I wouldn't but I wouldn't expect anything like you know, if you're one of those, because that's probably a good flip side is if you're or we've had this conversation, if your love language is gift giving, it might be something that really fulfills you, but you don't necessarily need to get one back, So there's going to be people on the other side of that as well. I think that's such a relevant point.
And we've talked about gift giving and just love languages in general on the podcast before, right, And it's interesting because I feel like I know Jess really well now. One of her love languages is gift giving, but also I know one of her love languages is gift receiving. Yeah, she loves you, she loves it, right, And that's okay, Like it's just good to know.
But if you look at me, gift giving is one of my love languages.
I don't like getting gifts speed.
I'm the same as that.
I feel really awkward when people gift me something. I know it's my birthday, and like, I love birthdays. I love celebrations. I love the love that surrounds that. I love the attention of people saying happy birthday. I feel really uncomfortable when you gift me something and I don't have something to reciprocate with. I just go oh, like and I'm so grateful, right, Like I love it, and I feel like I'm surrounded by people who always give really thoughtful gifts, so it always really appreciate it.
But also I just feel uncomfortable with that.
Yeah, like it's okay, but it's my love language to give gifts. Yeah, and I adore doing it. I've probably done it to both of you at some point where I've been like, oh, you said you wanted this, or you said that you liked this, or I thought you might have needed Like I am that person that he is giving gifts even when it's not your birthday, even
when it's not Christmas. Like, I just love that if I speak that I can help or do something like I just it gives me this deep sense of joy, right, I love it.
You did buy me Oliplex. I did because bleached to a Believi.
Yeah, and you said, oh my gosh, I would love oliplex, but it's so expensive. And then I had some Oliplex at home, so I gifted it to you, and I knew that you'd appreciate it because you'd said that you wanted it.
It was really really beautiful.
But not everybody is like that, and that's okay. But I think this is why money is so complicated, because right now, the question at hand is about fifteen different people or coming to a general consensus, and even sitting at this table with just three, we can't come to a general consensus on what we should and shouldn't do. I think we're all relatively open minded, yeah, I think we're all, but also just logical. Yeah, Like it does not make sense financially, just in this economy to be
buying everybody gifts. So I think at this particular table, I think we'd all be like, well, that's done, let's just not buy each other gifts. And I think we would respect that, yeah, or.
Just be like, hey, let's set a limit five dollars each maximum. Yep, just have a nice conversation with everyone, because if you work out the math behind it all, that's fifteen different birthdays. That's fifteen times more than once a month on average. And then you've also like, it's not like they're your only friends. You've probably got family, maybe, maybe you've got a partner. There's more people, you're fifteen friends.
I just can't can't comprehend.
That as the person who loves to receive gifts. As you said, no shame about it, there's nothing wrong with that. But if someone said to me, hey, like financially it's really hard.
Can you wouldn't want the gift, I'd be like, that's.
Fine, Like I would have much rather you be in a comfortable, happy position.
That's what I mean.
You're logical, right, yeah, Like it's not like Jess is like, well, myne needs need to be met.
She loves it. But I think that there's also a line of like, Jess, would you love it if you knew it financially crippled me?
Or if I knew it was stressing you out, I'd feel so terrible exactly.
So I think that gift giving is important if it's important to you, but we also need to, I guess, balance those opinions at the same time as balanced budgets. And as you were saying, fifteen people, that's not even everybody. So if we then included, let's pretend you've got a wholesome nuclear family and you're buying for mum and dad and siblings and aunts and uncles and grandparents, Like you're buying at least two presents a month at this rate?
What who has the budget for that?
Like it's unreasonable? And then you know, I don't know how everybody else works, but in my head, is this the thing. I don't know if it's a thing. There's a gift giving hierarchy, so.
I have that too. Some people get better presents than others. Yes, yes, there's a gift giving hierarchy.
So like at the top of the pyramid, my parents, they get the best presence, they get the most money allocated to them. Then there's my sister. I like to remind her that I don't spend as much on her as I do with my parents. But she's my sister, so she's going to get more than my best friend. But they're my best friend. She probably gets more than Jess, who's not my best friend, but he's a really close friend.
