NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast - Amazon Prime Day Hacks and Budgeting Tips for Emotional Shoppers

Episode Date: July 7, 2025

Learn how to approach Amazon Prime day without blowing your budget and hear how you can start to understand the emotions that might be driving your spending.  What are the best ways to take advantage of big sales like Amazon Prime Day but still stay on track with your budget? How can you get a handle on emotional spending and the guilt that comes with it? Hosts Sean Pyles and Elizabeth Ayoola dive into how to approach your budget, whether it’s while gearing up for a sale or just in your everyday life. Joined by Jamil Ghani, the Vice President of Amazon Prime, they begin with a discussion of what to expect during Prime Day this year, and how to get the most out of the event, including info about invite-only deals and how AI-powered tools can help you find what you need.  Then, Sean and Elizabeth are joined by listener Catherine, who has questions about getting a handle on her emotional spending tendencies. They discuss what triggers emotional spending and how to recognize patterns of behavior. Plus, they explain different budgeting methods to help bring structure to your spending while still giving you the freedom to treat yourself without feeling guilty.  Want us to review your budget? Fill out this form — completely anonymously if you want — and we might feature your budget in a future segment! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScK53yAufsc4v5UpghhVfxtk2MoyooHzlSIRBnRxUPl3hKBig/viewform?usp=header  The free NerdWallet app makes it easy to be smarter with your finances because you can track, save and invest your money in one place: https://click.nerdwallet.com/3687710914/smpc In their conversation, the Nerds discuss: Amazon Prime Day 2025, Prime Day shopping tips, best Prime Day deals, Amazon AI shopping tools, Prime Day electronics discounts, Amazon invite-only deals, emotional spending help, budgeting for couples, 50 30 20 budget rule, NerdWallet Smart Money podcast, money guilt solutions, budgeting apps free, impulse spending solutions, coping with financial stress, Amazon savings for students, Prime Day household deals, CamelCamelCamel price tracker, how to stop emotional shopping, financial planning tips, budgeting without a system, money values journaling, Amazon Prime VP interview, Amazon shopping hacks, setting a shopping budget, NerdWallet budgeting advice, Smart Money money questions, financial therapy alternatives, personal finance podcast, how to prioritize spending, budgeting for grad school. To send the Nerds your money questions, call or text the Nerd hotline at 901-730-6373 or email [e-mail]. Like what you hear? Please leave us a review and tell a friend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's episode is sponsored by Dell. Let's talk about the new Dell AI PC powered by the Intel Core Ultra Processor. It's not just an AI computer, it's a computer built for AI. That means it's built to help do your busy work for you. So you can fast forward through editing images, designing presentations, generating code, debugging code, categorizing your financial transactions, running lots of apps without lag, creating live translation and captions, summarizing meeting notes, extending battery life, enhancing security, finding that file you're looking for, organizing your receipts, managing your schedule,

meeting your deadlines, drafting financial summaries, responding to Cody's long emails, leaving all the time in the world for more you time and the things that you actually want to do. No offense, Cody. Get a new Dell AI PC starting at 699.99 at dell.com slash AI dash PC. That's dell.com slash AI dash PC.

How those ahead stay ahead. Deal hunting is a time-honored tradition of American consumerism. On the eve of one of the biggest shopping events of the year, yes, Prime Day, do you know how to find the deals that are actually worth it and how to rein yourself in from overspending? Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast, where you send us your money questions and

we answer them with the help of our genius nerds. I'm Sean Piles. This episode, my co-host Elizabeth Ayola and I talk with a listener who's struggling to manage their budget and get their arms around their emotional spending. But first listeners, an announcement. We're working on a new segment called Budget Rehab and we need your help to make it happen.

If you want us nerds to look over your budget with a fine tooth comb and give you our thoughts and tips, head to the show description and click on the link to the Google form and submit your info. You can even submit your budget totally anonymously if you want. And speaking of budgets, another summer is upon us and along with the barbecues, family vacations and uncomfortable sweating, the annual event that is Amazon's Prime Day is knocking at our doors.

