Speaker 1: Welcome to a Very Outspoken Christmas. It's that time of
Speaker 1: year to crank Mariah Carey in the car and begin
Speaker 1: your Christmas shopping. Our names are Amy Kate and Sophie Torba.
Speaker 1: We're identical triplets and during the festive season, we have
Speaker 1: an identical opinion. Christmas is the most wonderful time of
Speaker 1: the year. In this special series, we're discussing all things
Speaker 1: Christmas with help from some influential Australians.
Speaker 2: Fo for your Clan, Call for your clan cl clue
Speaker 2: and with Santas wiz strat white ass down there, Jimmy Day,
Speaker 2: He's going to.
Speaker 1: Find a jobbiest bunch of assholes this side of the nuthouse.
Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to episode three of a Very Outspoken Christmas.
Speaker 1: Today we are joined by Eliza Reid, who runs popular
Speaker 1: Instagram account bargain Homews. She is going to be sharing
Speaker 1: her Christmas shopping tips and tricks from where to shop
Speaker 1: and what sales to take advantage of. And some of
Speaker 1: you may recognize her name because she is in our
Speaker 1: Facebook community and we love having a part of it. Oh,
Speaker 1: she's a legend and there her comments crack me up
Speaker 1: sometimes before we get into the interview. Kay, You've got
Speaker 1: to tell everybody about your massive shopping wind that you
Speaker 1: had a few years ago. Well, I was in Bed
Speaker 1: Bath and Table and I saw this amazing twig winter
Speaker 1: style Christmas tree with gold lights, and it was so
Speaker 1: beautiful and I'd never really seen one before, and it
Speaker 1: was fifty percent off, so I think I saved around
Speaker 1: two hundred dollars on it. And the funniest thing was
Speaker 1: because I'd bought it right then, it was like mid December,
Speaker 1: when it was so packed in the store we had
Speaker 1: to get a trolley to wheel it out. And to
Speaker 1: say I look like a dickhead is an understated It
Speaker 1: was the funniest thing because this tree is massive, Like
Speaker 1: it's not that it's hugely tall, but it's very wide.
Speaker 1: The thing was, though, that made it look even more ridiculous,
Speaker 1: was they decided to put a bed Bath and Table
Speaker 1: shopping bag on top of the tree, so you looked
Speaker 1: like even more of a wainker walking around the shop
Speaker 1: with it. Well, at least it didn't look like I'd
Speaker 1: stolen it. Do you know what I loved? It seemed
Speaker 1: like you got such value out of that tree because
Speaker 1: it wasn't just up at Christmas time. When we lived together,
Speaker 1: it turned into an Easter tree at Easter time, a
Speaker 1: birthday tree, everything, everyday tree. Really, it's a very good
Speaker 1: investment there. Well, we'll talking about trees. Has anyone been
Speaker 1: seeing that a lot of influencers are starting to put
Speaker 1: their Christmas trees up? Yeah? I have. I've been so
Speaker 1: disappointed by the very pitiful displays of these Christmas trees.
Speaker 1: They just look cheap and tacky, and I feel like saying,
Speaker 1: don't these people have money?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: And the fact that they're rushing to put the trees up.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not trying to tree shame, but they
Speaker 1: look very cheap and taki tree. I've got to say.
Speaker 1: I saw Courtney Mangnan put up her Christmas tree and
Speaker 1: that was looking as Saffron Barker would say, bang in. Well,
Speaker 1: Saffron Barker put her tree up and hers was also amazing.
Speaker 1: I'm wondering if it was about some hill tree. Oh,
Speaker 1: i'd have to be. That being said, I feel like
Speaker 1: Courtney and Saffron's trees would be rather expensive. And we
Speaker 1: are talking about bargains today, So Eliza's going to be
Speaker 1: talking us through where you can find the best bargain
Speaker 1: Christmas trees because you can still make them look really
Speaker 1: nice even on a budget. Yeah, we were ragging on
Speaker 1: Taki Christmas trees, but this is a tip to actually
Speaker 1: have your Christmas tree look good on a budget. Can
Speaker 1: I just say though, like, here's my tip. I'm not
Speaker 1: a professional, but fill your tree with bables. Like you've
Speaker 1: got an ugly, lie looking tree, put beautiful bubbles all
Speaker 1: over it. Hide the ugly tree. Yeah, exactly right. There's
Speaker 1: nothing worse than a tree that looks like it's missing ornaments.
Speaker 1: I mean, they don't cost much from Kmart. You can
Speaker 1: get a whole box of them for I don't know,
Speaker 1: twenty dollars a cheap tip here as well. Put some
Speaker 1: lights on your Christmas tree. They always look more beautiful
Speaker 1: when they're lit up. Do you know I'm seeing a
Speaker 1: lot of it at the moment. I'm seeing a lot
Speaker 1: of those flowers. Oh yeah, it kind of made me
Speaker 1: want to get some. Yeah. Well, Victoria Devine who was
Speaker 1: on our podcast last week, she had a gorgeous looking
Speaker 1: tree that she shared in our Facebook community and that
Speaker 1: really did inspire me to, yeah, potentially add some big
Speaker 1: white flowers to mine. Can I be honest, I don't
Speaker 1: really like the flowers, Like I could never see myself
Speaker 1: putting flowers on a Christmas tree because it's just not me.
Speaker 1: Mine's more of the sort of tacky Christmas tree. Well
Speaker 1: it's not. No, I'm not gonna let you say that
Speaker 1: your tree is tacky. So it's not tacky. It has
Speaker 1: the sentimental ornaments on it, and it's like a bright, colorful,
Speaker 1: fun tree. Yeah. With lots of theme. Yeah, with lots
Speaker 1: of Penguin decorations. That's a thing. It's all about having
Speaker 1: a theme. I don't care if people have cheap baubles
Speaker 1: or a cheap tree. It's about the effort you put in,
Speaker 1: because you can make some really cool decorations as well.