And then under that is everybody else, and it kind of falls down in terms of how close you are to me. But then the hierarchy gets mixed up again. Beck like, yeah, depends what the occasion is, because that's for birthdays. True, what if you're getting married, then you might fly to the top of the hierarchy, because I think from my perspective, I spend more on wedding gifts than I would on birthdays.
Or if you just had a baby and we'll buy my baby stuff.
One under also that's a really good point. Is this gift self serving to me? I love buying baby stuff. The probability of me buying you more baby stuff just purely because I enjoy buying that stuff very high. You bought a horse, probably not that interested in buyings, do
you know what I mean? Yeah, So there's like this hierarchy and I'm not saying that that's everyone's experience, but like that just means we can't average out the gifts and be like, Okay, Beck, you should budget twenty dollars a month for gifts, because that's not reflective of our experience. I also know some people don't give gifts at all, full stop, end of story, because they think that's that's
silly and that's cool yeap, totally, because we're all different. Also, not everybody who wants to give gifts can afford to give gift.
True, exactly, Like.
I'm in a very privileged position where I can afford this, right, like, and I have an income that can support that. You might have my personality and not have the in come, and then that might break your heart because like that's what you want to do, Like you might want to get your friend a gift, but it's just not not
just someone in the budget, and it's not doable. So I think we need to address all of that, because in that group of fifteen girls that we're talking about, I'm sure that there are very varying incomes.
And that hierarchy concept is probably applicable to in a group so large, you would imagine that you probably would be like you would have a couple of girls who are really close. They're the first people that you go to, and there would be other girls that you're really great friends with, but maybe you're not so connected they're connected with other people.
Because when there's.
Fifteen of you, you're probably not going to have the same relationship with every person. So then are you spending more on the ones you're closer with, and then like the social complications come into play. Yeah, it's a real tough situation.
And as it's not cut and narrow, right, No, I might be closer to Jess, so come Jess's birthday, I'm like, oh, I'll stick fifty bucks in that because I love Jess. And then you know, Beck, you might come up to Jess's birthday and you're like, well, I've only just joined the show. I don't really know Jess as well as Victoria does. I'm going to pull that twenty bucks in or whatever. That's so fine, But then the question around who gets credit, Like I just.
What I was just going to say, coming back to that credit thing, No shaming people for their contributions and their gifts, please, that's so route.
Yeah, because to I guess, put a bit more context into it. Using that exact example, twenty dollars to Beck might be a whole heit more than what fifty dollars means to me, the.
Cent of your income entirely for every single.
Gerson, Like what if Beck used the last twenty dollars she had in her bank account this month to put towards your present?
Exactly crazy?
But like, do you know what I mean? Like that context of credit, why is it financial? Why isn't it the actual situation? Because in that circumstance, if we're just using that as a base example, Beck actually put in more than me.
Beck actually valued you.
More than I did in that circumstance, And I think it's wild. I think, you know, to I guess wrap this because I want to read out some of the community contributions from my perspective, I don't think group gift giving is a good idea at a base level. I think that if it's birthdays, a birthday comes around every single year. To me, birthdays are really special that celebrate the person. If you want to get them a gift individually, you do, you boo. But I don't think that there
should be this like group circus around it. But I do think that group gifts can and I love it because I'm in that stage in my life where my friends are getting married right. I love giving someone a more valuable gift. So, like, our friend group goes in and instead of you know, getting you a cutlery setback, we actually get you a really nice weekend away for you and your new husband or wife or partner. Yeah, like, and our friends put in for that, and that's what
we would. We just want you to have an experience, or we want you to have something that's more high value. When one of our friends had their first baby, we all put in and we bought a and it was like, prams are really expensive. I could not have bought that for them. I probably could have afforded, you know, a few smaller baby things. But when we all went in together, they got their dream pram that they had already said, it's probably not in the budget, and so I think
they're for things like that absolutely. But from my perspective, group birthday giving unless it's like a thirtieth or like a really big celebration where we are actually going to a party and contributing, I just think annual birthday presents for friends, especially not best friends tough you know what.
Not in this economy, no economy economy.
I feel like the people had some really good suggestions on alternative like methods or ideas that we could use. Did you have any that stood out?
