Speaker 1: Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yr
Speaker 1: the Order Kerni Whoalbury and a waddery woman. And before
Speaker 1: we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I
Speaker 1: would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land
Speaker 1: of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country,
Speaker 1: acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming
Speaker 1: through as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing
Speaker 1: and the storytelling of you to make a difference for
Speaker 1: today and lasting impact for tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Let's get into it. She's on the Money.
Speaker 3: She's on the Money.
Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
Speaker 2: for people who don't want to go broke over the
Speaker 2: Christmas period him and as always I'm joined by Victoria
Speaker 2: Divine hi Ve.
Speaker 4: Hello, we get to talk about Christmas. I love Christmas.
Speaker 4: I'm so excited about this episode.
Speaker 1: Me too.
Speaker 2: Favorite thing about Christmas. I think it's just like the vibe,
Speaker 2: like the atmosphere, the lights, the carols, the smells of spices,
Speaker 2: that kind of thing.
Speaker 4: I am obsessed with Christmas, not as much as miss Jessicci.
Speaker 4: If you guys are following her on Instagram. You know,
Speaker 4: she's borderline psychotic on Christmas. Like we're talking start of
Speaker 4: November and she's like, well, that's when the Christmas tree
Speaker 4: comes out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's okay.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 4: I did have a let's call it a heated argument
Speaker 4: with my husband the other day because I saw Jess
Speaker 4: putting up her tree and I was like, that looks
Speaker 4: like fun. And all of my social media content has
Speaker 4: now started to become very christmasy because Halloween's over, right,
Speaker 4: of course.
Speaker 2: And I said to my husband, we.
Speaker 4: Should put our tree up because we've got a new
Speaker 4: one that we got last year that we couldn't put up,
Speaker 4: so it's sat in the box for like more than
Speaker 4: twelve months. I said, we can put it up, and
Speaker 4: he's like, no, absolutely, we can't. I was like, excuse me,
Speaker 4: are you the Grinch? Ye ruined Christmas? And it's not
Speaker 4: even December, and he's like, that's the point, it's not
Speaker 4: even December.
Speaker 2: It's like, I will help you.
Speaker 4: I will decorate the whole house on the first of December.
Speaker 4: And I was like, but honey, it's the first of November,
Speaker 4: Like we could just do it now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And it doesn't give you much time to have
Speaker 2: any Christmas joy. Twenty five days and it's sober exactly,
Speaker 2: I need two months of joy. I don't like it.
Speaker 2: I don't like stend that joy. You really can flag.
Speaker 4: Anyway, let's get into the episode. Not a counseling session
Speaker 4: or my marriage. I want to talk about Christmas, but
Speaker 4: also I want to talk about the concept of not
Speaker 4: going into debt around Christmas, because as much as we
Speaker 4: are full of festive cheer, I think that it can
Speaker 4: also ring a lot of bells in a lot of
Speaker 4: people's heads of going Ah, that sounds stressful, that sounds expensive,
Speaker 4: That does not sound like anything I want to do.
Speaker 2: How did it come up so quickly again in this year? Yes,
Speaker 2: it can be very anxiety inducing one it's just meant
Speaker 2: to be joyful. But later on in the show, we
Speaker 2: are going to talk about some cheap, inexpensive, and sometimes
Speaker 2: free gift ideas that I'm the gift for. Yeah, you
Speaker 2: gift your partner, yourself. You're like totally. Your present is
Speaker 2: my presence. I'm going to be present with you today
Speaker 2: and this is my gift. You are welcome, and that
Speaker 2: is free. You've got to be grateful because it's a gift. First,
Speaker 2: I wanted to know how expensive this time of year
Speaker 2: truly is? Truly speno? Are you ready? I'm kind of nervous.
Speaker 2: I've collected the stats. Thankfully, these stats won't apply to
Speaker 2: you personally, but as a collective. So it's obviously no.
Speaker 4: Surprise that this time of year is arguably the most
Speaker 4: expensive time of year for everybody. The Australian Retailers Association
Speaker 4: and Roy Morgan, who do a whole heap of research,
Speaker 4: predict that get this, sixty six point eight billion no
Speaker 4: dollars will be spent in the lead up to Christmas
Speaker 4: from November to the twenty fourth of December.
Speaker 2: Whoa billion? Is that just in Australia? Oh yep, that's
Speaker 2: the Australian No.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we're just really spent happy during this period of time.
Speaker 2: Okay, so is that just Christmas? Gibts?
Speaker 1: What is that?
Speaker 2: Lots?