Speaker 1: I feel like Target has some of the best baubles.
Speaker 1: And also if you don't have heats of money to spend,
Speaker 1: wal Wells and Coals also have a great selection. Well.
Speaker 1: I don't want to start giving too many tips out
Speaker 1: because I know Eliza covers some amazing things. But I
Speaker 1: was watching a Netflix show called Holiday Homemakers with Mister Christmas,
Speaker 1: and he was being very extravagant, like there were things
Speaker 1: that you could never afford, but one thing that I
Speaker 1: thought looked really cool was he was putting pine cones
Speaker 1: on the tree and he said, it's a really good
Speaker 1: tip to put those on a fake tree because it
Speaker 1: kind of looks makes it look more realistic. Can I
Speaker 1: just say I love how you casually drop mister Christmas.
Speaker 1: Who is mister Christmas? I've not seen this show. Well,
Speaker 1: it's on Netflix. I don't actually know what his real
Speaker 1: name is, but that's his name he goes by on
Speaker 1: the show. So he's a designer. Yeah, he's this fabulous
Speaker 1: guy and he goes around people's houses and he does
Speaker 1: them up for Christmas. So there was a family that
Speaker 1: had never hosted Christmas before and yeah, he helped them
Speaker 1: with their decorations. It's really cool just talking about TV shows. I'
Speaker 1: a Christmas recommendation out there. It's the Worst Week of
Speaker 1: My Life Christmas Special, which is an English TV series
Speaker 1: and it is bloody hilarious. Oh my god, this is
Speaker 1: the best. I really want to watch this now. I
Speaker 1: know I'm trying to work out which one of us
Speaker 1: has the DVD because I was tempted to go down
Speaker 1: to one of the op shops to see if they
Speaker 1: had it. I believe I may have stole it in
Speaker 1: our first move, so I'll have to have a look through.
Speaker 1: I thought I might have one too well. I want
Speaker 1: to watch it because it follows the life of a
Speaker 1: married couple, Howard Steele and his wife mel and just
Speaker 1: the most embarrassing things happened to this guy in front
Speaker 1: of his mother and father in law. So I definitely
Speaker 1: recommend it now. I was excited about this one. The
Speaker 1: Vicar of Dibley is bringing out a special Lockdown mini
Speaker 1: series and this is, of course a show that started
Speaker 1: in the nineties, is one that we grew up watching,
Speaker 1: and it's going to be showing them basically experiencing Christmas
Speaker 1: in Lockdown. So the Vicar of Dibley, Geraldine, she is
Speaker 1: going to be giving her sermons via zoom. It's going
Speaker 1: to be really interesting to watch. Sadly, a lot of
Speaker 1: the actors have died who appeared in the original series,
Speaker 1: so I'm really interested to see how if they place
Speaker 1: those actors with new actors. Yeah, it should be interesting
Speaker 1: to see. It does give it a bit of a
Speaker 1: downer the fact that a lot of the actors have died,
Speaker 1: but I am looking forward to watching that. Talking about
Speaker 1: the UK. Has anyone seen Boris Johnson's new rules that
Speaker 1: he's applying around Christmas? Well, i've heard that the pubs
Speaker 1: weren't open anymore. Well, there's a tiered system and it's
Speaker 1: basically like Tier one, Tier two, tier three, and it's
Speaker 1: really dependent on which tier that you're in, and a
Speaker 1: lot of the tiers allow the pub to be open
Speaker 1: till ten pm. However, the thing that peaked my interest
Speaker 1: was the fact that between December twenty fourth and December
Speaker 1: twenty eighth, they're just going, oh whatever with the restrictions
Speaker 1: just for Christmas. Isn't it that you you're in a
Speaker 1: Christmas bubble, so you have to choose who the four
Speaker 1: families are that you want to spend Christmas with, which
Speaker 1: I'm assuming would cause quite a lot of argument. Yes,
Speaker 1: but the tiered system, even it doesn't matter what tier
Speaker 1: you're in, you can still spend Christmas with those four
Speaker 1: families during that period. Like I say, four families is
Speaker 1: a lot of people. You think about the potential spread
Speaker 1: through four families, and it sounds like there's no rules
Speaker 1: in place about how big a family is. We've seen
Speaker 1: the damage that's been caused by one family getting in Adelaide,
Speaker 1: So it's pretty scary. I feel like they've almost gone whatever.
Speaker 1: Let's just wait for the vaccine to come and you know,
Speaker 1: let it do it. Christ's miracle. The scariest thing though,
Speaker 1: is that they're obviously entering winter. You know, we're quite
Speaker 1: lucky here that we're going into summer, because this is
Speaker 1: just going to be catastrophic over winter. I feel so
Speaker 1: sorry for everyone over there at the moment. Can I
Speaker 1: just say, though, for people's mental health? Can you imagine
Speaker 1: everyone's had the worst year ever? We all need a
Speaker 1: little bit of Christmas cheer. I can kind of see
Speaker 1: why they've lifted it, because, to be honest, it could
Speaker 1: have been anarchy if they hadn't, because people probably would
Speaker 1: have just gone off. Fuck it, I'm going to break
Speaker 1: the rules. Well, it's quite ironic that you've recommended the
Speaker 1: TV show The Worst Christmas of My Life, because I
Speaker 1: feel like there's a few Brits out there that would
Speaker 1: be having it a lot tougher than Howard Stern had it. Oh,
Speaker 1: I don't know about that. If you guys do watch it,
Speaker 1: please post in our Facebook community your thoughts, because I
Speaker 1: feel like everyone's gonna love it. I think we should
Speaker 1: start a thread in our community for Christmas TV specials.