So we've got the scoop on what's new about Prime Day this year and some tips so you can find the best deals amid the sea of discounts. Joining us to talk about this is someone who knows Prime Day from the inside out, Jamil Ghani, the VP of Amazon Prime. Jamil, welcome to Smart Money. Hi, thank you for having me. Sure thing. So let's start by talking about what is new with Prime Day this year beyond the fact that it's actually four days this year. Well, the number one thing is what you said.

It's four days long, and we've doing that because our members have told us the number one thing they want is more time. More time to produce literally millions of deals across 35 categories. We also are dropping top deals every midnight throughout the event to kind of drive really, really sharp savings on top brands that you love. In certain times of the event, we'll also have deals dropping every five minutes. Another thing I'm really excited about is we're making it easier for our members to shop those millions of deals with more AI powered tools. Hey, I'm into photography, I'm looking for accessories are less than $100. Or I'm trying to remodel my

living room mid century modern and it'll come back with deals that match that natural language query. So across the entire store, there's gonna be more deals, the longer event and then more ways that personalize it and make it easier for you to find exactly what's right for you. So it might take a bit of upfront organizing to think through what I might need around the house and then what might be kind of fun to add on. I think that's how you get the most out of these events. And they're meant

to save you money. And so I think the best way to save money is know what you need and you want and kind of go in with a plan. And whether you set up the wishlist and things like showing up with that handwritten node or an Apple note or whatever is I think the best way to approach the event because we understand like showing up with that handwritten node or an Apple node or whatever is, I think, the best way to approach the event because we understand that then can be overwhelming for our younger members. Exciting news happening now is we've reinvented the young adult program.

This is a 50% off membership for folks that are 18 to 24. And we're announcing with this reinvention, a limited time offer of 5% off. And during Prime Day, that 5% goes to 10%. I saw that Amazon also has these invite only deals. Can you describe how that works? Yeah. So you can imagine some items are hard to come by from an inventory standpoint, particularly when you're offering them. It's sort of screaming deals.

And so this is a program that we launched a couple of years ago, which is you simply register interest in a deal, whether it's on an electronics device, or apparel or beauty. And then when those go live, you get entered into a lottery to win a ticket to buy that item, then you have a certain amount of time to claim that ticket and get that deal. It's not hundreds of thousands of items. It's a more curated selection, but it adds a little bit of additional fun. I'm wondering also if there are certain categories that tend to be more heavily discounted during Prime Day. You know, I'm thinking about how we often see deals on TVs and other electronics during Black Friday. Is there an equivalent for Prime Day or is it just so broad that kind of everything is on sale? Yeah, it's a great question, Sean. I think historically, it was more focused on sort

of the typical big deal event that you see for a Black Friday or Cyber Monday. So electronics were really popular. But the reality is Prime Day has changed a lot over the last couple years, particularly during the pandemic, when folks, you and me, we're all home, we need to kind of everything. And so we transform Prime Day into sales and savings event across the entire store. So now today, it's 35 categories, hundreds of 1000s of deals in each of those categories. So you can shop from everyday essentials, and non perishables and also perishables if you shop whole foods and fresh. They also have deals going on all the way through apparel and furniture and beauty and all the way on to electronics.

So that's why I think that list is really important because it can be overwhelming if you kind of go in sight unseen, but when you know, like my family knows, we've got another school year coming up, you know, it's also a kickoff to back to school back to college. And so we know those are things we're going to need. And so that's always on our list. Some folks are saving up for that big TV purchase or beats headphones or Yeti bottles or Dyson vacuum cleaners. And so all of that will

be on sale too. So it's become so much more than just your typical sort of electronics door buster type sale. Well, Jamil, I do have to ask you as a final question. What are you buying on Prime Day? Well, with young kids, it's a combination of diapers and wipes, which we know we will go through. Our one-year-old is still in that very much in that stage. We will be getting ready for back to school with a fourth grader and a kindergartener starting in school for the first time and so backpacks and

paper and art supplies. I do get a jump on holiday shopping even with birthdays and then obviously the holidays coming up so gifts for my family and friends and things like that. We are always in search of summer fun. So the girls have asked for a slip and slide because it's been really warm in lots of places, including Seattle. So that's on the list. Inevitably, I will admit, I do find some things that I'm like,

oh, you know, that sounds like a really good deal. I do think I need a ping pong set or whatever it is. You gotta have some fun when you're shopping too. You have to remember also we have savings on one medical there savings on prime video videos, you know that there you can go all the way to Amazon devices like it really is all of the Amazon businesses come together in this one celebration of our members.

