She's On The Money - The twelve saves of xmas

Episode Date: November 30, 2021

GUYS, CHRISTMAS IS COMING! And Jessica Ricci has decided to shower you all with as much Christmas content as she can persuade us to create for you, because now it's officially December all bets are off. So join us, as we go through our top twelve savings tips for getting through the festive season.The advice shared on She’s on The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She’s on The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. Victoria Devine is an Authorised Representative of Australia Pacific Funds Management Proprietary Limited ABN 34 132 463 257 - AFSL 339151.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

She's on the money. She's on the money. Hello and welcome to She's on the money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. Believe it or not, today is the 1st of December, which means Christmas is just three and a half weeks away. And to celebrate, over the next few Wednesdays, we'll be bringing you some extra festive content. To kick things off today, we're going to be diving deep into our top 12 hacks to help you save money this silly season. And given Australians are tipped to spend $23.9 billion on Christmas this year. Oofed. Oofed indeed, Vicky D. We think these

tips could be exactly what we all need. Now, my name is Georgia King, and joining me as always is, of course, financial advisor, Victoria Devine. V, firstly, happy first day of summer. Hello. Great news. Great result. Thank you. And did you enjoy the intro of the pod? You know I did. You saw me bopping and jiving. I love it. Yeah, we this time, guys, we played it before we started podcasting so that we could feel extra festive. And I'm feeling festive for sure. This is how adults run their lives and work, right? Yeah, yeah, for sure. For sure. The $23.9 billion is what I said before. I've never seen as many dollars as that in my whole life. It's a lot. It's a big jump from last year as well. So that is information that's come from Finder. But that's a

lot of billions, VD. That's many billions. In fact, it's 23.9 of them. Correct. So how do you feel about that? Is that's obviously not what you're expecting this year? No, I've read the reports. I've seen it. And to be honest, I think that a lot of us are going to be making up for having such not so nice years. And I think that a lot of us just feel like we want to make ourselves feel a bit better. So I'm not surprised that we are all doing that. It's kind of like a bit of a rebound in a way, like you're bouncing back into something by potentially going too hard. So it does make me a little bit uncomfortable, especially given the amount of financial stress that so many people have been in this year. It just doesn't make sense to put even more

financial stress on ourselves when in reality, I guarantee most people can't list off the top of their head exactly what they got for Christmas last year. Yeah, that's a really good point, actually. Thank you. It's the one I just made. Jeez, well done. There's a stat out there and I don't have it with me. Statgirl has let the team down today. But is it true that Christmas is among the most financially stressful times of year? Yes, absolutely. It is arguably the most financially stressful time of year. And it's the most likely time of the year that your partner is going to ask you for a divorce. Scary stuff. Oh, geez. A lot happening then. Just throw the book at it. Before we move into our tips, I also wanted to add that according... That's not a tip. Don't

ask your partner for a divorce unless you're actually thinking about that already. In that case, go for it. Don't listen to she's on the money and be like, great idea. I'll get him that for Christmas. But before we do get to our proper tips today, Bea, I just wanted to point out that according to that same research, millennials are expected to spend more than any other generation this year. And it's actually $1,518, according to Finder. That's so much money. I can't fathom that people are spending that much money at Christmas again, especially given how much we've been through in the last 12, 18, 24 months. Like it just seems like a silly number when $1,500 would be a really great emergency fund for someone. I'm not saying go and don't spend money

on Christmas, but like maybe one for you, two for me kind of vibes where you're actually putting yourself first this Christmas and making sure, and I don't mean in a gift giving way, I mean in a savings way, Georgia. I feel like people might take that advice and just run with it, but that's okay. So, let's get straight into the tips. Let's do it, Bea. Okay. Our first tip here is to shop online where possible. Why is this such a classic tip, Vicky Day? Is it so that we can use Shopback and get some sick, sick cash back? Is that why? I think that's why. That's an unsolicited sponsor shout out. Like they're not paying for that. But I genuinely think that by shopping online, one, you can make more educated decisions. So you can like look around without having to walk the

entirety of Chadston three times to find the best price for a singular item. The second thing there is you can make the most of discounts. And usually you can Google discount codes or like sign up to their website and get 10% off your first purchase. Or you can use things again, like shop back, which we obviously advocate for whether they're paying us to say at this time or not. And it means that you're more likely to buy less because you don't have as much impulsiveness when you're shopping online as compared to when you like walk through Maya and you see those little gift things. You're like, oh my gosh, Georgia would love that as well. I'll just pop that in her stocking. So I feel like shopping online is probably a really good idea, but we need to do it early,