Speaker 1: I'm all for movies, but I have a soft spot
Speaker 1: for TV series because you can watch multiple ones and
Speaker 1: really binge on them. Yeah, it's easier to watch within
Speaker 1: your normal rotation of TV shows rather than committing to
Speaker 1: a movie. Because last night I started watching Holiday even
Speaker 1: though everyone said it was shit, it wasn't as bad
Speaker 1: as I thought because I had low expectations. But it's
Speaker 1: literally gone for two hours and they haven't even got
Speaker 1: to Christmas yet. Yes, I'm trying to find a troubleman
Speaker 1: door witto. Do you have any moneer back? Alasa, you
Speaker 1: run an incredibly popular bargain hunter's page called Bargain Homewares.
Speaker 1: It's really seemed to have struck a chord with so
Speaker 1: many people. You're now sitting at over one hundred thousand
Speaker 1: followers on Instagram. What was it that motivated you to
Speaker 1: start the page to begin with?
Speaker 3: So it was actually just after I'd moved out of
Speaker 3: my university sharehouse and into an apartment where I wanted
Speaker 3: to buy a nice furniture and deco, but I still
Speaker 3: had the budget of a Unie student who was working
Speaker 3: in my first full time job. So I was constantly
Speaker 3: scaring Kmart Target Big w to see where I could
Speaker 3: get the most of my dollars. And this was about
Speaker 3: the time when Kmart had just started to boom, So
Speaker 3: I don't know. Do you guys remember when they had
Speaker 3: like all the marble and rose gold stuff. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: it was five years ago, but that was when I
Speaker 3: finished decorating my flat and then I had everything I needed.
Speaker 3: I just missed going into the store and seeing what
Speaker 3: was new, so I created the page to share bargains
Speaker 3: with anyone else who may need them, and it man.
Speaker 2: I got to keep going window shopping.
Speaker 1: Have you always been this thrifty and if so, what
Speaker 1: would be the most thriftiest thing you've ever done? Like,
Speaker 1: is there any furniture you've recycled or upscaled something?
Speaker 2: Yes, definitely.
Speaker 3: I've always been one of those people who shots shops
Speaker 3: and I get excited over council pickup when people put
Speaker 3: their furniture out onto the side of the roads that
Speaker 3: they don't want anymore. So I'm glad that now there's
Speaker 3: a platform like Facebook Marketplace, so you don't have to
Speaker 3: go around in your car at night looking at what
Speaker 3: people throw at That's probably the most drastic thing that
Speaker 3: I've done is upcycled furniture that people have put out
Speaker 3: on the side of the road.
Speaker 2: Definitely, but I still am thrifty. Now.
Speaker 3: I have a rule that if I want to buy
Speaker 3: something in store that's full price, I have to wait
Speaker 3: until I've looked at it at least three times before
Speaker 3: I decide if I really need it.
Speaker 2: And even then, I don't really ever buy anything full price.
Speaker 3: I wait until it goes on sale or I'll try
Speaker 3: to find a discount code before I purchase it.
Speaker 1: Gosh, those are some good tips I think Sophie needs
Speaker 1: to implement that well. Christmas is probably is obviously one
Speaker 1: of the most expensive times of the year. Just how
Speaker 1: important is it to come up with a bit of
Speaker 1: a game plan when it comes to budgeting over the
Speaker 1: festive season.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so Christmas is definitely the most expensive time of
Speaker 3: the year for most people, and I think it's something
Speaker 3: that you need to budget for all year round.
Speaker 2: You can't just get to December and then try to budget.
Speaker 3: So for me, I work out how much I'm going
Speaker 3: to spend on each person's presence as well as other
Speaker 3: spending like social activities over the silly season, how much
Speaker 3: money I need for holidays if you're going away, and
Speaker 3: then I start saving from the start of the year,
Speaker 3: So each week I just put X amount of dollars
Speaker 3: into a savings account that's specifically for Christmas. And you know,
Speaker 3: if you need two thousand dollars, then each week you
Speaker 3: would put forty dollars aside. I also don't touch any
Speaker 3: of my Woolworths and Flybys points as well as cash
Speaker 3: back money from cash rewards and shot back throughout the year,
Speaker 3: and then I claim them at Christmas time.
Speaker 2: I do think it's funny.
Speaker 3: I get a lot of people on my page that
Speaker 3: message me saying, but you know, doesn't make a difference
Speaker 3: because it's such a small percentage. Or Flybys points, you
Speaker 3: only get ten dollars every two thousand dollars you spend.
Speaker 3: But if you're getting the points or cash backs just
Speaker 3: for doing normal shopping that you would be doing anyway,
Speaker 3: like groceries and petrol, then why not take advantage of it.
Speaker 3: There's so many places that do them now that really,
Speaker 3: once you roll them all into each other and bundle
Speaker 3: it up, I personally always get to blot about six
Speaker 3: hundred dollars every year on Christmas time.
Speaker 1: Wow, it's so good that you say that, because Amy
Speaker 1: pays me out so much. When I bring out my
Speaker 1: loyalty cards, like I get shamed in front of the cat.
Speaker 1: I'm glad it's because I've been boosting all of my
Speaker 1: Woolworth points and it really makes a difference. I keep
Speaker 1: getting heaps of these ten dollars out just but I
Speaker 1: haven't been saving them, which I probably need to do now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's just a good idea.