Well, Jamil Ghani, VP of Amazon Prime. Thank you so much for coming on smart money and sharing your tips with us. I really appreciate it. Thanks, Sean. I also wanted to mention that we have some excellent articles on NerdWallet's website that can help you folks listening make the most of Prime Day and other online shopping events. But I will mention three quick tips for you. First, some of the best deals are on stuff that isn't super flashy. I'm talking about household items like garbage bags, teeth whitening strips, and hair care products. Second, compare prices beforehand to know how much of a deal you're actually getting.

We recommend using tools like the browser extension Camel Camel Camel, which tracks prices on Amazon over time. And finally, you know you should be doing it anyway. Set a budget and know how much you can comfortably spend. Alright, we're about to get to this episode's money question segment, where Elizabeth and I help a listener unpack their spending habits. But first listeners, you know the drill. Send us your money questions. Leave us a voicemail or text us on the Nerd Hotline at 901-730-6373.

That's 901-730-NERD. You can also email us at podcast at nerdballot.com. And one last announcement. We are running another book giveaway sweepstakes ahead of our next Nerdy Book Club episode. Our next guest is Dana Miranda, author of You Don't Need a Budget, Stop Worrying About Debt, Spend Without Shame, and Manage Money With Ease. To enter for a chance to win our book giveaway, send an email to podcast.nerdwallet.com with the subject Book Sweepstakes during the sweepstakes period. Entries must be received by 1159 PM Pacific Time on July 31st. Include the following information,

your first and last name, email address, zip code, and phone number. For more information, please visit our official sweepstakes rules page. Okay, let's get into this episode's money question segment. That's up next, stay with us. We are back and answering your money questions to help you make smarter financial decisions. This episode we're talking with a listener, Katherine, who wants some help getting a grip on their spending and budgeting.

Katherine, welcome to Smart Money. Hi, thank you so much. Great to have you on. So I'd like to start by hearing about your financial life at a high level. So right now thinking about your money, what makes you feel proud? What maybe makes you squirm a little bit? I'm not really a numbers person. So money is one of those kind of difficult topics anyway. But I do have a little bit of pride in the fact that my partner and I have been working

with a financial planner for a few years. So we do have our big picture money plan under wraps. I mean, I think we feel we have like a pretty good sense of investing and a general sense of like six months out budgeting. The stuff that makes me squirm is actually my personal relationship to money, and just kind of how I approach it and what kind of emotions come up. And the questions that I have in terms of prioritizing and making decisions and the guilt that I feel when I buy something or how to decide where my money goes. And it feels kind of silly, but it also feels kind of like a really big question. So I thought I'd reach out to you guys to see if there's a way we could talk about it.

Yeah. Well, what you're describing, it might sound silly, but it's really common. A lot of people have feelings of guilt and shame around how they spend their money because they think they quote unquote should be doing something different or better. And we can get into that. So what is the current budgeting system that you use for your money? Do you have a budgeting system or do you kind of just pay yourself and what's left over? That's what I do, by the way, you didn't ask, but I'm telling you.

But anyway, tell me what you do. My personal budgeting system doesn't really exist. Interesting. Yeah. All right, well, talk with us a little more about your income and expenses because that's what your budget is made of. So what do you have coming in and going out on a regular basis? You had filled out a budgeting spreadsheet for us a bit before so that's that's been helpful as

a jumping-off point. But how do you think about what you have as a regular expenses on a monthly or even weekly basis? So my regular income is from my job. It's not a high-e job, but I'm contributing to our household and covering rent basically. My husband is looking for a job and his intention is to get a high earning job. He's been really, really working towards that, but he just finished his PhD last year and so there's been this sort of expected long buffer period and we have investments that we've been working with and living off of for this past year. And then we have an additional income source that comes in quarterly that kind of helps buffer a little bit of our spending but we don't we can't use that we just have it as

like an emergency fund so what we're using for our living is my income and these investments. So you're selling off investments to cover some ongoing expenses are you accounting for tax liability when you're selling off investments to cover some ongoing expenses. Are you accounting for tax liability when you're selling those off, putting aside some money? Yeah. That's good to hear. And when you've worked with your financial planner and they've looked at your income and expenses and financial goals, what have they said about how you're managing your money on a daily basis?