especially because we know that throughout the last year, AusPost has been pretty good at being delayed. So if you are going to be shopping online this Christmas, I'd be doing it sooner rather than later. So you don't end up doing the mad dash to a shopping center at midnight the day before Christmas because your presents didn't arrive. I guess it also is a really big time saver V, which, you know, everything amps up at this time of year. We're all so busy. So that's quite handy as well. Our second tip for today V is of course, to know your budget and to not be tempted to spend more than you can actually afford. Amen. And there is a budgeting template for Christmas on our website. So use it, write exactly what you want to spend down and then work

it out properly. Cause I think the one thing that we are all really naughty at, at Christmas time is just assuming like in my head, George, I'll be like, Oh, I'll probably spend about $500 at Christmas time. Like in my head, that's a lot of money because it is, but then I forget that everything adds up. So I've got my sister, I've got my partner, I've got, you know, my nieces and nephews. I've probably got family, Chris Kringle and $500 is going to, for me, creep up really quickly because of the amount of people I buy presents for. So we've got to be really realistic about what that looks like. And setting realistic budgets at the start is going to mean you keep to that budget because I might allocate it all out and go, all right, 50 bucks per present sounds

reasonable. I write it all down and realize that's actually out of my budget. But if I cut it down to $40 a gift, I'm bang on. So, if we do these little negotiations with ourselves and set the tone at the start and set the expectation, then we don't find ourselves blowing out because you just didn't think about it comprehensively enough. And it's so easy to forget how much little presents add up. And it's not just about, am I getting Georgia a Christmas present? Okay. Yes, I am. Just FYI. But second thing is the little things like, are you going to go to a friend's house for some Christmas drinks or a Christmas barbecue, how much is that box of favorites or their favorite box of Choccy Lint balls? Like those things can be 20 plus dollars very easily. And you go to

three of those barbecues, you spent 60 bucks you didn't even realize you were going to spend. For sure. Slight digression. A couple of weeks ago, I actually did chat about favorites and specifically picnic bars, which I'm going to say it here on the podcast are a grossly underrated chocolate bar. Why? Come on, tell us exactly why. Get us on your team, sell us. So when I was younger, let me take you back. Can we remember that you're in your 20s, so you are in fact young? Oh, thanks, girl. I don't feel it though. But you know, you get a box of favorites, you're snagging the flake, you're snagging the caramello. Who wants the flake? Oh my God, everyone. Maybe we're not so similar, you and I. But I always

dismissed picnics as just being like this greedy, peanutty mess of a chocolate that was like too rich. You could never finish a whole one. Anyway, fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, I was given a box of favorites by someone who clearly didn't like me very much. I'm joking. It was a great gift. I was going to say that's a solid 20 bucks spent on you right there. It was a small box. Anyway, the picnics were the only ones that were left. So I grabbed one. Desperate times. I get it. And turns out it was delightful. Yeah. Anyway, that was a five minute bloody digression for no reason.

But you saved the best to last. And I didn't even know. So if you've been hoarding, maybe this is a Georgia King tip. If you've been hoarding the picnics, you could actually give to them for Christmas to Georgia and she'd be so happy. Send them to me. I'll be thrilled. All right, V, let's move on to our next little tip here.

It is to not go into debt where possible. Talk us through it. Exactly. So this one might not save you any money during the festive season, but it's very likely going to save you a lot of cash down the line. You need to remember that the people in your life who you might be gifting for quite likely don't want you to go into debt for their benefit. Like there's nobody in my entire life who would say a present is more important than Victoria staying out of debt. Like think about it that way. Reframing it really does help, but don't feel like you need to

lean on credit or buy now pay later providers because they have been really cheeky with their marketing recently to make you feel like that's the easy way around Christmas time. But that from my point of view is a very easy way to start the year next year with debt. And we don't want to be in that position if we can avoid it. Now, please don't think that I'm saying no to any form of debt this Christmas, because I know that there are a lot of families that are going to need to rely on Christmas to have a day that just sparks joy and that is what's necessary. At the end of the day, as much as we always say, don't go into debt, don't do it, debt is bad. It is, but I'm also a real person who gets real situations. And sometimes that's the best decision for you and your family

at that point in time. The one thing we don't want to do is stick our heads in the sand about the debt though. So we want to make sure that whatever debt we are taking on this festive season, we're avoiding getting in as much of it as possible it's not a in debt or not in debt situation if you need to use it we're still thinking about how we can save as much money as possible we're not just going gung-ho and being like all right well I have to use my credit card I guess I'll just spend double which is a very easy thing to say and to do to yourselves but also about creating a plan of how to get out of that debt like make a reasonable plan that says okay, if I spend X amount on Afterpay, I'm going to be able to pay it off in this amount of time.