Speaker 3: It obviously takes a bit of self control, but it
Speaker 3: pays off when you know that most expensive time of
Speaker 3: the year does come.
Speaker 1: What about when it comes to decorations, because I feel
Speaker 1: like that's probably a lot of people's favorite part of
Speaker 1: Christmas is decorating their home. What are the best stores
Speaker 1: to go to to get some bargain decorations.
Speaker 3: So I've recently been going everywhere to check out the
Speaker 3: Christmas stock and the biggest range and cheap ass options
Speaker 3: that I have seen so far is definitely at Kama.
Speaker 3: That is your one step shop for decorations, gift giving,
Speaker 3: and they've also got a great entertaining and tableware range.
Speaker 3: They've got a big range of tree decorations, so you
Speaker 3: can get bulk packs where ornaments start at just fifteen cents,
Speaker 3: to individual ornaments ranging from one to three dollars, outdoor light,
Speaker 3: Santa Sax, costumes, everything like you name it, came up
Speaker 3: or have it. I'm also not sure if people know this,
Speaker 3: but Christmas stores are literally in every major city that
Speaker 3: are open all year round. So because I'm an event manager,
Speaker 3: i would run a lot of themed Christmas events and
Speaker 3: sometimes people want to do those in July and you
Speaker 3: kind of like, oh, well, way do you get bombonds?
Speaker 3: So there's actually these things called Christmas Warehouses and they
Speaker 3: are all over like Sydney and Melbourne and Brisbane, and
Speaker 3: they do large decorations but made with cost effective materials,
Speaker 3: so felt snowflakes or Hessian table runners and things like
Speaker 3: that that are really cheap. And if you're buying like
Speaker 3: a whole family and you need thirty bon bonds, they're
Speaker 3: the places that do the really bulk things. So it's
Speaker 3: pretty much like the costco of Christmas Day recreation store.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, it sounds like heaven.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: Now we've we've been having a debate on the podcast
Speaker 1: about real verse fake Christmas trees. I gotta ask do
Speaker 1: you have a real tree or a fake one?
Speaker 3: So we normally do a real tree in my family. Yes,
Speaker 3: because you can get them so readily available now. And
Speaker 3: this is something that you guys talked about on a
Speaker 3: previous podcast episode and I thought it was funny that
Speaker 3: people didn't know that you can get real trees in
Speaker 3: Australia because you can get them at Bunnings, you can
Speaker 3: get them at Woolworths is actually somewhere that I saw
Speaker 3: them last year for seventy dollars, or if you can
Speaker 3: go through your local like Footy club or the Lions
Speaker 3: Club because those places donate the money to charity and
Speaker 3: they sell real trees as well for around one hundred
Speaker 3: dollar mark.
Speaker 1: Yeah, as a bargain hunter, do you think it's too
Speaker 1: extreme to be paying one thousand dollars for Christmas tree?
Speaker 1: So if you wanted to get or is that what
Speaker 1: you like to eight hundred dollars now?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I could never do that.
Speaker 3: I think there's definitely like, if you're wanting a tree
Speaker 3: to last and you're investing in it, I think go
Speaker 3: for like a mid middle of the range tree. But yeah,
Speaker 3: there's some of the ones like Balsam Hill, you know,
Speaker 3: fifteen hundred dollars. I could personally never spend that.
Speaker 1: Actually, we were talking to a client before and she
Speaker 1: said that she spent three thousand dollars on her Christmas tree,
Speaker 1: so that was including the decorations, and she just whipped
Speaker 1: out her phone and showed me a photo. It was
Speaker 1: very impressive. But Hill, no, it was actually one from
Speaker 1: David Jones, So yeah, it was Hugge.
Speaker 3: Heard that to happen like place work in retail, so
Speaker 3: people would say that they'd get customers come in that
Speaker 3: were time poor but obviously had money, and they just
Speaker 3: point at a tree and say, can I buy the
Speaker 3: whole thing?
Speaker 2: Oh, we decorated and yeah, some of.
Speaker 3: Those decorations in like my own David Jones, you know,
Speaker 3: twenty dollars a piece.
Speaker 1: Wow, I did hear. I think I read around Christmas
Speaker 1: time last year that there is a job going and
Speaker 1: you just decorate people's trees. I thought, how amazing would that?
Speaker 1: Because I decorated my own tree like three times last
Speaker 1: year to try and make it look perfect and it
Speaker 1: still lost our podcast poll for the worst.
Speaker 3: That would be a really good job. Well, there's people
Speaker 3: doing that. It's pantries now. And you know, my sisters
Speaker 3: think I should make my page a job and starting
Speaker 3: home organization.
Speaker 1: You should.
Speaker 3: I love being an event manager, so that's great running
Speaker 3: the pages.
Speaker 1: Well, back to Christmas trees. Is it a good time
Speaker 1: to actually buy a fake Christmas tree after Christmas? In
Speaker 1: the post Christmas sales or is that? Is it? You
Speaker 1: know other decorations too, like is that the best time to.
Speaker 2: Buy or yeah?
Speaker 3: So it really depends on what level you're going for.
