18WT #064: Holiday Trends, Ways To Save Money, Family Traditions And More!

18WT 064: In this episode we talk about Holiday trends, Saving money, family traditions and more.

This  Holiday everyone is all about staying home and enjoying that family meal.  More than just the family time it is also a very big saver on the budget.  So, as we have talked with family and friends about the upcoming holidays, we see how people are going back to things they did as kids and passing them down to their children.  But let’s not forget a family favorite before anyone leaves on Thanksgiving night. The Secret Santa gift exchange, name exchange.

And thus, begins Black Friday, yes that joyous day of the year when you can feel the love and human kindness. Then you leave the house somewhere between 11pm that night and 3am on Friday morning and go stand outside in a line. For some item that you or someone on your gift list Must have.

"Consumers are going to spend as much as they did last season, but they are limiting the people they're spending on. They only have a certain amount of money, so they have to tighten that list of who they're buying presents for," said Howard Dvorkin, chairman of Debt.com. "Because of the increased pricing, their dollars won't go as far as they did last year.

So the bottom line is don’t spend more than you can really afford—aka don’t go into debt to fund your Christmas. No matter how much you have to spend, set a budget for it.

Full podcast show notes available here: https://www.18wheeltalk.com/e64

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Transcript

Episode #064

Oh, crazy eyes. Huh. And crazy. Crazy. Is crazy. Is is what crazy does. Yeah, I'm with you. I must be crazy. I'm crazy about you. Yeah, this is true. This is true. Welcome to the 18 Wheel Talk podcast show. No, we're not live, are we? No, we're not live. But mean we're, we're recording. Yes. So yes we are. Hi, welcome to the 18 Wheel Talk podcast show.

I'm Janet. He's, Patrick. I already said that. You didn't say that you were Janet. And I'm Patrick. Well, I'm not Janet. I'm Patrick. Oh, well you didn't say that either. Welcome. Welcome. Hi, Janet. Hi Patrick. What's up? What's up with you? Crazy! You told me I couldn't sing. Wahaa, this is the start of Christmas season for us.

Is it? Yeah. We're talking about the holidays. This is the third year for our podcast show tres, uno, dos, tres. Number three. So as always, around this time of year, we always do a show about the holidays. Yes. Why are you doing this? My shirt was all messed up. See, I got the, and it was tucked under and I didn't want it tucked under.

Oh, okay. That's why. And if you're wondering what, what, Janet's doing, you have to go to our YouTube channel, Janet's fidgeting. Anyone that watches us. No, I fidget. You can go to www.18 wheel talk.com/youtube , and while you're there, subscribe to the show. But we have a handle now. That's okay. Oh, okay. Okay. But if, if they're not already subscribed and they go to www.18 wheel talk.com/youtube takes 'em directly to our YouTube channel so they can subscribe automatically, they can subscribble, subscribble.

I like it when people, and if you're already on YouTube, you could search for us at the little @ sign one eight Wheel talk. Mm-hmm. , This is true. And you'll find this logo, I believe, I believe that'll be the one, Anyways, it's the holiday time of year, you know, Thanksgiving's around the corner, literally around the corner.

And next thing you know, you're gonna blink and freaking Christmas is gonna be here and you're gonna go, Oh shit, I didn't buy nothing yet. That's why we're here. Well, Janet wants to talk about Christmas, so, Well, no, the holidays are here. And so are those trends, cuz Janet's the Google Queen and she likes to see what's going on.

Yep. So what's going on Janet? Have a holly jolly Christmas. It's the best time of the year. I got to sing. That's what's going on. Cuz you took a drink, ha ha ha . That's fine. So every year has its trends and holidays. No. No way. Yes. Way holiday season 2022. No different. No different. So for Thanksgiving holiday this year, unlike say last year or previous years, everyone's all about let's stay home and enjoy that family meal.

There's a family meal. Yeah. You know, family meal time. Mm-hmm. what wait a minute. Well part of the, Have you checked into buffets lately? Oh, I like buffets. Well, we used to, we've done buffets. Like we did a buffet with your parents for Easter one year. And it wasn't that expensive. No, it was at a casino. Well still we've , but we've done other buffets.

Well yeah. For holidays and we. 20, 25 bucks ahead, something like that. Well, now it starts for a cheap buffet at like $40 plus plus. And here in Phoenix per head, and it goes up to like $195 plus plus plus plus, plus plus, plus plus. You know what the plus plus is, right? Nope. Tax and tip. Tax and tip tip. And if you're in a big group, tip is automatically added.