And I know I'm going to have that income to service that debt because that's the thing we all forget when we just tap our cards. And nowadays with Afterpay being available in every single retail outlet at every single shopping center I've seen recently, it's going to be so much easier to say, ah, that's a lot less pain to have to part with my cash this festive season because I've got so many presents to buy. It's not a good idea if you're in that situation where you're thinking, oh, I shouldn't be really spending it. But if I put it on Afterpay, it's easier. Try finding something cheaper to purchase. Like it's just not worth it. And we were talking about this a couple of weeks ago, George, on the episode that we were ranting on about Afterpay. And you

guys know how I feel about that. But please keep in mind that Afterpay made more than $87.3 million dollars in late fees last financial year. So, they're not benefiting from us not being able to pay our debts back. And that's a lot of money. Arguably, Georgia, that's more money than you and I combined or spend on Christmas. Well, just a touch, I reckon. Just a touch, just a couple of dollars over. But it's serious. Like, that's not something that anybody chose, right? Nobody goes and puts something on afterpay with the intention of incurring a late fee. Nobody wants that. No, of course not. Of course not. But people have incurred $87.3 million worth of late fees. So it clearly happens more often than not. Yeah. Oh, after pay. Let's move on from that. Let's

bring the vibes back. Yeah. Let's bring them up. And this one's, this one goes out to the lovers out there that are listening. So if you and your partner always go over the top with gift giving each and every year, Christmases and birthdays, anniversaries, instead of just throwing more gifts at each other. Suggest experiences or perhaps just a year of no gift. A year of no gift, as they say. V, what are your thoughts on this one? I think this is a good idea. Like if you guys have big shared goals that you're working towards, or maybe you're both just a little strapped for cash this year and don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on each other, or even any dollars on each other, just suggest a no spend Chrissy and ditch the gifts. Like I think that

there's something really empowering about being like hey babe uh I reckon we just don't buy each other gifts or hey babe I know you're really strapped for cash please don't buy me anything and they'll probably be like oh no no no and then you can agree to both not do it but I think it's one of those things that are really underrated like why do you have to get someone a Christmas present like I just like let's think about this on a deeper level like what's the point in saying that I know Steve doesn't listen to our podcast and he has asked for a new toiletries bag So he will be getting that this Christmas. Oh, bless the little man.

I just feel like that's such a generic male gift. So boring. Male toiletry bags are just bland, bland, bland, bland. Yeah, bland. But we went away a couple of weeks ago just for the weekend. And he had this one that was so old. I swear it was like all of the logos had rubbed off. He must have had it for 15 plus years.

I was like, where did you get that? Like, I've never seen this in my life. and he was like, oh, maybe that's what you can get me for Christmas. So obviously I'm going to be spending big on a toiletries bag, but I'm getting him something he needs. So that's probably another way to gift things that people actually want is having a chat. Like, gee, is there anything you need for Christmas? Like, can I get you something that's really practical? And I mean, what's, what's a toiletries bag, like 30 bucks or something like easy. Yeah. Trot down to Kmart. I can get him something that I know he wants, he needs, and he's going to use.

Money win. Yeah. Love it. Harps and I, actually, we've been wanting to go to Tasmania for years now. Pandemic has gotten in the way. Tassie is gorgeous. I know. Well, you're from Tassie.

I said I'm biased. So we're really keen to go. So we're going to go early next year. And instead of getting gifts for each other, we're just going to be like, that's our present. Like we'll buy each other spirit tickets or flights, whatever we end up doing. So yeah, it's a nice little idea. I love that. Thank you so much.