Speaker 4: It's like the whole festive period, right, So, like it's
Speaker 4: everything in that holiday break. So like let's say, sure,
Speaker 4: it's presence, it's food for Christmas Day, it's all the
Speaker 4: other Christmas celebrations, and it's also travel. I'm very lucky
Speaker 4: that my family are like, oh, don't travel, that's fine.
Speaker 4: But some of my friends are like, all right, so
Speaker 4: we've got, you know, breakfast in Geelong, We've got lunch
Speaker 4: on the morning to Peninsula and then we have to
Speaker 4: drive to the Yarra Valley for dinner.
Speaker 2: And I'm just like, that does not sound like a
Speaker 2: relaxing Christmas.
Speaker 4: But I'm sure you're super happy to see all of
Speaker 4: the people that you love.
Speaker 2: But like, oh my gosh, think of the petrol costs? Bad? Yeah,
Speaker 2: seriously are they adding that to the sixty six billion?
Speaker 4: Wild, isn't it. So let's break it down even further.
Speaker 4: The average Australian is going to spend fourteen hundred and
Speaker 4: seventy nine dollars this Christmas period, So imagine your usual
Speaker 4: monthly expenses and now add basically fifteen hundred bucks on
Speaker 4: top of that. It's absolutely no wonder that people go
Speaker 4: into crippling debt.
Speaker 2: During this period of time. Yeah, that's very stressful. There
Speaker 2: is a lot of money to be spending for one day, really,
Speaker 2: but one day.
Speaker 4: Like I totally get, it's like a month of festive cheer.
Speaker 4: But it's all of those little things that creep up
Speaker 4: because you know, if you and I sit down, Beck,
Speaker 4: I'd be like, how much you're spending?
Speaker 2: Beck, You'd be like, oh, they not that much.
Speaker 4: I don't reckon, I reckon. You'd list off a few
Speaker 4: gifts that you want to buy, like off the top
Speaker 4: of your head. But what you're not factoring in is
Speaker 4: the additional drinks for Christmas, the additional festive activities that
Speaker 4: you're going to do, you know, the travel to get
Speaker 4: to and from places, those things where you're like, I
Speaker 4: don't know if you've done this before, but I definitely
Speaker 4: have done this before. You get invited to someone's house
Speaker 4: for like, oh, come over for some crissy drinks and
Speaker 4: you're like, oh, I'd love to do that, and then
Speaker 4: you like freak out on the way there.
Speaker 2: You're like, oh my god, I'm turning up empty handed.
Speaker 4: So you like, pop us the bottle shop, pick up
Speaker 4: all the why and maybe a box of favorites.
Speaker 2: And why are favorites so expensive nowadays? Well that's the
Speaker 2: question that plagues me daily. It does mean too, because
Speaker 2: they took all the good chocolates out. Now they charge more. No,
Speaker 2: we see what we're doing. I see what you're doing.
Speaker 2: I see you. I don't respect it. Don't like it,
Speaker 2: but VI, what is it an average Australian, Like, am
Speaker 2: I going to be spending this much? Or is it
Speaker 2: like you know, someone with kids? Or what does the
Speaker 2: average Australian look like.
Speaker 4: That's actually a really good question to contextualize it. So
Speaker 4: when we talk about an average, obviously I'll break it
Speaker 4: down further, but essentially an average is when you take
Speaker 4: every single person spending in the country over the Christmas
Speaker 4: period and then you divide it by the number of people.
Speaker 2: In that cohort.
Speaker 4: So in that cohort, you could have people who literally
Speaker 4: spend nothing because they might not celebrate Christmas due to
Speaker 4: religion or personal beliefs.
Speaker 2: Sure, all the way up to.
Speaker 4: Millionaire families who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on Christmas. Right,
Speaker 4: So we need to contextualize the fact that that doesn't
Speaker 4: mean that you personally might.
Speaker 2: Spend fifteen hundred bucks.
Speaker 4: But I feel like that's actually a really normal number
Speaker 4: at Christmas time because once everything adds up, like I
Speaker 4: already know that in my head, I've worked it out.
Speaker 4: My parents leave about an hour and ten, an hour
Speaker 4: and fifteen away from me, the petrol back and forth,
Speaker 4: because I know that I can't be there every day,
Speaker 4: and you know I've got some.
Speaker 2: Work during that period of time.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna spend so much more on petrol, Like I reckon,
Speaker 4: we're going to budget an extra four hundred dollars over
Speaker 4: the month of December, just like traveling to and from
Speaker 4: different places, and like my family's based in a radius
Speaker 4: of like an hour drive.
Speaker 2: Sure that's a lot of money. Yes, that's just petrol.
Speaker 2: Especially now for some reason, the petrol pristers aren't going down.
Speaker 2: But that's the conversation for another time exactly.