Typically the tip is for groups of like, say six or more at most places. Okay, so, So yeah. And it's like, who could afford $195? You add the, you know, tax into that, and then a 15 to 25% tip a lot of places automatically at a 20% tip. What? So yeah, so now you're talking a $40 tip per person. If it's $195 plus tax, $40 tip.

So you're talking $250, $260 a person. Wow. You froze for a second. I don't know why. You just kinda went, you were talking $40 and then you froze. , I froze on money. So anyway, anyways, so, and I just have to get that out there. They cheaper to cook at home unless it's say, a couple that just doesn't cook it all.

Have anything in the refrigerator. Well, yeah, but, and even then I'd be, I'd be tempted to do something different. Yeah. But even still buffet style dinner, they usually have all the fixings and then some. But do you wanna pay that type of price? Not me. 20 bucks a head, right? No, $200 a head. Where up here in Phoenix are, are we talking like the Hoity toity buffet?

Because I'm not, I'm talking like Golden Corral baby. 50 bucks ahead there. Look, plus tax plus tip, Turkey, dinner, you didn't have to cook. Okay. I'm not gonna spend a hundred dollars plus, $20 tip, plus tax, plus drinks. Okay. For the two of us. Usually you buy the drink and then free refills. Okay? But we're still talking. Okay.

Drinks are like five bucks a piece at those places. Okay? So there's 110 for the two of us plus tax. We'll just say an extra 10 bucks. So then we're 120. Okay? Plus tip. Okay? $20. Now we're at $140. $150 for the two of us. I can cook more Thanksgiving and Christmas. Both for that price. At? At this price? Yes. At at at the way prices are these days?

Yes. Wow. Don't argue. Sweet. I was just being devil's advocate. I'm gonna give you a devil's. I didn't mean a light of fire in your ass. Anyway, so sorry about that. People. Woosah. So even with turkeys this year, starting at, starting at a $1.99 a pound. Yeah. Well the reason for, but the reason for that is the bird flu

yeah, but the bird flu, which they killed off How many million birds? I don't even, UnGodly. The amounts of birds and chickens. That's why chicken nuggets, chicken tenders, chicken patties you chicken everything went up. Chicken by the breast pound. And you go into a store and you see empty freezers and everybody blames everybody else for chicken being gone.

Oh God Damn it. Chicken their hoarding food again. Chicken disappeared cuz they recalled hundreds of thousands of products. Because of the bird flu. Because of the bird flu. Not because, not because there's a pandemic still and not because you, your neighbor is hoarding. Yeah. Or the other guy is hoarding.

Goddamn bird's got the flu and they're got the, They're all dying and they don't want it to jump species from like animal to human. Yeah. Okay. It's been known to do it. Yes. And that's, I'm not a science, you know, I, I, I don't have a medical background, so don't take what I say with a grain of salt. Okay. I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about.

Okay, Patrick. That's my name anyway. So Tur, that's why Turkey has gone up seven minutes into the program. That's why Turkey has gone up. 73%. Hold on, hold on a second. Who had seven minutes? Who had seven minutes on the list? I had under seven minutes. You did not have under seven. I had two minutes. No, no. , I had two minutes.

Billy, Billy, Joe, Bob had, had, had under five. Well, couldn't be Billy Jo. She's my cousin and I don't think she put that. I was making a fictitious name. I know, but I have a cousin named Billy Joe. Of course you do. Of course I do. I had a cousin, a female cousin named Tommy Jo too. All right. Well, Tommy John did not win.

Okay. Anyway, he said under 10 minutes, not, and, And you said over five, so you guys will split the difference. Anyway, so last year it was easy to get a Turkey for 99 cents or 79 cents a pound. Oh yeah. And that's without buying so many at times. You're a little easier back then. Yeah. Back then during the pandemic, you.

But anyway. Well, you can still get a Turkey for free. Yeah. Buying enough groceries and doing couponing. I, I even think they raised the amount that you have to buy. They did, You know, because, because of the inflation. That is just ridiculous that I, I'm sorry. My personal opinion is redundant. Shouldn't even be what it is because it is, it is what it is, but it shouldn't be that way.