And I mean, Steve is a man of very few words. I feel like now we've gotten engaged though. I can't stop talking about it. I just talk about him more. Also don't tell him I talk about him so much on the podcast. I think he won't like it. Man of few words, but if he was to write me a Christmas card, that would mean a lot more to me than a gift he could purchase me. Again, man of few words. So very unlikely to happen, but if it did, that'd mean a whole heap. Yeah. No, I'm with you on that one. We love the nice words. Our next tip here, VD, is to ditch the booze. Genius. Which I definitely need to get around. Can you talk us through this one? Look, everyone is across the expense of gifts, food, travel, and everything else that adds up

over the silly season. But we often forget just how expensive booze is, especially in Australia. Like Georgia, do you remember back in the day when we could travel and how cheap alcohol is overseas. Oh, like in Europe? Oh my gosh. It is so cheap, but let's. That was so exciting. I remember being in Europe with your little sister and bottles of vodka were like $7. We were like, okay, we'll take 10. Oh my gosh. Do you even remember being there? Yeah. Look, it's kind of like a dream now. Long time ago. All right. We digress back to Christmas conversation, but over Christmas, a lot of us tend to drink a lot and it's not necessarily us just wine after wine. It's more the consistency that we are drinking every day because I'll go Thursday

out for drinks. Everybody seems to want to catch up before Christmas. I don't know why that exists. I'm sure you're going to bring it up again soon, George, but we all want to catch up before Christmas. And that usually involves some form of alcoholic beverage, but it needn't actually involve that alcoholic beverage and keeping costs down saying you're not drinking that night completely takes the cost of alcohol off the tab, which I think is a very smart way to go. And you're going to wake up feeling a whole heap better than you would if you drank a fair few wines and then went to bed. Yeah, for sure. Question on this V, I'm curious to hear your thoughts. If you were out for dinner with your girlfriends, you're out with three of them and

they were all drinking, but you weren't. When it came time to pay the bill, would you just split it evenly or would you say, hey girls, I'm not drinking. So do you mind if I, you know, don't pay as much and we split it. I would probably say that. Recently, actually, it's not the same, but it's also the same. I'm in that phase of my life, guys. I'm 30. This is wild. My friends are having babies on purpose and we're going out for dinner and they won't drink because obviously they're pregnant, but I'm the one that seems to go, hey, no, babe, don't split it evenly. Like you didn't have any of the wine that we ordered. So I think that being mindful of your friends that aren't drinking as well is really important to make sure that you're not lumping an unnecessary

cost on them. Like for sure. I think a lot of people are often too polite to bring it up because they don't want to seem like the stingy friend when in actual fact, you're not, you absolutely should say, Hey, you ordered a $60 bottle of wine. I don't particularly want to have to foot that cost, which is very fair. But if you're the one ordering the wine, have the self awareness to say, hey, G, you didn't have any of this. Do you want to just split it differently? Love it. And they'll often be like, oh yeah, okay. Because that's what they were thinking anyway. Yeah, for sure. Okay, perfect. Our last tip here before we head to the break, V,

is that if you're hosting, don't be afraid to ask people to bring plates, to bring their own booze, etc. Yeah, genius. Yeah, because obviously that can get very expensive if you're footing the costs for everything, right? It also makes things so much easier on the day. Like, instead of having to organize an entree and snacks and probably a cheese platter, and cheese platters can add up so quickly. Throwback to the time we did our $25 Aldi cheese platters, guys. Yes, that was so good. Oh my gosh, that was probably one of my favorite collaborations we've ever done. Like, I still talk to people about the time we did that. And it was just so fun. But it's one of those things where if you divvy it all up, one, people feel like they're contributing. Usually when you go

to somebody else's house, you would take a gift, right? But you probably don't have to do that if you're bringing a dessert or contributing in some way to the meal. So that actually takes that cost away as well. Like why would you bring a box of favorites if you've just made a giant path? Like it makes sense to divvy those things up. It means that everybody stresses less, everybody feels like they're contributing and we have a better time because arguably my cooking isn't as good as everybody else's. 100%. We love. Okay. We will be back after a very short break with the rest of our festive tips. So please don't go anywhere, guys. All righty, VD, let's jump Baik. Baik. Let's jump Baik. We are in, G King. What is our next tip that is staying?