Do they have any suggestions for you? We've spent time on the big picture and we just haven't really done work with them, particularly on the small picture. So yeah, I feel like I've kind of been left to my own devices on that a little bit. I know you are partnered and I know you said you don't have a budget, but does your husband work with a budget? I think so. He's very, very structured.

Yeah, I don't know his budget, actually. That's an interesting question. I probably should know what he's working with. Well, if you're comfortable sharing, how do you guys approach managing your finances as a couple? Or do you manage separately? We're very comfortable talking about everything. I get overwhelmed talking about money. And so he I get overwhelmed talking about money and so he handles most of it. And so I don't feel like I really I hate to say care but like I don't really I can't really like keep track of his spending or his budgeting or like what his numbers are. Does that make sense? Yes. So talk with us about what exactly makes you uncomfortable when you're spending money or when

you're thinking about engaging with it and then how we can help you get through those feelings with the caveat that you know I'm not a therapist. Yeah of course and I will just mention that I have talked to my therapist about this before but I do feel like there's got to be some way to kind of approach this more surface without making it a huge emotional weight. The guilt is pretty big and the confusion. I think another question I wanted to bring to the table for you guys was when you have these opportunities for prioritizing, when you have your own cash flow, you know, like, let's just say there's there's no emotion attached to it. How do you prioritize one spending

over the other? I can empathize with the feeling overwhelmed, first of all, but I think it's really important to tackle the discomfort that you're feeling before you dive sometimes into trying to manage your finances. The exercise that I did years ago to try to understand better why I felt so uncomfortable with money is I did a lot of journaling around my money values. And as you said, it really sometimes is rooted

in maybe how you saw your parents managing money and all these values that you picked up along the way, even just from watching TV shows or from anything really that you adopted. And one important thing that I did is separate and say which of these values are mine and which ones reflect who I am and my values as an adult versus ones that I got from other people.

So that's something that helped me tremendously. As you're thinking about your money and what to do with it, Catherine, the hard part is that you can never take the emotional aspect out of it. So just understand that. But I really want to get deep into the specifics around your feelings.

You've mentioned feeling guilt. So when do you feel guilt? What specific actions or moments are triggering this feeling in you? I think it's probably a big spend, something like over $50 in one purchase or something that felt kind of like, oh, I just want this and I don't know why. And I didn't, you know, click my or something, maybe a purchase from a place that doesn't align with my values like a big box store or something like that I'm wondering if some of the source of this guilt is the disconnect between

Purchasing what you are getting and maybe not knowing whether you totally have the funds to cover it It seems like you do have enough money coming in But because you aren't as familiar with the actual numbers as you could be, there is perhaps a bit of uncertainty around, okay, how is this going to fit into a bigger financial picture? That sounds very plausible. One thing I would encourage you to do when you feel guilty about a purchase is ask yourself initially what you were actually hoping the purchase would do for you.

Because sometimes we buy things as a coping mechanism. And the hard part about spending as a coping mechanism is that it is super easy to do, especially in the era of online shopping. It actually is effective because it makes you feel good, but the hard part is that it's never really satisfying and you can feel worse afterward like you're describing, like feeling guilty.

Are you familiar with the concept of the hedonic treadmill? No. So it's this idea that we are all, everyone on this planet, on this treadmill of hedonism, if you will, so you can make a purchase or acquire something and it feels really good, but then you are quickly back at that baseline feeling of happiness that you have.

So even though you got that spike of dopamine, it's never really going to last. Are there certain times of day or certain feelings that are more common that maybe lead you into purchasing? Have you been aware of any of those patterns? Probably stress, which would make sense. I don't know if I have diligently monitored what might be leading into it. I do know the online thing happens late at night, for sure. Yeah, very common.