I agree. Groceries have gone up 13 talking like you are a Fitbit. Groceries have gone up 13% over 13%. And it, there's, there's this fall all because some, some boat got stuck in a damn harbor and just delayed everything. Okay. So anyway, groceries have gone up over 13%. This fall alone. Gas prices are out.

I'm, we're Patrick, sorry. Back on track. Over 13%. So yes, the prices have been raised on everything and it's gonna cost more to cook at home. But yeah, when you're looking for that free Turkey and it says, now you gotta buy, say $150 worth of food, Well first of all, prices went up. That's a little easier. But you buy it when you buy your monthly groceries, not when you buy your Thanksgiving meal.

Groceries. Yeah. And then you freeze it. And then you freeze it, but, And take it out and put it in your refrigerator a week before. So it has time to thaw. So basically if you do it now for Thanksgiving, you'll be just in time. You'll get your Turkey just in time for Turkey dinner. . Yes. And then the way you make your Thanksgiving cheaper or your Christmas cheaper is just like we did growing up.

Pot luck. Everybody brings a dish. Well, especially if you're gonna have a big family gathering. Yeah. Or friends. Family and friends. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody brings a dish. You know, you're, make your favorite. Make your favorite, Whoever's house it's at. They bring the, usually bring the main, Yeah, right. the main dish.

Like the Turkey or the ham or whatever it is, right? Yeah. The main, Yeah. Whoever's house you're going to, They usually provide the, the meat, the main course, and everyone else brings the side dish, but it's coordinated through whoever's house it is usually, you know, whoever's doing the cooking, the woman or the guy is the one that does, they, you call 'em and say, This is what I can bring, and someone else says, This is what I can bring.

That way you don't have three people bringing stuffing. Yeah. And you don't have like, you know, nine pies for, you know, for five people or, or eight people. Yeah. That was, Or like, you know, 20 pies for eight people. Like once happened at your sister's house. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Anyway, there wasn't that many pies.

I felt like it, yeah. There was probably six. There was more than six. I know there was, because he brought one for the favorite pie for every single person, and that was the worst mincemeat pie I've ever had in my life. Well, I'm sorry. Please. Anyway, it wasn't your fault, so okay. Back to the show. But that got skipped for a while, that tradition, right?

Well, with the pandemic and everything and, And it's come back and I'm happy that it came back. You know, now everybody's looking at, all right, let's do this. Yes. And you can save money. For instance, say people do bring too many pies or freeze 'em, you can freeze 'em. You can freeze half a pie too. You wrap it really well.

Then I usually wrap 'em in cran and then I put 'em in a freezer bag and then I freeze 'em. Works really well. It can be done. It can be done. You can freeze side dishes, especially if they're homemade. You can, you can even get like a Tupperware dish that, you know Yeah. Put your, put your pie in there. You just gotta be careful.

Make sure it seals really well so it doesn't get frost bit. And it has to be really cooled down before you freeze anything. I know. So otherwise the condensation inside gives it frost This is true. Look, look at me being all scientific. I know, right? . So it kind of reiterates the whole family thing. You know, Put your gadgets down, put your phones down, put your games down, and enjoy being a family.

And, you know, Sunday dinners, just like we've talked about in past episodes. Well, we guys have an episode called, called Sunday called Sunday Dinners. Yeah. You know, I'll, I'll put a link in the show notes for it. So this way, if you guys are interested in listening to that episode or watching the vidideo I'll put a link in there.

Yeah. And I like seeing traditions come back. Well, you like the old traditional, I mean, we used to do Sunday brunch. Yes. And I loved that. I really did. I did too. And then I ended up getting a, you know, my new job is I work Sundays, so Yeah. And here at work at, You're leaving for work at 1130. So Sunday brunch went, So Sunday brunch is kinda like yes.

More like a Wednesday, Thursday brunch . That's okay. It's your Sunday. That's okay. We have some really good brunches still though. Well, yeah. So, Cause Janet's a really good cooker. I know. So are you, you made a really good one the other day. I, I did, yeah. You did? Oh yeah. Yeah. The eggs, eggs, sausage and bacon on a everything bagel.

And cheese on an everything bagel. Yeah. Back to the subject, Patrick. Oh yeah. So these holidays are gonna have the same issues as holiday trends. These, these holidays, 2022 are gonna have the same issues as all the others did before. Burned turkeys. Those outside deep fryer turkeys are gonna catch fire somewhere.