Do you say that's staying? Absolutely that's staying. Let's jump Baik into it. I don't know what happened there that's okay it is moving on it is to shop sooner than later genius tell us about it v genius obviously we mentioned before that christmas eve shopping is not a good idea one because you're under a heap of pressure two because you probably should be in bed but three you end up getting things that people don't want just because you want to get a gift so write down your list arguably shop online so that you can use systems like shop back and make sure that you're using discount codes and like sign up codes. Now, JK, this might be a little controversial side tip, but I know heaps of websites allow you to use a 10% discount for signing up to

their newsletter, but it's for your first purchase. But hypothetically, if you hadn't purchased from your work email before, maybe you should sign up again and reap the benefits of having that 10% reapplied to you personally. I think it's a genius idea. Surely everyone does that, right? I thought everybody does that. Or is it just us? I don't know. Maybe we just sound really dodgy, but I think it's a really smart idea. Like why not? Definitely. Okay. Next tip here is to get your DIY on Jessica Ricci style and opt for homemade gifts. Oh my gosh. I can't wait. I know Jess is going to make so many cute homemade things this year. If you guys don't follow her on Instagram, you absolutely should because she is the most festive person. Think

this way. She has negotiated with her partner to be allowed to put the Christmas tree up early. she forces him to wear matching pajamas with her at Christmas time. And she has made the entire She's on the Money Christmas tree, but all the baubles are handmade and hand painted. And then she's like cricketed labels so that it looks like a branded She's on the Money bauble. So, if you see a picture on Instagram soon of our Christmas festive content, which is coming because yay, but everything's been handmade by Jess. Like, is that not wild? That is obscene. What a crafty young woman. I know. And she was doing it the other day on Zoom actually. Cause like sometimes working from home is a little bit lonely. So I'll be bopping away and Jess and I

will just be on Zoom while we're working on separate things. It feels like, it feels like we're in the office. It's really cute. But she's just like at her dining table, doing her craft DIY things, filling all of these baubles full of like the she's on the money colored paints. And I was just like, so envious, but I'm glad you don't have me there. Cause I would mess that up really. But again, I digress. Let's get back into our DIY tips. How cute are homemade gifts, George? They can be cute. They can also be putrid, but they can be cute. And G, we had this conversation before the show about- We did. What are we going to talk about when it comes to DIY? We've obviously got our list of ideas.

However, some DIYs can be more questionable than not. And sometimes you just feel a little bit when it comes to thinking about DIYing something because you're like are people actually gonna like that I'm not very crafty so we've got a couple of hot tips that hopefully aren't cringeworthy because we know that at Christmas time sometimes you get DIY gifts that you're like oh thanks like do you remember in preschool Georgia I don't know if you guys did this but the paper plate the toilet roll cutting the paper plate in half and making like an angel out of it oh yeah yeah yeah iconic yeah and you'd like paint it why and put some glitter on it and i would give that to my parents and like that's very specific because my parents still have that on their

christmas tree because i made it for them when i was like five yes that's not the type of diy we're talking this christmas though are we georgia not quite not quite my suggestion was to go for printing out like a gorgeous photo of the person that you're gifting this gift to and yourself perhaps. Not their Instagram selfies, though. That would be kind of weird. I mean, you could do that if they're really into themselves. Exactly. For the narcissists, they'll love that. But, you know, duck down to Kmart, grab yourself a cheap frame, print out the photo to a high quality, pop the photo in the frame. You're seeing where it's going. And you've got a gorgeous framed photo. That story adds up. People love photos. It does. It all adds up. I love photos as well.

And to be honest, I think in this day and age, I know that sounds so old, but we don't print that many photos of ourselves and I remember definitely we don't print that many photos to have around our home so someone gave me a really cute frame with a photo in it I'd be like oh my gosh cute like and pop that beside my bed or on my mantle or wherever so I think I really like that the idea I had was I actually had two ideas the first one was around cooking if you can cook so I think Jess and I soon are going to do a live on Instagram where we make Christmas crack which if you haven't heard of that before. It's like a salty, sweet Christmas treat that is so easy to make and impresses literally everybody. And I love it because it can kind of be hacked in a million different ways. So it's got

gluten in it, but if you want to have a gluten-free treat, you can swap it out for gluten-free biscuits that you use. If you're vegan, you can use vegan chocolate. So it's very easy to switch around and make suit you. And every time I've gifted it, the reviews are raving. Like it's not the prettiest thing in the world. And you can kind of laugh about it and be like, oh my gosh, I made this for you. And you can make little cute tags. And in fact, George, I convinced Jess to create little custom DIY tags that you guys can print out and use for these, which I think will be really fun with the recipe on the back so they can make more because that's really cute. So, that is a good idea. Baking something is always a good idea. George, you're really good at rumbles, I have