Speaker 4: So it might not cost you that. But if we
Speaker 4: look deeper into those statistics, right, and we get different
Speaker 4: cohorts of people and go, all right, well, bear, how
Speaker 4: much does a millennial spend?
Speaker 2: That's me.
Speaker 4: I'm pretty sure you're a gen z hokung summer all
Speaker 4: the young ones.
Speaker 2: Are gen z these days. I'm millennial too. No you're not,
Speaker 2: aren't you? Like twelve? I wish I was right. Well,
Speaker 2: us millennials, it's more expensive. You're going to issh your
Speaker 2: agen z Okay, we are predicted to spend the most
Speaker 2: this Christmas. We are spending on average nineteen hundred and
Speaker 2: twenty four dollars. Whoa, that's two grand. That's the truck
Speaker 2: to Bali babe, what the heck? Yeah, you do so
Speaker 2: much with that.
Speaker 4: Gen Z's they're a lot more frugal. They're going to
Speaker 4: spend about one and twenty three dollars this season.
Speaker 2: I guess it makes sense because you know, you don't
Speaker 2: have as many responsibilities. Maybe you're smarter with your money.
Speaker 2: Maybe you're smarter with your money. Maybe you're just a
Speaker 2: lot smarter than we are. That's probably what it is.
Speaker 2: But as a millennial, it doesn't really look great for
Speaker 2: either of us. But I wonder is this more because
Speaker 2: of the cost of living crisis or is it because
Speaker 2: of other reasons, like how much we're spending? Yeah, Like
Speaker 2: are we spending more because of that? Yeah?
Speaker 4: Honestly, the overall spend is marginally higher than it was
Speaker 4: last year, but there are a few interesting changes to
Speaker 4: the stats, right, Yeah, so it's predicted that the spending hospitality,
Speaker 4: household goods, and clothing is actually going to drop in
Speaker 4: comparison to last year.
Speaker 2: It kind of makes sense because if you've had.
Speaker 4: A bit of a hard year, Beck, you're going to go, well,
Speaker 4: let's not go out to that fancy restaurant. How about
Speaker 4: you just come over and I'll make a pasta or
Speaker 4: you know, you're going to spend less on the gifts
Speaker 4: that you're giving, which is usually household goods, let's be honest,
Speaker 4: and clothing and shoes and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: But there is.
Speaker 4: Going to be a huge rise in a spend of
Speaker 4: food and at department stores. So you could interpret that
Speaker 4: honestly however you like. But it seems like we're skimping
Speaker 4: out on things for ourselves in order to put food
Speaker 4: on the Christmas table this year and buy gifts for others,
Speaker 4: which I think it's.
Speaker 2: Kind of wholesome.
Speaker 4: It's kind of sad that it's related to the cost
Speaker 4: of living, but like, let's just reframe it.
Speaker 2: We're just more generous and kind this year. Sure, that's
Speaker 2: a very wholesome way to look at it. But those
Speaker 2: are interesting SATs and especially about the food.
Speaker 4: I mean, we're going to cut back on going out
Speaker 4: for drinks, We're going to cut back on going out
Speaker 4: for dinner, but at the end of the day, you
Speaker 4: might invite a few more people round to Chrissy dinner
Speaker 4: and you know, host at home. So the supermarkets are
Speaker 4: going to rake it in. I mean, we've got a
Speaker 4: lot to say on the price gouging that they're doing
Speaker 4: at the moment with their billion dollar profits.
Speaker 2: But that's a conversation for another day. Don't get us stuck.
Speaker 2: But I know that our weekly shops are costing more now.
Speaker 2: It's nice to think that maybe more people will opt
Speaker 2: to have some of their Christmas celebrations at home rather
Speaker 2: than at a restaurant or a pub. But I guess
Speaker 2: that's why the food cost is up this year. It
Speaker 2: also kind of sounds like a lot of spending is
Speaker 2: due to like decking the halls and like getting your
Speaker 2: house nice and pretty for Christmas. I mean, you know
Speaker 2: when you were little and your mum would be like, Beck,
Speaker 2: we have food at home? Yeah? Beck, you have Christmas
Speaker 2: decorations from last year, use them. I don't want to
Speaker 2: use Have you seen the Kmart range? Like, are you joking?
Speaker 2: They've done rainbow? Oh?
Speaker 4: I'm going to do an entirely rainbow Christmas tree on
Speaker 4: a budget because obviously it's KMA and the boxes are
Speaker 4: like twelve dollars. Honestly, it's just a no brainer, Just
Speaker 4: no twelve bucks on a whole heap of colored bullballs
Speaker 4: old only use one time during the exactly and then
Speaker 4: next year I need a different theme. But what you're
Speaker 4: saying is absolutely true.