Speaker 3: If you're just one in the cheap, you know, kind
Speaker 3: of cost effective options from Kmart, tug, big w they're
Speaker 3: not going to go on and sale before Christmas, so
Speaker 3: you can go now, and it's actually probably better to
Speaker 3: go now because things will sell out, especially this year
Speaker 3: with coronavirus. There's been delayed to shipping, so I know
Speaker 3: some stores are already having trouble getting stock and they're
Speaker 3: doing another big drop in November. So yeah, I wouldn't
Speaker 3: wait if you're wanting that. But if you are buying
Speaker 3: like for example, bus and hill tree or some of
Speaker 3: the nicer ornaments from bed Bath and Table or Maya,
Speaker 3: then I would either wait for the boxing day sales
Speaker 3: or we now also have these new days like after Payday,
Speaker 3: Amazon Prime Day, and Black Friday, so they'll fall in
Speaker 3: the second half of the year and you can definitely
Speaker 3: pick your tree up then if you don't want to
Speaker 3: wait until after Christmas. Black Friday actually falls on the
Speaker 3: twenty seventh of November for anyone wondering, and that's a
Speaker 3: perfect time to get those big ticket items, even presents
Speaker 3: as well. If you're buying like electronics, they're all majorly
Speaker 3: marked down in the Black Friday sales.
Speaker 1: I was going to say, when you mentioned that there'd
Speaker 1: be a shortage of Christmas trees, I could literally just
Speaker 1: imagine Kate and so Panic buying Christmas decorations right now
Speaker 1: in Kama. I wonder if that's going to happen, if
Speaker 1: people are just going to be walking around trolley's promote panic.
Speaker 1: Yeah noo, yeah.
Speaker 3: I think it has been happening. And also, like, because
Speaker 3: I'm in Victoria, people you know Melbourne can't go to
Speaker 3: the store, so they're just buying things crazily online. And
Speaker 3: then regionally, we're only supposed to go, you know, when
Speaker 3: we need to. So I definitely have been doing bigger
Speaker 3: shops because I used to go to cam Up three
Speaker 3: times a week and spend fifty dollars, but now I'm only.
Speaker 2: Going once a month, so I'm spending like five in
Speaker 2: one trip. But at least you can you can return
Speaker 2: and exchange if you If you overshop.
Speaker 1: Or getting into presents now, it can start getting very
Speaker 1: expensive when you have to also buy for your partner
Speaker 1: as family. What are some of your tips for trying
Speaker 1: to keep the cost down.
Speaker 3: I would one hundred percent recommend doing a secret Santa.
Speaker 3: So in our family we buy for immediate family, but
Speaker 3: for all of the extended family like cousins, etc. We
Speaker 3: do a twenty dollars secret Santa, and that honestly works
Speaker 3: so well. People also put in like joke presents, so
Speaker 3: it provides entertainment factor as well, and that's always so
Speaker 3: much fun.
Speaker 2: I really look forward to that.
Speaker 3: I think for your partner's family, you just need to
Speaker 3: establish whether everyone's giving an individual gift or not. But
Speaker 3: if you can try to keep it simple and just
Speaker 3: give them a bottle of wine or take something for
Speaker 3: the whole household, like make a pavlova, That's what I
Speaker 3: always try to do. I think bake goods are always
Speaker 3: a winner and I will share my secret.
Speaker 2: Gingerbread recue with you guys if you want. I always
Speaker 2: give cookies to my work colleagues as.
Speaker 3: Well, because ten dollars in baking ingredients can go a
Speaker 3: long way.
Speaker 2: Oh love it?
Speaker 1: Are you going to share it with the community as well?
Speaker 2: You're yeah, I'm going to put it.
Speaker 1: We'll put it in the show notes as well.
Speaker 2: Yes, I've had it since I was fourteen, and I swear.
Speaker 1: But oh wow, So do you make a gingerbread house
Speaker 1: or just gingerbread people?
Speaker 2: No, I just do like gingerbread people snowflakes.
Speaker 1: That's so exciting. What about for I suppose mostly it's
Speaker 1: women listening, But if there's any guys listening and they're
Speaker 1: looking for their wives or girlfriend, what would be a
Speaker 1: good gift that I suppose won't break the budget?
Speaker 2: Mm hm.
Speaker 3: So I actually have a Christmas gift guide in a
Speaker 3: highlight on my Instagram page, and I mainly did it
Speaker 3: for women as well, because all my followers are women
Speaker 3: like you. But if you look at the sisters or
Speaker 3: the Chris Kringle or the beauty category, that would be
Speaker 3: perfect for women our age. So I included things like
Speaker 3: a caseify personal iPhone, case active where skincare prints from
Speaker 3: local artists. Indoor plants are massive this year, and there's
Speaker 3: also a homewos section with lots of the Ratten goodies beating,
Speaker 3: because I think that's what people our age are really
Speaker 3: wanting this year, more homeways really than fashion. Things like
Speaker 3: indoor plants are so popular at the moment.
Speaker 1: There's some great ideas.
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 1: So sex boyfriend's mum she gave her what was it like?
Speaker 1: It was some kind of like blue duck like.
Speaker 2: Well it was.
Speaker 1: He told me, it's like, you're never going to get
Speaker 1: over this present she's got you. It's incredible. And then
Speaker 1: I open up this like porcelain blue chicken. I was like,
Speaker 1: what the hell you have to put it in the
Speaker 1: Facebook community picture of it because it's Unbelievable's the ugliest
Speaker 1: thing you've ever said. It was really expensive as well
Speaker 1: for a garden. Well, she had her own collection of
Speaker 1: these chickens, so I don't know it's some like hideous
Speaker 1: like I suppose it might be some sort of artwork
Speaker 1: from the jam factory. To be fair, that the thought
Speaker 1: was there because she loved them, but it just wasn't
Speaker 1: something that you would want in your own house. Well,
Speaker 1: have you ever seen Larry? Have you ever received a
Speaker 1: really awful present like that from a family member or
Speaker 1: a partner or anything. Elisa might not want to say
Speaker 1: on this.