heard. Yeah, yeah. I'm not bad. They're pretty good. We learn about them in grade six home economics, right? I think they're really good. But then the other thing was making a favorites hamper for somebody. So if you're a little bit strapped for cash and don't want to do something too homemade, but want to go purchase something, but you can't think of anything in your budget, Kmart have a really great range of like candles and face masks and chocolates. And you could put together a little hamper that would cost you no more than $10 or $15, depending on what you decide to put in it. And you could write a really beautiful card about them looking after themselves and having a night in or something like that. And you've put together a few things that you

think they would really enjoy. And oh my gosh, I would think that that present was literally the best. Love that suggestion from you, VD. But there were also some excellent suggestions in the Facebook group. You go first with your faves. So last week in our community, Ebony posted a really great post. She said, hey friends, is it too early to talk about Christmas? I want to start a thread of thrifty slash money-saving ideas for Christmas presents. Please share your tips below. And completely unsurprising, the first person to comment was our very own Jessica Ricci, who didn't contribute anything, but I came here to say it's never too early for Christmas. Go figure. But there are more than 150 different ideas on this thread. So go have a look. I'm

not going to read them all out right now, but there were a few hot ones that I am going to call out now. The first one was from Emma. Emma said, possibly controversial. No, my friend, it absolutely isn't because I 100% agree with you, but don't go broke this Christmas. Consider re-gifting. I love that idea. Like if you've been gifted a gift that you know you're not going to use, but you know somebody else will love, there is absolutely no shame in gifting that to somebody else. Oh, absolutely not. Like if you've got a cute little hand cream set that you're like, I'm just not going to use this. What a great little gift to pop in the cupboard and use for someone you know would love that. Actually, one V that I feel like a lot of people listening could

probably relate to is when you get gifted like a Colesmire voucher for your birthday or for Christmas from like your grandma. And then you just swap it with your mom and she gives you cash and then you run. Did you ever do that? Oh, no, I never did that. Okay. Just me. Just me. Just you, babe. But like, that sounds like a very George thing to do, to want to hoard a cash. So, that makes a lot of sense. Rhys has said, we do Secret Santa. Instead of buying many presents for people for $20 each, for example, we buy one present for $80 to $100 for one person. They get a good present they're actually going to use and we don't have to buy a million different presents. So, I think that is absolutely genius. Someone else said, make use of sales like the

Black Friday sales to make sure that you're organized and get the best deals on the presents you're already planning to buy. Sunshine has said, op shops, have a look. Re-gifting as suggested above, but especially for those secret Santa gifts or teacher type gifts, there are always really cute pots that you can pop a plant in and give as a gift, which I think is a genius idea. Emma commented and said that she draws digital portraits, which are pretty inexpensive and probably a genius idea that can be mashed together with your idea, Georgia, have a digital print made and pop it in a cute frame. I would love that as a present. And it comes across as really thoughtful because like, can you imagine the thought process behind having to organize that and then pop it in

frame? I think that's just really, really beautiful. And I know obviously Emma's is in that thread. So go check her out. But there are so many people who do that on like Etsy. So you can find someone who actually suits your budget and the style that you're looking for. What a genius idea from Emma. I love that. Genius. And the last one I'm going to share with you, George, is from our friend Jordan. She said, this year I set out to do Christmas as cheap as possible, although really sorry, it's not going to help you this year, but it'll help you next year. So these tips are for next year, guys. Firstly, set up your Woolworths everyday rewards to keep for Christmas. That way you can spend it at Big W, Woolies, BWS at Christmas time. Genius. Flybuys points are a

really great way to do that. Obviously we're not about tracking points and stuff that she's on the money, but if you're going to be doing grocery shopping, tapping at the same time on things you were going to already buy is really smart. So she said that she now has about 260 bucks to spend come Christmas time. That's all her food and alcohol paid. Genius. She said, next, you shop back when shopping online and refer friends to it as well. I have about $600 sitting in there waiting for me to withdraw. She said, I also have a referral code. So if I send that to someone, we both get 20 bucks each. How good is that? Like arguably that's better than using the she's on the money discount code. Like I shouldn't be saying that, but like if you've got a mate that