Speaker 2: There is I guess, a lot less to spend on
Speaker 2: decking the halls.
Speaker 4: In fact, the most alarming part of all of this
Speaker 4: is that twenty four percent of people, and that is
Speaker 4: almost one in four people, will be relying on credit
Speaker 4: cards to cover costs this Christmas season. So that's four
Speaker 4: point eight million people here in Australia who will be
Speaker 4: pushed into debt over this festive season. And as much
Speaker 4: as colorful Christmas balls from kmart are very exciting to
Speaker 4: talk about, I feel like we need to get into
Speaker 4: the nitty gritty of debt and talking about how bad
Speaker 4: that can be because twelve dollars here and there it
Speaker 4: adds up.
Speaker 2: And as I've said.
Speaker 4: Before a million times on this podcast, no one goes
Speaker 4: and gets a credit card beck with the intention of
Speaker 4: going into crippling debt. No one wants to feel stressed
Speaker 4: over the Christmas period. Lots of people will be like, oh,
Speaker 4: just chuck it on credit it'll be fine, and then
Speaker 4: they can't sleep during that period of time. Like to me,
Speaker 4: it is not fair and I think that we really
Speaker 4: should be contextualizing what this means and having up more open,
Speaker 4: honest conversations with our friends and family about what this means.
Speaker 4: And obviously there are a heap of ways to cut
Speaker 4: down costs.
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, if we are here to help. So basically,
Speaker 2: after the break, I think we'll go through and talk
Speaker 2: about gifts that are not super expensive. Maybe you can
Speaker 2: make them at home, maybe free stuff. We're going to
Speaker 2: talk about all that kind of stuff. We'll go to
Speaker 2: a quick break and get our lists ready. Let's have
Speaker 2: a think. Yeah, because I'm not feeling that festive after
Speaker 2: reading all of those stuff. I'm not feeling festive at
Speaker 2: all at the moment. But we will. We will because
Speaker 2: we're going to have some sick gift ideas, yes, that
Speaker 2: are going to save your whole heap of money. So
Speaker 2: don't go anywhere.
Speaker 4: Guys, I V we are back. I'm ready are feeling
Speaker 4: more festive.
Speaker 2: I'm feeling a little bit more festive too. Actually, we're
Speaker 2: going to help you save some cash. You go first.
Speaker 2: Actually I want you to talk about I'm maybe any
Speaker 2: time to think.
Speaker 4: All right, all right, A right, I have a list
Speaker 4: and I've been checking it twice. But you do not
Speaker 4: have to spend a lot of money on gifts to
Speaker 4: show people how much you care about them. And obviously,
Speaker 4: throughout the year, I've been dropping hints on the pod,
Speaker 4: but we have been creating a list of actually good,
Speaker 4: actually thoughtful DIY gifts, because I'm not gonna lie your
Speaker 4: kid coming home with a snowflake made out of a
Speaker 4: paper plate, while cute, kind of don't want it.
Speaker 2: Not a good Christmas resent, sure, you know, not practical.
Speaker 4: That's a good present, I suppose, And I mean, I'm
Speaker 4: yet to have this baby, beck, So maybe I just
Speaker 4: don't understand why my mum still puts a paper plate
Speaker 4: with a glued on toilet roll that looks kind.
Speaker 2: Of like an angel on the Christmas tree every year.
Speaker 4: That I made what like thirty years ago. Maybe that
Speaker 4: is a good gift.
Speaker 2: That is so maybe we should be using paper plates
Speaker 2: and toilet rolls to create all of our Christmas resuents.
Speaker 2: That if you gave me an angel paper plate with
Speaker 2: a toilet stuck to it for no reason whatsoever, I
Speaker 2: think I would like that. I don't think you would.
Speaker 2: I think you'd be like, dang, great, Now I have
Speaker 2: to hold this thing. No, what do I do with it?
Speaker 2: Do I throw it out? It's like getting cards. You
Speaker 2: want to throw out Christmas cards or birthday cards? Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's something I still wonder. I keep them just your case.
Speaker 4: What if you ask me and you're like, man, do
Speaker 4: you still have that Christmas card? It was really thoughtful,
Speaker 4: and I'm going no, I just chocked it in the fire.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what I'm worried about. You say.
Speaker 4: Anyway, here are some actually thoughtful presence. All right, So
Speaker 4: first lay off the rank. Do you like that homemade
Speaker 4: wheat packs?
Speaker 2: Oh? Very good?
Speaker 4: So you say very good, but you probably don't know
Speaker 4: what I'm really talking about it before.
Speaker 2: Yes, that too, and someone did maybe one of these ones.
Speaker 2: So it is.