Some idiots gonna do something stupid. He's gonna put too big a Turkey in too little oil, it's gonna overflow and catch fire. Somebody's gonna say, Hold my beer and watch this. Yeah. And the fire dep department's gonna come and put it out and say, Yeah, we watched you. Yeah. Almost trying to burn your house down.

Yeah. Well, you know, it does happen. Yes it does happen. Ah, sorry. Fire department. Sorry. Fire dudes and gals. We didn't mean to, you know, bring that up. But, and then you get the make makeshift main dishes, you know, meatloaf, lasagna, pizza, spam, the basics. I s I know someone. Nothing wrong with those dishes. And I know someone that took a bunch of spam and formed it together, put all the little blocks together to make it try and look like a Turkey

It was really funny. They took shishkabob skewers. . Right. Yeah, it was funnier than anything. That's beyond. That's beyond me anyways. Hey, in the military you'll do anything to, Well, that's military. I mean, you know, you're in the middle of nowhere and you wanna have Turkey dinner. Guess what? We're having spam and I wanna make it look like a goddamn Turkey.

Yes, you do. . So I would, I would try to do something like that. Yeah. I won't name names. You want a chicken wing or a leg? Eric, how about a breast? Yeah, so some of the, Hey dude, this all looks the same. Well, it's okay. . It was a really well-rounded Turkey. So anyway, so some of the other issues are like family that drives cross country.

They're gonna arrive late because of snowstorms, or maybe the next day because of snowstorms or flat tire. And well, well wait, wait a minute. This is, this is Phoenix, Arizona. We don't have snowstorms, but like one Thanksgiving when I lived in South Dakota. That's South Dakota. This is Arizona. Zipit Zippy. I lived in South Dakota (sorry this is) and I drove story time.

I drove down here for Thanksgiving. Okay. And I hit blizzards all the way across like Oklahoma and Kansas and everything. When you lived in South Dakota? Yeah. And I drove down here. I hit lots of blizzards coming down. I was, drove Oklahoma. I was a, a kid. You through Oklahoma? I went through Kansas. I meant, but anyway, Hush.

Well, I'm South Dakota to Nebraska and South. Okay. Yeah, I got it now. Okay. And then I trying to figure out which way you can then, then I can't do the panhandle of Texas. Okay. Into New Mexico, across the corner of New Mexico and then, and then down to 40, and then down the back road. Gotcha. Okay. I I got you in Kansas.

I hit a blizzard. I believe it. Okay. and the roads were being closed right behind me. I just kept driving my windshield. Wipers gave out. I just kept reaching out the window and snapping 'em. Oh. Because if I stopped, those were the good old days. If I stopped the state police were behind me closing roads, cuz I had a CB radio and I was listening and I knew they were gonna, they were closing roads and I knew if I stopped and bought windshield wipers and tried replacing them that night, that I'd get stuck in a town that I didn't wanna be stuck in.

And I'd miss Thanksgiving dinner here. Wow. And I wasn't about to get stuck in the middle of Kansas, so I kept driving. There's no place like home. There's no place like home. Hey, I've been to Oz, Kansas. But anyway. So anyway, . But if you're looking for food in all the wrong places and you're in a city uhhuh, don't forget about, you know Well if you're, you can get food on upside.

Yeah. And you can get gas discounts on upside, food discounts any, Yes you can, You can get restaurant. Discounts in certain cities, like here in Phoenix, there's some, they keep adding more and more restaurants. We have a, as a matter, we have an upside code. Yes. That if you go to upside and there's an invite code that you add in.

It's my name Patrick 9 5 8 2. That should give you a discount on your first fill-up. I think it's a $10 right now. I don't know. They've been changing it. It keeps lately. Yeah. But usually it's as little as a like, like 25 cents or 15 cents for the first fill-up, you know, per gallon. Like a rebate you get back.

Yeah. And I've had it, I've seen it as high as $10. Yeah. And the last time I looked at and referred someone, it was $10 a couple weeks ago. There you go. You're frozen again. I don't know. I don't know what you got running in the background over there? Nothing that I know of. Okay. I was just checking. Yeah.

Nothing. Okay. I figured you had like 600 photos of I closed everything. , you just froze. It was like, anyway, but on upside, you can get restaurant discounts, grocery discounts, and gas discounts. Now. It used to be just gas. Right now it's in s it has expanded, in fact, on upside, one of the places here in Tempe has a Turkey discount that I have to go check out.