you know, users shop back. Like why not ask them for that and start sharing it with each other? Genius. She said, it's also great for keeping track of prices. For example, if I wanted an iPhone 12, I can click on track price and get a notification if the price has been lowered. Oh, that's cool. I didn't even know that was an option. Genius. No, me either. That's brilliant. And then she said, my last tip is to save your cans and bottles and trade them in for cash and keep it in a Christmas account. She said, now I have around $1,000 spare for Christmas that I wouldn't have had otherwise. How genius is that? That is incredible. They only do that in South Australia though, don't they? I know. I really wish we could do the cans and bottles, but if

you live in a state that does it and you're not doing it already, please friends get on it. I want to hear all about it. Well, it doesn't sound like much, but then it adds up. It absolutely adds up. And I mean, things like flybys that you're going to tap when you're going to the supermarket. So flybys is at Coles and then you've got the rewards points over at Woolworths. Like it just makes sense to tap these things because George, as you and I know, our friend, Jessica Riggie, who apparently this entire episode is about. She should have been on the mark. She has been, I know, like, honestly, we'll see her on Friday though. It's all good. She has been saving her Flybuys points for ages and she almost has enough in her little Flybuys account to swap her

points for a KitchenAid stand mixer, which are usually so expensive. And I know she can't wait for that. So that's really exciting, but it obviously does add up. So it does benefit us to be always tapping and making sure that we are making the most of every dollar we spend. Yeah. Amazing. Should we move back on to our last four tips for the day, VD? I believe so, but I'm hoping that none of our She's On The Money friends had spoiled our last tips, G King, because we thought long and hard about pulling those together. All right. I'm not going to lie, V. One of them was a little bit spoiled and that was to implement Kris Kringle's or Secret Santa's into your families and friendship groups. It's a good tip. It's a good tip. It's a

great tip. It's a classic tip. This one's existed for a very long time and I feel like not enough family to do it. So, G, we do Kris Kringle in our family and it has worked for a number of years. I really like it. It takes a lot of stress off. But on Steve's side of the family, which I adore, we've overlaid rules on top of that G. So the present has to be handmade, homemade or second hand. And I think that that has meant one, it's a little bit harder to organize Christmas, but two, it's just so economical. It's good for the environment. It's good for our wallets. A couple of years ago, we bought our niece and nephew a little kitchen off of Gumtree and it was like $40 and it included all of the bells and whistles, like, you know, all those like tiny

little pots and pans and plates and like little fake fruits and stuff that they could chop because they like Velcroed together. It was so cool and so cheap, but the kids have got literally so much joy out of that present and it cost us 40 bucks and they still use it to this day. So I feel like a homemade, handmade or secondhand present is a really fun thing to do. And perhaps you guys could implement that in your families as well because everyone had a lot of fun working it out and I mean obviously with the handmade element of that if you still want to buy a present you can it just has to be a little bit more thoughtful which I really liked and obviously there's a lot of beautiful handmade candles and soaps and like I got a little handmade like coin purse out of

seagrass and it's still in my handbag I love it so I feel like it's a really fun thing to do at Christmas time and it makes it a little bit more fun as well because we are so competitive and we were just so excited to like find the best secondhand thing. So, it worked for us really well. Love it. Okay. The next tip here, V, is to choose free Christmassy events instead of pricey dinners for your inevitable pre-Christmas catch-ups. Genius. There's so much going on in the city of Melbourne whether it is lights or Christmas carols like get to it maybe you want to go for a walk with a friend grab a drink or have a little bit of a picnic and then go past the famous Meyer windows or what about going to the Christmas markets like I feel like all of that

is just so much fun it is so festive as well instead of just like heading out for dinner which would be a normal dinner but like why not grab a picnic rug and go to the carols together like is that not cute I would think that's cute yeah gorgeous I've always wanted to go to the carols maybe this could be the year oh my gosh let's go to the carols G awesome social meds to the carols I was gonna say they also do the day before rehearsal that you can go to we could go genius you're almost famous enough V to be invited up there on the stage with a little mic do some singing not a chance not I'll wear the dresses but I am not singing little donkey I can see you up they're singing Little Donkey. Yeah. That's my favorite. I like it. Do you know Little Donkey?