Speaker 3: No, I can say because my grandma definitely won't listen
Speaker 3: to the pub. She's so beautiful. But she every year
Speaker 3: will make like pottery for us, because she makes pottery
Speaker 3: and she does some really nice things, and I've actually
Speaker 3: loved some of the pieces. But every year she'll give
Speaker 3: us each something just like a little bit random, like
Speaker 3: a coffee mug, but it's like a really gross blade.
Speaker 3: You know those original glazers that's like blue and brown
Speaker 3: and green. Oh no, yeah, So we just give them
Speaker 3: back to my mum.
Speaker 1: Usually, go mum would have a whole set of them.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think she probably has like twenty.
Speaker 1: Now, now, what about boyfriends? I feel like they are
Speaker 1: often quite difficult to buy for. What are some gift
Speaker 1: ideas that you've got for them?
Speaker 3: So I did a boyfriend section specifically in the gift
Speaker 3: guide and it's easy for me. I could go on
Speaker 3: and on forever about that because I'm always trying to
Speaker 3: think of things to get my boyfriend.
Speaker 2: But some of my favorite ones were custom artwork.
Speaker 3: So I got this done recently for his birthday and
Speaker 3: it was by Louly Cartoons. And they do like cartoon characters,
Speaker 3: but if you send in pictures of yourself, they draw them,
Speaker 3: so you can do like the Simpsons or Adventure Time
Speaker 3: or Brick and Cording.
Speaker 2: And I got him our dog and myself in little
Speaker 2: cartoon characters, So that's okay.
Speaker 1: He loves that I got.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they.
Speaker 3: Always do sales like I think they're normally one hundred dollars,
Speaker 3: but I got it for way less and at the moment, yeah,
Speaker 3: they're like under fifty dollars, So I don't know how
Speaker 3: they do it with the time that the artists put in.
Speaker 1: That's a great one.
Speaker 3: Otherwise, if you're looking for clothing, I think you can't
Speaker 3: go past like a country road sweater. Or if they're
Speaker 3: more on a casual side, I've put a bunch of
Speaker 3: party shirts in there, like places like Barney Cools or
Speaker 3: Uncle Recco do some funny ones, especially that silly season.
Speaker 2: Or if you're wanting to give them something that will.
Speaker 3: Also give a gift to yourself, you could give them
Speaker 3: like a cocktail pack. You get pre made ones from
Speaker 3: Melbourne Martini, or you can buy like a shaker set
Speaker 3: or something and then hopefully they'll make some cocktails for you.
Speaker 1: The gift that just keeps giving with that one that's.
Speaker 3: Right, or he's a try to give something that will
Speaker 3: benefit me as well.
Speaker 1: And what about great stocking stuff for ideas for kids
Speaker 1: that won't break the budget.
Speaker 3: So with stocking stuffers, I think you should always try
Speaker 3: to give them something useful that they can play with
Speaker 3: rather than just filling it with junk. So something creative
Speaker 3: like plato or craft items are usually cheap. Otherwise, books
Speaker 3: are an affordable option as well. I've got a nephew
Speaker 3: who's three and he is obsessed with Bluey and they
Speaker 3: just released all these activity books for six dollars that
Speaker 3: are filled with like Christmas active so that will also
Speaker 3: keep kids entertained on car trips and things like that
Speaker 3: in the school holidays. Things like pencils and pencil cases
Speaker 3: that you need for school anyway also a good stocking stuffer.
Speaker 3: And my mom always put in things that we needed
Speaker 3: like underwear or socks or too splashes, but she made
Speaker 3: sure that they were fun ones like Barbie themed, because
Speaker 3: it's stuff that you're going to buy for them anyway,
Speaker 3: so you may as well put it in the stocking.
Speaker 1: That's so cute. Just moving on to wrapping paper and
Speaker 1: my boyfriend he wraps everything in alfoil, and I've had
Speaker 1: to try and convince him that, you know, just get
Speaker 1: some wrapping paper. Are there any sort of hacks for
Speaker 1: saving money when it does come to getting your gifts
Speaker 1: wrapped or wrapping gifts yourself and not using alfoil. Yes,
Speaker 1: let's get rid of alfhoil altogether.
Speaker 2: What about glad wrap that might not be very environmental.
Speaker 3: Honestly, I save money on wrapping paper just throughout the
Speaker 3: year by saving it up from present that other people
Speaker 3: give me, and even sell a phane and tissue paper
Speaker 3: from flower arrangements. I just keep it all in the
Speaker 3: cupboard and then I repurpose it. Also, I love buying
Speaker 3: rolls of brown paper and wrapping gifts in that with
Speaker 3: a nice ribbon or just a bit of twine. And
Speaker 3: if you're super crafty, you can add some greenery from
Speaker 3: outside or pine cones. If you live you know somewhere
Speaker 3: where you can grab some pine cones. You can always
Speaker 3: like spray them with a bit of glitter or a
Speaker 3: bit of gold and just add that on and that's
Speaker 3: really simple and cheap, but looks gorgeous, And I think
Speaker 3: people always appreciate it when you go the extra mile
Speaker 3: to do something that's handmade or Eliza.
Speaker 1: What about when it comes to presence you don't like.
Speaker 1: Do you think it's best to try and get the
Speaker 1: receipt from people and return it or do you think
Speaker 1: it's best to just be sneaking, maybe put it up
Speaker 1: on marketplace or come true.
Speaker 3: I think it depends on how well you know the
Speaker 3: person really Like if it was an immediate family member,
Speaker 3: I would have no problem returning the item and asking
Speaker 3: them for the receipt. But if it's extended family or
Speaker 3: in laws or a work colleague, you probably wouldn't want
Speaker 3: to ask them. So at Christmas time, a lot of
Speaker 3: stores have more lenient return policies if you know where
Speaker 3: they bought the item, like say, if it was a
Speaker 3: piece of clothing and it's still got the tag, you
Speaker 3: can check to see if the store would do in
Speaker 3: exchange or a credit note without the receipt. Otherwise, you
Speaker 3: can always keep it for regifting, sell it online, or
Speaker 3: donate it.