Really? Yeah. I'm gonna go check it out. 40% off. Well, anyways, and in the show notes I'm gonna put, I'll put a, I'll put the invite code for upside if anybody wants to use it. We've, we've saved over $300 combined. Yes. On, on. Fuel, and that's in two years that we've roughly, we've been using it. So it's pretty good.

If you think about, well, I said it's like, and it's everywhere. It'll search areas that you're in that you live in and you, but not just that, like when I used it to drive back to Missouri, when I would get towards a gas station, I would check and see if the gas station I was stopping it had it. And if they did, I just, before I fueled up, I quick added that in and was able to get a discount.

Yep. So, So it does add up some of the other, Well, well you could, you could take the savings that you get and. Either get a gift, you can use it towards gift cards, or you can, I believe you can do direct deposit into your account now. That's what I do. Yeah. Is direct deposit into my checking. They didn't used to do that when they first came out, but now you can, Yeah, you can, you can direct deposit whatever money that you save back into your, your, your account, which I think is pretty cool.

I agree, like I said, they, they're constantly changing and adding things, so, So that is upside. Correct. And the invite code is Patrick9582, just so you know. Okay. Back to the show. So some of the other problems that have always happened, it's like truck drivers that simply miss the holiday, you know? The dispatcher messed up.

The bad roads, they missed a load. There's a hundred reasons a truck driver misses the holidays. Yeah. I've missed plenty myself driving truck. Oh, we'll get you home, don't you? You know, and when they do get home, they, after that cold Turkey sandwich, because missing a, a holiday dinner, sometimes leftovers is the best.

Oh god. Yeah. Day after cold Turkey with cranberry sauce. Oh yeah. Hello. Okay. So Helllllerrrrr that, you know, when you're talking about food that can do it so well. Yeah. Another thing that's gonna be the same is, you know, family favorite, the secret Santa gift exchange where you, you know, you draw names from a bowl or a hat or whatever and someone's drawing names for the people that aren't there.

It usually makes it fun because you know you're gonna gather around Christmas time anyways. Yeah. So you pick the names. Now you come up with a dollar amount. That everybody can afford. And I know our family, when we first did it, I, I think it was two to three items within that price range that, that you were looking to get.

So that way if say you drew my name, you knew, like you had an idea as to what I was looking for. You know what, what, what you could do. What did you do? You just fast forwarded on me. Well, you were talking about the secret Santa. All I did was just mention it, but yeah, that's fine. I was just general. Yeah, no, that's fine.

You're good. I'll go back. It's fine. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I didn't mean, I didn't mean to get ahead. Don't you were talking. It's just it was in my head. It was in your head. It was like, Hey, when I was little. I've never heard of that before. Yeah. Cause your family did it that way where you wrote things down.

Yeah, like, like there'd be my name and then it'd be this item this item, or this item were suggestions. Things you were suggested items didn't have to, but it was something that was within the price ranges that we agreed upon. Oh, My brothers had it easy. I was really into Barbie's as a kid, and we had a neighbor that made Barbie doll clothes really good too.

Oh, it was Phillip Reeds' Mom, I think. Anyway, so they knew that all they had to do was buy something from her, for my Barbie dolls. Uhhuh Anyways, that was, that was just my story. Oh, I with Secret Santa. Because, because like I said, you're gonna go from Thanksgiving dinner to Black Friday and to Black Friday to Christmas, you know, And you're gonna blink and it's gonna be here, and you're froze

And, and it's, it's like one of those you're gonna get together on Christmas anyways. True. So, hey, we're gonna, we're gonna freeze back and forth. Apparently we're taking turns today. Yeah. I don't know what's going on. But anyways, thus begins Black Friday. That joyous day of the year, when you can feel all the love and human kindness you ever wanted.

Oh yeah. You know, it's dark and you're standing outside at three o'clock in the morning. Never done it, I've never. Boy, your sister Sure. Used to. Nope. I mean, and your mom, because your sister and your parents, and they did that one time. They wanted me to go with them. I'm like, What time are you going? They said, 3:00 AM I'm like, Oh, heck no.