Yeah, I think that's like, I'm half asleep and a package shows up the next day. Your guard is down. Like what is this? Yeah. The stress thing is real. I think if I've had a long day and I could go to the gym or I could go to the shoe store, like yeah, I'm going to probably go to the shoe store. And that feels sometimes bad instead of good, but also good, you know? I can absolutely relate. And I had an issue last year with emotional buying. I would buy when I was happy, when I was sad, when I was angry, every emotion I needed to buy something, whether it was food or something else.

But what really helped me was finding another coping mechanism or even just an outlet for when I am feeling happy like girl you're happy but you don't need to go buy something. I have adopted lots of hobbies now so when I'm happy I can go paint or I can go and ride my bike and I have this nice little Bluetooth speaker and I play my music really loud while I'm riding my pink bike. So I think it's just about looking for things that can help with that emotion versus going to spending. I have a part of my budget that is allocated to me spending on things that I want.

And that's why budgeting, a lot of people can think of it as restrictive or like, almost patronizing in a way. But in fact, it can be a way to liberate your spending because you know that you have the intentionality and the purpose behind where you're allocating your dollars. At NerdWallet, we talk a lot about the 50-30-20 budget for good reason. 50% of your income goes to cover your obligations, things like housing, any sort of medical expenses you might have, credit card debt, et cetera. And then 30% goes towards your want category. That is the more discretionary purchases, things like eating out.

20% goes towards additional debt payments and savings. NerdWallet has a budgeting app where you can use this for free. Have you ever tried playing with a specific budget framework or an app there are so many out there to play with? So what I have done before, which was probably as close as I've gotten to actually budgeting, was at the end of the month for about two years, every month, I would just go through all of my finances and all of my expenses and I would just like write them down. And it just gave me a sense of like, okay, I know where that went. Like I caught a few misspens and everything. But it wasn't necessarily giving me rules.

So I'm still I'm sort of back to square one. I think what's going to help you is to experiment a bit. One really helpful thing that I've done in the past is for a single month, I tracked every single penny that came into or went out of my life. And I would track it in the moment. And I would also add on like what exactly it was I purchased and how I felt about that purchase. The idea is really just to understand exactly what you're doing and when and how you feel about it.

Because then you can sort of see patterns over time, mitigate some of those feelings of guilt and just create your opportunities for you to feel bad about how you're spending. Cool, I appreciate that. And also Catherine, I wanna know, some of those feelings of guilt and just create your opportunities for you to feel bad about how you're spending. Cool. I appreciate that. And also, Catherine, I want to know, do you have any fears or also uncomfortable feelings around learning more about money?

So I know you said you are not very familiar and your husband does all of the things and you kind of just don't know. So do you feel overwhelmed in terms of even just digging into more information about budgeting systems or whatever other financial goals you have? I think that's a really astute question, observation, because I feel like there have been times when I've been able to sit down and spend an afternoon, like those months where I was just like actually on the 31st

or the 1st, I would be like, okay, I just got to do my summary thing. And I felt empowered and I was like, oh, I could do this. Actually, it doesn't seem so scary. But stepping away from it, it just feels really huge and confusing and overwhelming. And like there's so many layers and aspects and it feels terrifying. Honestly, yeah. Part of that can come from the distance that you've created between yourself and your money when I think if you downloaded some of your bank statements or you pull up your credit card app on your phone, you see where your money is going. Having that familiarity really vanquishes

some of the fear behind it, but there are some simple tactics that can help you do that too. Like maybe you want something that's more regular and smaller than that monthly review of your spending. Do you want a little prod from your reminders app on your phone every day? Is there a budgeting app that might have

a push notification for you every day to say, hey, here's where your spending every day? Is there a budgeting app that might have a push notification for you every day to say, hey, here's where your spending landed today? Just make it as easy as possible and try to distance your actions from senses of shame because you are just responding to your life one day at a time. You're trying to make the best that you can out of it. But also I think getting really clear

on those high level goals that you have might help you focus your spending too Because it's not just budgeting for the sake of budgeting It's budgeting so that you can use your money in the way that's most productive for you long term When you think about your money on a day-to-day basis How often are you connecting it to that longer term plan that you and your partner have made with your financial planner? You're shaking your financial planner. Never. Very often. Is he shaking your head here? Yeah.