Speaker 1: We actually did something really sneaky. I hope our auntie
Speaker 1: doesn't listen to this, but she always used to give
Speaker 1: us like bath stuff that we didn't really use. So
Speaker 1: we took it to David Jones and swapped it for
Speaker 1: a Nigella Christmas cooking book. And I think it was
Speaker 1: the best decision we've ever made. That's because literally, our
Speaker 1: auntie she only shopped at David Jones. That's like literally, yeah,
Speaker 1: she ever goes to So yeah, we didn't need the receipt,
Speaker 1: but I was going to say, you probably you could
Speaker 1: probably pick up some good bargains as well on Facebook
Speaker 1: Marketplace after Christmas, because if everyone's trying to get rid.
Speaker 2: Of stuff, yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 3: I always look at for vouchers actually, because like some
Speaker 3: people would rather get the money than get a store vouchers,
Speaker 3: So especially ones that I always shop at, like Kmart
Speaker 3: or Bunnings, people will sell like one hundred dollars gift
Speaker 3: vouchers on Marketplace for eighty dollars because they'd rather the cash.
Speaker 3: And then you can just keep them in your wallet
Speaker 3: and then next time you're going to go to that
Speaker 3: store and buy stuff anyway, you've already got a discount
Speaker 3: sitting there.
Speaker 1: I feel like I know what we're all gonna be
Speaker 1: doing on Boxing Day or just like scouring the marketplace.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you can do the same for holidays, like a
Speaker 3: lot of times around Christmas people are selling flights cheap
Speaker 3: or holiday accommodation. Obviously it'll be a bit different this year,
Speaker 3: but that's also a good tip to look out for
Speaker 3: around Christmas and Easter.
Speaker 1: That's so good. Well, talking about Boxing Day, of course
Speaker 1: there's a Boxing Day sales. Do you have any tips
Speaker 1: for getting the most out of the Boxing Day sales?
Speaker 2: So for Boxing Day sales, you really want to go
Speaker 2: in store.
Speaker 3: A lot of the deals are in store only, or
Speaker 3: things sell up online real quickly, or they could even
Speaker 3: already be out of stock from Christmas sales. So if
Speaker 3: you're serious about Boxing Day sales, you need to sit down,
Speaker 3: figure out which shopping center you're going to, and then
Speaker 3: map out a plan of which stores you'd like to
Speaker 3: go to in order of when they open or your
Speaker 3: priority of what you're wanting to buy, and then head
Speaker 3: in store if you can check the opening times, because
Speaker 3: some of the major stores open as early as six am,
Speaker 3: Like I know in Sydney, Meyer in the city would
Speaker 3: open at six am and then other stores open at
Speaker 3: eight am nine am, so you can still be in
Speaker 3: a queue for opening time if you map out the
Speaker 3: stores correctly, and it can be absolutely chaotic, so make
Speaker 3: sure you don't have much to carry. I usually just
Speaker 3: took like a little wallet and have all your Christmas
Speaker 3: gift cards and money ready to go if people have
Speaker 3: given you gift cards or cash for Christmas. And if
Speaker 3: you're buying clothes, make sure that you wear a decent
Speaker 3: underwear or even a bikini because you're probably going to
Speaker 3: have to try clothes on in the middle of the store.
Speaker 1: Do you have to get your elbows ready to sort
Speaker 1: of elbows people out the way when you're just running
Speaker 1: towards the room.
Speaker 2: I mean normally, but this year it'll be one point
Speaker 2: that's distant. I don't know how they're going to do it.
Speaker 2: I don't know, if you know.
Speaker 3: I don't know what they're going to do, honestly, because, yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm normally like in the middle of Maya trying on
Speaker 3: clothes in the aisles next to people.
Speaker 1: Well, I saw it. You're not allowed to try and
Speaker 1: close in the stores at the moment, so I wonder
Speaker 1: if they'll put that in place over the Yeah, we
Speaker 1: haven't been.
Speaker 3: Allowed in Victoria and they're actually which I think just
Speaker 3: makes it worse because then people have to take it
Speaker 3: home to try it on.
Speaker 1: Yeah exactly, you can cough all over it at home
Speaker 1: and then return.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it is very weird and it means that
Speaker 3: people are taking things back like months later.
Speaker 2: So I think it's worse.
Speaker 3: They should just have people monitoring and maybe you know,
Speaker 3: blocking every second change room.
Speaker 1: Oh exactly, just from being thrifty. How much money would
Speaker 1: you say that you personally and people listening could actually
Speaker 1: say from I suppose listening to some of.