TOVD You are correct, yess. We have literally hundreds of responses, so I'm going to read but a few. So one person said, I tend not to buy because most of the time it costs you money to attend the dinner. If there is one great point, yep, yeah. Someone said presence for big birthdays, I e. Thirtieth page baby, otherwise rerecky slash lunch slash dinner, but no gift. Someone said, if everyone's contributing, you should be setting a limit on how much everyone can give, so you can give up
to it a certain amount. That's a smart way. I haven't thought of that. Someone said, I buy my friends gifts from myself and I don't ask for help. They know exactly what I can afford and what I can't, and I'm okay with that.
Someone said presence over presents. I love that.
Presence with a CE over presents case.
Sorry I tried.
I tried. It really threw me, actually see in your face, like, I'm sure, people, I'm going to fix this.
I'm going to fix this.
Thank you.
Someone said a group of fifteen girls would be really expensive. I only buy for a few of my close friends. Someone else said, my friends and I don't do presents at all. We just get together for some quality birthday time.
Lovely.
I really like there's been a few suggestions, and I'm not going to read all of them out, but a lot of people have said do DIY gifts. Other people have said they avoid group gifts, and that was a fair few of you, and I feel like that makes.
Sense because that's when it gets complicated one hundred percent.
But also the thing we haven't considered in this circumstance is peer pressure, and like Beck, what if you and I really wanted to get Jesse present, but then we have this other friend that's like, I wasn't going to get Jesse present.
It can be awkward to say no, yeah, it can be awkward to say me.
And then are they contributing to something else? And also what if right, so, Jess is usually the ringleader in this circumstance. She's a big, big gift giver and I love it. But what if the rest of our team, and thankfully they are, what if the rest of our team weren't the same. What if Jess is like, oh, I love giving gifts, Let's organize Beck a gift, but when it comes around to Jess's birthday, no one organizes
it for her. It'd be sad, yes, single tear, But like, is there an expectation that this happens for every single one of these fifteen girls that's putting into this or are there going to be you know, fourteen times where people are putting in and then that one time someone else misses out? Like is this consistent?
Is if someone's financial position changes, Like if you in January you're like, yeah, absolutely, I can put in fifty bucks, and then by the end of the year you're like no money left, like I care nothing like and then are you character shit because you're not putting in the same amounts. One's not getting as good as a gifts. It's so hard, it's really tough.
And then how do you say no, I don't want to contribute to the group present without feeling awkwarsh. And I've said this before, you should No is a full sentence, Like no, it's absolutely a full sentence, and you can use that. You don't have to justify anything. But my personality is to you know, be like, oh, hey, beg Unfortunately I can't because of this, this and this, because
it makes me more comfortable. I'm not saying you need to do that because you could just say no, thank you, full stop, end of story.
But it's fine.
How do you make that not awkward? If I don't want to contribute to the group present and they're mad because you like did the maths in your head and you did like fifteen times twenty is this amount and we now have this total amount to play with, And then by me pulling out, is it making it more expensive?
And then it gets me I don't know, Yeah, it gets a bit awkward to when you're like a group of friends and one person doesn't want to pay and then you like, should we be petty and not put them on the card? Oh? Yes, but like because they didn't technically contribute it. But that's like the credit that they're talking about. The credit that they're talking about exactly. I feel like the key takeaway here.
I always put my dog on the card. She doesn't contribute anything.
Everyone just relax with the presence. Let's give everyone credit. If you're in the friendship group, is probably because you're a good Person's because you've contributed somehow at some point. So just put them on the card, no matter what they're contributing.
Yeah, and sit down, all fifteen of you have a little power talk it through and don't feel bad, like you're all friends here. Talk about what works for you. And if that means that maybe the group gifts stop, that's okay. So this episode, maybe.
It'll help the rising cost of living. I just think we should eat presents out in this economy. Economy, but let's just call it like cost of living core, like on TikTok there's like, you know, cottage Court, it's cost of living core budgeting Now, really cool part of my esthetic eating just beans on toast. It's not a bad dinner, Jess, it's cost of living core.
Oh my gosh, I think I can.
Make this happen.
Oh.
On that note, I'm going to go make this work over.
The weekend and work out what is going to be made up of my cost of living? Call like, what's that esthetic actually look like?
Tags in your story in your.
Cost of living cost Have the best weekend. We love you and we will see you for a money dary on Monday.
Bye guys, Bye.
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