Speaker 4: So I love this because you can just have basic
Speaker 4: stitching skills for this. You could YouTube it. It's fun.
Speaker 4: You might want to upscale this festive season if you
Speaker 4: have a sewing machine, honestly cut your time in half.
Speaker 4: But also you can definitely handstitch it. A sewing kit
Speaker 4: from like kmart is honestly with thread with needles, but
Speaker 4: the tiny scissors is like five.
Speaker 2: Bucks from kmart.
Speaker 4: Sick and one of my favorite uses of fabrics is
Speaker 4: cheap tea towels because obviously I'm not going to go
Speaker 4: to spotlight and by like rolls and rolls of fabric,
Speaker 4: which I think ends up being quite expensive but also
Speaker 4: quite wasteful.
Speaker 2: One tea towel equals one weet pack. Yeah, stitched around
Speaker 2: the edge, right, so that's not going to fray. Yeah
Speaker 2: money win if you get them from Kmart.
Speaker 4: I'm pretty sure like a five pack of tea towels
Speaker 4: is like five bucks as well. You could be fancy
Speaker 4: and get like branded ones, like imagine getting like a
Speaker 4: Winnie the Pooh tea towel one.
Speaker 2: Anyway, interesting that your mind went straight to Winning the
Speaker 2: Poo as a brand. I was think of Gucci. Oh,
Speaker 2: you see tea towelse you like branded, and then you're
Speaker 2: like Winny the Poo.
Speaker 4: But do you know what, I'm thinking a lot about
Speaker 4: Winnie the Pool at the moment, because I'm pregnant of course,
Speaker 4: and all of my tops now when I put them on,
Speaker 4: make me look like I'm Winning the Pew.
Speaker 2: Those possibly cute, it's not cute.
Speaker 4: I literally look like Winnie the Pooh when I put
Speaker 4: my t shirts on in the morning nowadays, and my
Speaker 4: husband literally calls me pooh oh, I'm like, yeah, could
Speaker 4: I borrow one of your t shirts?
Speaker 2: Thanks, we're going for coffee. I didn't need to be
Speaker 2: attacked like this. Also, you could call you whinny, but
Speaker 2: he's gone straight for poo straight poo.
Speaker 4: What a nice guy, fantastic dad material anyway, But what
Speaker 4: you're going to do is obviously stitch around the edge.
Speaker 4: I'll do a tutorial online for this because it is
Speaker 4: actually really really easy.
Speaker 2: But what you're going to fill it with is wheat.
Speaker 2: Weady buy wheat back ah the pet shrew. You can
Speaker 2: get a ten kilo bag of wheat for ten dollars.
Speaker 2: Oh that's cheap, and that's gonna make like at least
Speaker 2: ten different wheat packs. Yeah, if you're.
Speaker 4: Really fancy, you're going to walk around your neighborhood and
Speaker 4: you're like be spying the whole time. Anybody got any
Speaker 4: lavender I could.
Speaker 2: Dry up put in there, good idea. You're paying for lavender,
Speaker 2: you could chuck some essential oils, could put anything you
Speaker 2: want in there.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 4: Obviously, Christmas in Australia is currently during summer, so they're
Speaker 4: not going to use it immediately. But a wheat pack
Speaker 4: doesn't go astray in my house, got a saw back
Speaker 4: wheat pack cold at my desk, wheat pack, you're cold
Speaker 4: at my house?
Speaker 2: Do you want a wheat pack? Heep I made last Christmas. Honestly,
Speaker 2: those are timeless gifts. You will never not need a
Speaker 2: wheat pack. I agree.
Speaker 4: Also, kmart has stepped up the game this year. They
Speaker 4: have a whole heap of diy craft things, right clay
Speaker 4: using air dry clay, you could hand make some earrings
Speaker 4: or candle holders. You could make like a little game
Speaker 4: of like Tic tac toe. Oh cute jewelry holders literally
Speaker 4: so much. But clay costs between five and fifteen dollars
Speaker 4: from like came up Bunning's office works Amazon if you're
Speaker 4: smart and planned. But honestly, these are all just like
Speaker 4: cam up things. This isn't sponsored by kmart, by the way.
Speaker 2: I'm just obsessed and also probably should have been smarter
Speaker 2: with my marketing and pr. I should have reached out
Speaker 2: to kmart to be like, I'm going to do a
Speaker 2: Christmas episode and we should work together. True, but it
Speaker 2: didn't do this for free, km up.
Speaker 4: I'm doing you a solid the next This has been
Speaker 4: popular in our community every year, so I have been
Speaker 4: sharing this recipe for the last four Christmases with you guys,
Speaker 4: and every year someone messages me and goes, hey, the
Speaker 4: I saw you posted this last year and I just
Speaker 4: thought it was a bit lame.