Speaker 3: Your advice, I think the Christmas savings really comes down
Speaker 3: to yearly budgeting and being organized time wise. So as
Speaker 3: I said before, I really start my budgeting from the
Speaker 3: start of the year, and then in about September October
Speaker 3: is when I write my Christmas list and work out
Speaker 3: what I'm spending per person and what I'm going to
Speaker 3: get them. So if you do that, you can put
Speaker 3: your notifications on for the stores or those items, and
Speaker 3: then when they're on sale, you can buy it for
Speaker 3: them and you can actually get a half price. But
Speaker 3: they're not going to know that, They're going to think
Speaker 3: that you paid the retail price. So if you do
Speaker 3: that or you buy things in Black Friday sales, you
Speaker 3: can save a lot of money. It's not so much
Speaker 3: where you shop, but it's definitely spending extra time to
Speaker 3: compare prices. And that's why following bargain pages like mine
Speaker 3: can be a shortcut because when normally doing the research
Speaker 3: and comparisons for you, you don't have to run around
Speaker 3: to all the different stores. And one of my top
Speaker 3: tips as well is make sure you stick to your
Speaker 3: budgets and shopping lists. Don't go crazy and just buy
Speaker 3: things that you don't need just because it's Christmas or
Speaker 3: just because it's on sale. I was looking up some
Speaker 3: figures before I did a Black Friday interview and apparently
Speaker 3: Australian spent eighteen point eight billion dollars of Christmas last year,
Speaker 3: so it obviously is the biggest money spending in the
Speaker 3: shopping industry for the year, so just be mindful of that.
Speaker 3: I like I said before, I save up all my
Speaker 3: vouchers at the end of the year and that normally
Speaker 3: gives me about six hundred dollars to put towards Christmas,
Speaker 3: and then putting the money aside each each week throughout
Speaker 3: the year means that I'm not stressed at Christmas and
Speaker 3: buying things on sale. I would say that I probably
Speaker 3: save about twenty percent off the cost of presents because
Speaker 3: I never really buy anything full price.
Speaker 2: I always use a discount code or wait for a sale.
Speaker 3: And if I normally spend about eight hundred dollars on
Speaker 3: my family for Christmas, that's like parents, extended family, and
Speaker 3: my boyfriend, then I'm saving about one hundred and sixty
Speaker 3: dollars a year and I can buy something for myself
Speaker 3: as well.
Speaker 1: And just to finish up on where can people find
Speaker 1: you on Instagram if they want to check out your page?
Speaker 3: So it's just at bargain, Underscore, homewares or in lowercase
Speaker 3: letters love it.
Speaker 1: We're addicted to your page, so everyone's going to go
Speaker 1: follow it.
Speaker 3: Fast on Frosty, they do not get rashes.
Speaker 1: We do want to finish off this interview though, with
Speaker 1: a quick fun Christmas quiz, and I think you love
Speaker 1: Christmas Tess as much as us, so I feel like
Speaker 1: you'll get a kick out of it. Okay, it's just
Speaker 1: some quick fire questions. So the first very serious. The
Speaker 1: first one is tinsel or no tinsel?
Speaker 2: No tinsel.
Speaker 1: What is your go to Christmas movie? I think I
Speaker 1: already know this one? Love actually, And what is your
Speaker 1: go to Christmas song? Well?
Speaker 2: It has to beam I carry all I want for Christmas?
Speaker 1: I love it obviously.
Speaker 2: Is that not everyone?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 1: I wonder if anyone is going to answer something different.
Speaker 1: So our dad's favorite Christmas song is Holy Jolly Christmas
Speaker 1: and he wants how to on repeat when our mum's
Speaker 1: family came over to see if anyone noticed, So it
Speaker 1: played on repeat for two hours until anyone said anything. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but that's not really the demography. Real tree or fake tree?
Speaker 2: Real tree?
Speaker 1: Do you say Santa Claus or Father Christmas? I just
Speaker 1: say Santa cold custard or warm custard with Christmas pudding.
Speaker 2: It has to be warm, yeah.
Speaker 1: Putting or pavlova.
Speaker 2: My Grandma's pudding.
Speaker 1: Roast or seafood.
Speaker 2: Oh that's hard. I'll say a roast, but a glazed ham.
Speaker 1: And when did you find out Santa wasn't real?
Speaker 3: I think it was in year two after I watched
Speaker 3: the Santa Claus with you know, the movie?
Speaker 1: Yea, what do you guys mean? He's not real? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And what is I know we already touched on the
Speaker 1: worst present, But what's the best Christmas present you've ever gotten?
Speaker 2: Oh that's a hard question. Well, I'm actually obsessed with
Speaker 2: One Direction, and I know we went to the.
Speaker 1: Cliset, so I feel like we could be best friends
Speaker 1: after hearing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I went to all their as well.
Speaker 3: And because their stuff started getting like discontinued when they
Speaker 3: disbanded a lot of their like perfumes and the memorability
Speaker 3: that they did, my mom went around last year to
Speaker 3: like all the chemists warehouses and bought their first perfume.
Speaker 3: It's called our Moment, and she gave me like twenty
Speaker 3: of them so that I have enough stock now for
Speaker 3: like the next ten we have one of them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that must be a mom thing. Our mom keets
Speaker 1: buying that perfume, Like not in twenty bottles, but we
Speaker 1: had that with we Love Hillary Duff and the with
Speaker 1: Love perfume. It's been discontinued, but it was the best.
Speaker 1: Like I'm so sad I don't have that anymore.
Speaker 2: That's the thing, Like people always ask me, what's your perfume?
Speaker 3: I love it, And I just love telling them one
Speaker 3: Direction because they do not expect that it's so funny,
Speaker 3: it's the best.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you so much. We've loved having you on
Speaker 1: the podcast. Thanks for making the time.
Speaker 2: Thank you it was really exciting.
Speaker 1: Well that's probably all we have time for. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for joining us for today's episode. If you
Speaker 1: have enjoyed it, it'd be amazing if you could share
Speaker 1: where you're listening from on your Instagram and tag us out, Outspoken, Underscore,
Speaker 1: the Underscored Podcast. And if you did enjoy this episode,
Speaker 1: we'd love if you could help us out and leave
Speaker 1: us a review on the Apple Podcast charts. So many
Speaker 1: of you messaging saying you love the podcast, so if
Speaker 1: you do want to help, go and leave us a
Speaker 1: review