Anyway. Silent Night. A classic, a classic choice. Away in a manger. Yeah. A banger. All I want for Christmas. Now that is the ultimate Christmas track. That's obviously a banger. That would be us. We'll chat more about that later. V, our second last tip for today is to rein in our non-essential spending during this time so that we can funnel that extra cash towards Christmas. Obviously, this is a smart idea. Talk us through it. It's a genius idea. I'm glad you came up with it. Thanks so much. But if you're too busy to go to the gym, why don't you freeze your membership over the Christmas period and stash that cash away? It just feels like a no-brainer that I hadn't thought of. Also, making sure that you're shopping at places like Audi or the markets

instead of supermarkets to make sure that you're getting the best possible deal. I'm not going to suggest this, but Georgia King has written down that you should consider ditching your daily latte if that's in line with your values do that it is absolutely not in line with mine so georgia i will not be ditching my oat latte for anything and then any non-essential spending you can cut out during this time i think it's also a really good time to have a little bit of a think about what you are and aren't spending on so if budget is something you want to get on top of actually sitting down and being like well where is my money going what does that look like because you can do a little bit of an audit and I bet you'll find some things that you're spending money on that you're like,

I don't need to do that. Cut that out. And you feel a little bit more comfortable with the way your money is flowing, especially during the festive season. Brilliant. Okay. Let's move on to our 12th and final tip for today. Just, just before we get there though, is it 12? Because like the 12 days of Christmas. Okay. So that was the logic. Yeah. I did think 12 was an obscure number when that was suggested. Yeah. That's why I came up with it. I was like the 12 days of Christmas? How about we do 12 hacks or ideas to save you some cashola? Like it just made sense. It makes sense. I'm glad I finally clicked. Our 12th tip V is to say no, full stop. I love this tip. Just say no. Just say no to everything. Cancel Christmas. What are we saying no to G?

We're saying no to not every social event that's coming your way over the next few weeks, but as we all know, December and January as well, they are manic times. Everyone always wants to catch up before Christmas. I don't know why. It's silly to me, but I feel like just saying no to the events that you don't want to go to is completely fine and it's going to save you money and I'm on board for it. So just don't feel obliged. I feel like it's smart as well. I feel like given we, especially here in Victoria have been in lockdown for so long it's going to be really socially exhausting for us as well like I'm not used to socializing as much as I used to and that is very valid the amount of exhaustion I would experience going out for a lot of Christmas drinks I feel

like is going to really take it out of me so I think we need to remember to put ourselves first but it's a really nice thing to say thank you so much but no thank you or thank you so much but can we do this after? I feel like during Christmas, a very good get out of jail free card is like, oh my gosh, I'm so busy. I'd love to catch up with you when I have more time to just enjoy hanging out with you. And people go, oh my gosh, so nice of you to think that way. And you've gotten out of that situation of having to go out and having to spend that money without even having to have the conversation. You're just like, oh my gosh, gee, I'm just so busy during December. Do you think we could push that to next year so that we can actually have a

really nice time out and not feel like we're overwhelmed. Like if any friend said that to me, I'd be like, oh yeah, girl, like let's do it. For sure. For sure. Yeah. So just don't feel that pressure. So with that, Jay, I feel like we're done here. Those were the 12 ideas and hacks that we have to save you money this festive season. If you have any more that you think we absolutely need to hear, please pop them in the thread that we are going to have today in the Facebook group. There's obviously already been one. We just discussed it, but we're going to have a new one because I adore talking about Christmas. Jess is obsessed with Christmas and George is pretty okay on the topic as well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That sounds like

a good idea. Get to have a drink. You like the snacks. I love the snacks. I'm excited to try this Christmas crack you speak of. Oh my gosh. I promise this time I will not set my kitchen on fire. Like I did the time we made vodka pasta. Oh, I missed that. But, um, I'll search that up later what the i'll send you the picture on slack sounds good sounds good all right that's all we have time for today guys but just before we head off we'd like to acknowledge and pay respect to australia's aboriginal and torres strait islander peoples traditional custodians of the lands the waterways and the skies all across australia we thank you for sharing and for caring for the land on which we are able to learn we pay respects to elders past and present and we share our friendship

and our kindness and remember guys that the advice shared on she's on the money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances she's on the money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or a financial decision and we promise victoria divine is an authorized representative of australia pacific funds management proprietary limited abn 34132463257afsl339151 see you next week guys. Bye guys.