Speaker 2: Didn't do it?
Speaker 4: Did it this year? It's incredible? And that is my
Speaker 4: recipe for Christmas crack. Oh you haven't yet had it
Speaker 4: because you have not been on the show for more
Speaker 4: than a year. But like at Christmas time, I make
Speaker 4: so many trays of this stuff and I give it
Speaker 4: as gifts and people are always like, the what was
Speaker 4: in that? It was incredible?
Speaker 2: What is it?
Speaker 1: So?
Speaker 2: You can package it up really cute, really homemade. You're
Speaker 2: not gonna believe me how good this is. Go just
Speaker 2: look up.
Speaker 4: Christmas crack in my Facebook group because then everybody will
Speaker 4: like convince you of it. But it's essentially a get
Speaker 4: this saladas. Okay, it's the base biscuit. We then make
Speaker 4: a caramel sauce, which is super easy. It's basically brown
Speaker 4: sugar and butter m M and then you top it
Speaker 4: with chocolate and then you could dress it however you want.
Speaker 4: Sometimes I put just some sea salt on the top,
Speaker 4: or we might put some like sprinkles or something like.
Speaker 4: You could literally do whatever you want given it's Christmas time.
Speaker 4: I know the supermarket has those like festive sprinkles for cupcakes.
Speaker 4: You could put that on there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, extra festive, right, doesn't sound that appetizing when I
Speaker 2: explain it. But once it's all dry, it cracks and it's.
Speaker 4: Like this crunchy, sweet, salty, gooey like incredible biscuit and
Speaker 4: you crack it up. It has to be rustic, like
Speaker 4: you don't actually want it to be in the Salada squares.
Speaker 4: You want it to kind of be like triangles and
Speaker 4: like really rugged pieces. It's Christmas crack, which means you
Speaker 4: don't even have to do a good job of cooking
Speaker 4: it like it can look rustic, is what we'll call it.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 4: I promise I'm going to bring you some next week
Speaker 4: and you're going to lose your mind.
Speaker 2: I was so excited. But it sounds so.
Speaker 4: Cheap and you make so much of it, and people like, wow,
Speaker 4: you made this, thank you, and you just go, yeah,
Speaker 4: I made it because I thought you would really love it,
Speaker 4: like you could obviously drop in that She's on the money.
Speaker 4: It's the best podcast ever, and that's where you got
Speaker 4: the idea. If it comes up organically.
Speaker 2: Christmas, she's on the money.
Speaker 4: He's a new listener, and that's all we could really
Speaker 4: ask for this first five season back, that's all we want.
Speaker 4: But Christmas crack is honestly one of my favorite gifts
Speaker 4: to give. The next is maybe a little less rustic
Speaker 4: and requires.
Speaker 2: A little bit more skill. Sure, but I got one
Speaker 2: last year and I was super impressed, and that was
Speaker 2: a mcrame plant holder. Yes, so one of my girlfriends.
Speaker 4: Made it super cheap to make. You can buy rope
Speaker 4: from Bunnings for like ten bucks, but.
Speaker 2: You can gift it with like a propagated cutting ah
Speaker 2: clever smart so free plant money win, and then you
Speaker 2: can also give them like the mcrame mic holder. There's
Speaker 2: lots of tutorials on TikTok and on YouTube, so like,
Speaker 2: you don't just have to make it yourself.
Speaker 4: Probably unpopular opinion, don't buy the kids online. They're like
Speaker 4: seventy or eighty dollars.
Speaker 2: Cancel that. Just find a template online, free mccrame plant
Speaker 2: hold a template and it will literally just come up
Speaker 2: and show you how to make a whole heap of
Speaker 2: different ones. Okay, money win there's usually.
Speaker 4: A YouTube tutorial that goes with it that shows you
Speaker 4: exactly how.
Speaker 2: Yeah, very cute. The next is a printed photo book album.
Speaker 2: Oh so, I can't think of anything more thoughtful than
Speaker 2: a friend going through their photo album and finding a
Speaker 2: whole heap of cute photos of us together printing them out.
Speaker 2: You could print them it Cama. If you've got a
Speaker 2: bit more time, you can print them out and be
Speaker 2: fancy and send them through to Vista Print, which is
Speaker 2: even cheaper. But like, is that not the cutest idea ever? Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's like a little memory book of all of your
Speaker 2: friend memories. I love that. It feels so much more
Speaker 2: special when it's printed out.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and if you've got like graphic design skills, which
Speaker 4: I do not possess, you do, you could use like
Speaker 4: Canva or something to design the book and get it printed.
Speaker 4: And to be honest, if you're getting a book printed online,
Speaker 4: it's honestly like ten dollars.