Well, think about that because it's one of those things where every little action that you take makes it easier or harder to accomplish those goals. Sometimes people think that your relationship with money is this rigid straight line and you always have to be doing the right thing even when you know all the things to do. But just as with any relationship it ebbs and flows, right? So I think remembering that can help with the shame. That's something to keep in mind as well. I don't really think in terms of goals or long-term picture very well. I'm kind of like more of an immediacy experiencer person. And so what you were saying, Sean, makes a lot of sense, but I don't really relate to it in terms of planning for the future.

It's like when there's something shiny and beautiful in front of me, that feels like the most important thing in the world to me at that moment. And so I guess I'm just curious if you have any thoughts or opinions or ways of handling that kind of critical moment where I'm standing there and I'm like overwhelmed with this sort of guilt and desire and, you know, vacuum that's like, potentially could be filled with a lot of things. Yeah, the excitement of almost buying something is so great. I think we all know that thrill. Something that walks me back from the edge is this mantra I've heard around the personal

finance space, which is just that I have enough. And I do try to redirect yourself and it takes this sort of meta thinking as you are in the store or online to pull yourself back and consider why am I feeling this emotion? How have I trained myself to get so hooked on this dopamine rush of buying something? And how can I redirect that energy? It is challenging and it's a muscle that you have to build over time. And you can also create more physical physical tactile buffers, like deleting all of your payment info from your apps on your phone and on your web browser.

Maybe just carrying cash with you, make it less easy for you to buy things when you have that sudden impulse and it feels so good just to do it because then, you know, on the other side of that purchase are those feelings that are not so great. Apple wallet, count your days. I have deleted all my cards from Apple Wallet actually and it does work. Thank you. Those are great. I think it was really helpful to get into that nice space of getting down to that really critical moment of the dopamine rush. And on the other side of that, I'm trying to go to grad school in the fall. I haven't been to school in about 20 years. And I'm expecting it to be a pretty different

experience than what I've been doing for the last 20 years. And so I'm anticipating that I'm going to have kind of a lot of adjusting to do. Do you guys have any suggestions or thoughts about ways to budget or handle money when you're under a lot of stress? Just long-term, big picture. I think you should give yourself a little bit more credit as being a long-term thinker, because going to grad school,

planning to go to grad school, thinking about what your career might be after grad school, that's all long-term thinking. So even if you don't recognize that in yourself, you're doing it. So appreciate that. And ahead of going to grad school, you can use these summer months to try out a few different systems that work well for you. One that I rely on a lot is called paying yourself first, where when I have my paycheck come in, I have my direct deposit set

up to go to a handful of different savings and checking accounts that I know I'm putting money in my emergency fund. I know I have it in my checking account to cover my mortgage and any other needs expenses, but I'm not managing it day to day in a way that's super hands-on. I did that administrative work in the front to make sure everything would just be going on its own. That might be something that could work for you. And also what's coming up for me is, like you said, if I use the summer months to get kind of get structured and get familiar, then actually maybe I could lean on my husband's structuring abilities to kind of help set up this planning and like front end work,

let him know what I've found and then have him help me with that As well. Well Katherine, thank you for being so open with us about your finances today and how you feel about it Keep us posted on how everything goes for you. I'd love to hear about how your budgeting journey goes from here Thank you both so much. I really appreciate being here and that is all we have for this episode Remember listener that we are here to answer your money questions. So turn to the nerds and call or text us your questions at 901-730-6373. You can also send us an email. Our address is podcast at nerdwallet.com.

We would love you to join us next time to hear the latest money news and also how you can manage a big windfall. Follow Smart Money on your favorite podcast app that includes Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeartRadio to automatically download new episodes. BOWEN Here is our brief disclaimer. We are not your financial or investment advisors. This nerdy info is provided for general educational and entertainment purposes and may not apply to your specific circumstances. This episode was produced by Tess Vigeland, Hilary Georgie, Health with Editing, Nick Charisimi mixed our audio,

and a big thank you to NerdWallet's editors for all their help. And with that said, until next time, turn to the nerds.