Speaker 2: You know who's gonna love that? Mums? Moms. Mummy will
Speaker 2: love that. Mom's gonna love it.
Speaker 4: You know you should do next time you go to
Speaker 4: your mum's place, you should raid all of the family photos,
Speaker 4: scan the me in and put them in a book.
Speaker 2: WHOA, She's basically done the work for you. Yeah? True?
Speaker 2: Is that not genius? That's genius fee, that's genius. Smart.
Speaker 2: I've got a few if you're ready. Oh, you've now
Speaker 2: thought of a number to share? Yes, I think that
Speaker 2: was appropriate amount of time to think of a few things.
Speaker 2: You're going to say the things I said, I'm going
Speaker 2: to go through and say homemade wheat pack. I'm just kidding,
Speaker 2: But so have you heard of Christmas crack? I like
Speaker 2: to be a little bit savvy, and so I'm thinking
Speaker 2: of all the ways I've kind of gotten away with
Speaker 2: not spending much over Christmas and birthdays, but most recently,
Speaker 2: one of my very good friends, we do like to
Speaker 2: make things for each other. So either it's like a
Speaker 2: picture of a magnet of me and her, Like a
Speaker 2: magnet is kind of cute, it's like silly, it's cute whatever,
Speaker 2: But not silly. That's actually a good present. That's kind
Speaker 2: of cute. Put that on the list. Christmas magnet convenient.
Speaker 2: You chuck it on your electricity bill or whatever. But
Speaker 2: that's not the one I was talking about. Every time
Speaker 2: you think of your bill, you think of your friend.
Speaker 2: Is exactly, and then you creates association and so that
Speaker 2: friend now gives you anxiety. That is so ic I
Speaker 2: love it. So that's selling it. Yes, and you don't
Speaker 2: talk to that friend anymore. Saves your money because I
Speaker 2: can find them present. No, But what I did was
Speaker 2: I made an activity wheel for her. So I went
Speaker 2: through office works and got different colored cardboards, those little
Speaker 2: like pushpin things, and wrote down all the things we
Speaker 2: like to do together. And so if we're just at
Speaker 2: home doing nothing and we feel like we want to
Speaker 2: do out of the house, or you're in a relationship
Speaker 2: with this friend basically we're in a relationship. You can
Speaker 2: do that for relationships as well, like a date wheel,
Speaker 2: pop date ideas on popsticks and put them in like
Speaker 2: a little that's cute. A friend gave me that idea.
Speaker 2: I don't want to take credit, but take the credit.
Speaker 2: I might take the credit with me on this show. Baby,
Speaker 2: that's true. She's not in here with me. And then
Speaker 2: the other thing was me and my family will kind
Speaker 2: of do this thing where we'll just bite other novelty
Speaker 2: gifts nothing over like five dollars, and I know, like
Speaker 2: I don't want to add to any like junker consumption,
Speaker 2: their consumption and stuff. So it's always like just one
Speaker 2: or two little things that they will use forever. Always
Speaker 2: novelty gifts, things that you'll want to put on your
Speaker 2: desk in the office, that you just fiddle with, like
Speaker 2: little things like that. Nothing over five dollars is what
Speaker 2: we do. And then Secret Standard. Everyone buys one gift
Speaker 2: and that's it and everyone is gifted a gift. Does
Speaker 2: that make sense? Yeah? No, no, no, I like that, so
Speaker 2: you don't have to buy for everyone. Trying to be
Speaker 2: a game as well. It's a game. It's silly, it's fun,
Speaker 2: it's really exciting. You just have to put out like
Speaker 2: maybe whatever the budget is, let's say two set the
Speaker 2: budget at anything, anything, let's say twenty dollars. You just
Speaker 2: buy the one gift. Everyone's taken care of. I think
Speaker 2: that's probably the way I do it with most people
Speaker 2: in my life.
Speaker 4: I want to be Secret Santa is fantastic. Whenever we
Speaker 4: have done like Secret Center at work or like in
Speaker 4: our friendship group, they'll set a limit, right, They'll be
Speaker 4: like fifteen dollars, and you go, yep, great, I can
Speaker 4: afford fifteen dollars, and so can everybody else like in
Speaker 4: that circle, because otherwise you wouldn't have asked them. But
Speaker 4: then you start looking for presents and everything's so much
Speaker 4: more expensive, and I just have this idea in my head.
Speaker 4: I'm like, if it was just thirty dollars, this would
Speaker 4: be so much easier for me.
Speaker 2: Mentally.
Speaker 4: That's a terrible way of thinking, but I think that
Speaker 4: a lot of people will resonate with that. The other
Speaker 4: thing I was going to butt in there and contribute.
Speaker 4: If you haven't listened to our festive episodes before, you
Speaker 4: might not have heard how my family does Christmas. By
Speaker 4: my family, I mean Steve's side of the family. I'm
Speaker 4: trying to implement it in the rest of the family.
Speaker 4: It hasn't gone so well just yet, but we'll get there.
Speaker 4: But Steve's side of family, it's literally my favorite thing
Speaker 4: ever Christmas time. If you're gifting people, it has to
Speaker 4: be handmade, homemade.
Speaker 2: Or second hand.
Speaker 4: So we are not allowed to go to the shops
Speaker 4: and buy something new. You have to handmake it yourself.
Speaker 4: It has to be homemade. It could be homemade by
Speaker 4: someone else, like you could buy something from a small
Speaker 4: business and like gift that and that's Okay, one year
Speaker 4: I got this really beautiful like raffia bag that was
Speaker 4: like handmade, and I was just like, this is a
Speaker 4: Slay gift or it can be secondhand, and so, like
Speaker 4: you guys have probably all heard it if you've listened
Speaker 4: to our Christmas episodes before. But a couple of years ago,
Speaker 4: I was buying for my niece and nephew.
Speaker 2: I was so excited. I was like, what are we
Speaker 2: going to get them?
Speaker 4: I knew they were getting a cubby for Christmas that year,
Speaker 4: and so I thought, what if we just go on
Speaker 4: like Facebook, Marketplace or gum Tree or whatever and find
Speaker 4: like one of those play kitchens, and so for I
Speaker 4: think it was like fifty bucks, right, so still like
Speaker 4: not the cheapest ever, but fifty dollars through a joint present,
Speaker 4: I thought was pretty good. Sure, I went over to
Speaker 4: I think it was like Fitzroy or something, some dude's
Speaker 4: bougie penthouse apartment, and I bought this play kitchen and
Speaker 4: it was really well looked after. But he threw in
Speaker 4: all of the accessories, so the cups, the plates, the balls,
Speaker 4: the little plastic fruits, all of the stuff that would
Speaker 4: have really added up and cost a heap of money
Speaker 4: to buy fifty bucks money win. That would have been
Speaker 4: at least three years ago back. They still use it.
Speaker 4: It is still in their little cubby house. And now
Speaker 4: whenever I go up to the window of the cubby house,
Speaker 4: my niece looks out and goes, oh late, yes.
Speaker 2: Please, and a plastic banana that is so cute yuh.
Speaker 4: Anyway, aana secondhand could be a really good way of
Speaker 4: doing Christmas this year because you could get a present
Speaker 4: that you otherwise wouldn't have been able.
Speaker 2: To afford to purchase. Yeah, I love that, like because
Speaker 2: that would have honestly, after you added all up, that
Speaker 2: would have been a couple of one hundred dollars at
Speaker 2: least just for the kitchen, and then all of the
Speaker 2: additional accessories, Like it was only just like IKEA stuff,
Speaker 2: Like it wasn't you know, fancy fancy hottery barn stuff.
Speaker 2: But the little pots, the little plates, all of the
Speaker 2: stuff so they could play house. What a good gift.
Speaker 2: That's a great gift and the kids don't know any different.
Speaker 2: It's going out in the cubby. I love that it
Speaker 2: was all clean. I chucked all of the plastic wear
Speaker 2: through the dishwasher before I gave it to them, and
Speaker 2: I gave the kitchen a good scrub out, because obviously
Speaker 2: like that just feels like the right thing to do.
Speaker 2: But say, I love that and rich reuse, recycle, They say, so,
Speaker 2: I love it. I love this idav I think it's great.
Speaker 4: And I don't think anyone would genuinely be offended if
Speaker 4: you bought them something secondhand.
Speaker 2: It's twenty two three. I think people would be like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, thank you for thinking of me. Yeah,
Speaker 2: think you thinking of me and the planet.
Speaker 4: It's actually so much nicer that you put so much time,
Speaker 4: energy and effort into sourcing this instead of just marching
Speaker 4: into your cam up, purchasing it off the shelf and calling.
Speaker 3: It to day.
Speaker 2: I don't know, I like it better. Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2: That's such a good point. B It does feel more
Speaker 2: thoughtful than quickly going to the shops and dropping like
Speaker 2: fifty bucks. Exactly. Thank you so much for helping us
Speaker 2: save this Christmas. I did want to go rogue there
Speaker 2: and say that Christmas time that's not always spent with
Speaker 2: family and friends. You might be someone that doesn't have that.
Speaker 2: We're thinking of you in this time. Family were your
Speaker 2: family and friends so stay safe out there. We love you,
Speaker 2: We love you, Bye guys.
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