And my brother's done it. My sister, mom, dad. Nope. Not me., I've used to go at about six or seven in the morning. No, 3:00 AM no even way I was ever dating or, or with, or married to. Yeah. You wanna go There you go. See, I gotta, I gotta work in the morning . But even if you, Sorry. But even the couple years that when, since you and I have been together, you know me and it's like, even if you're off, I'm like, I'm not going shopping on Black Friday.

Yeah, no. You know that I'd take a gun and people would die Probably. Yeah. But yeah. Well, I, I see I am wearing this shirt. Yeah. You know, I know my gun shirt, One of 'em, I made sure to have the lawyer on speed dial. Yeah. And you made sure to hide the guns. Well, yeah. Very, very wise of you. Oh, well, yeah. But I don't like Black Friday because it doesn't take Black Friday for me to save money.

No, cuz you can save money throughout the year. Correct. So plus I think that Black Friday is all about stores and false advertising. I, I think so too. Because, But there's no way you can prove it. You can't prove it. However, the biggest example I can give is that year that someone I was with wanted that, you know, at the time, 60 inch TV was the big one, you know?

Yeah. And they wanted, they had one in stock and one was in stock, stood outside in the store, waiting for the store to open. Everybody rushes in, people fighting to go back and get into that electronics department after the TVs. And there was one in stock and it said on the ad while supplies last. Yeah.

One, Yeah. One 50 people after one tv. I'm like, Oh hell no. Not me. Yeah. I'm not fighting over a tv. You want it, You go ahead. Yeah. Not me. You don't have to run me over to get to it. People. I'll get outta your way. I've seen women fight over sweaters. Say, let me in the door. I've seen bloody noses over sweaters. I mean, let me in the door.

Just let me in the door. I will step aside. Y'all can run like mad dogs. Do you remember when like I heard of cattle? Oh, what was the, The girl's doll that was stuffed back in the eighties. That was Cabbage Patch. Cabbage Patch. When those first came out. Oh my God. My mom and my sister went on Black Friday to look for a cabbage patch doll for my niece.

You couldn't find them. They stood and line the whole bit and there was only like five of them in stock. Yeah. You couldn't find, My mom was so mad. Mm-hmm. she made one. What she, my mom was a very good seamstress. She, she took pictures and everything and she with a Kodak camera and she made one. And it was good enough that all the clothes fit and everything else from the regular cabbage patch doll.

My niece didn't know the difference. Wow. Yeah. This is true. So anyway so yeah, people fly through the doors, people get in fist fights. And back in Jersey probably, what, 10 years ago, someone died in a stampede going into a best buy. There was a few people that, yeah, couple people died. And then there was a bunch of injuries, I believe.

Yeah. Just to get into a store. But that was, that's crazy. Eons ago. So, and then this year, many, many, many moons. This year there was two Amazon Prime days. True. And a bunch of the big box stores started their sales in October. I'm like, Black Friday was supposed to be pre-Christmas. Well, if you start. Black Friday in October.

What does that make it pre Black Friday? I don't know. I don't, I know, I think Walmart now is doing Black Mondays, something like that. You know, where they got specials, you know, on Mondays now, the Target started in October. Just a bunch of 'em. It's like everything started early and now Amazon has a different deal, like a deal of the day for prime members.

Something. It's, it's just, it's, we have prime. So, and it's just crazy. It's like you just gotta wait for the right day to get the right deal if you, if that's what you're after. This is true. So Yeah, it's just, Yeah, I don't even, Does anybody even shop in store anymore? Oh, I'm sure that they will. I, I, I know one thing that if we do go shopping, it's gonna be cash only.

I'm not gonna leave the credit card at home because of the interest rates and everything. I agree. Yeah. Well, and I mentioned shopping in store or because you have online shopping, you have curbside pickup, you have delivery service for, for everything from groceries to clothes, to toys, to electronics.

Anything you buy, you can buy online and either have it delivered or pick it up on the curb. True. And still get discounts and use coupons and everything. Yep. You know, and it's like, which type are you? You know, you can get all this stuff through Instacart. Yeah, Instacart will do that. So we have an Instacart account that you could, you can go to 18 wheel talk.com/instacart and that tells Instacart that we sent you.

Yeah. And do you know what else you can get through Instacart? Alcohol. Yeah, that too. You're in it's the holidays, so Ooh. Your entire Thanksgiving meal. What? Yeah. You can get your entire Thanksgiving meal through Instacart. Well, I know Instacart will go depending on the area that you're in. Mm-hmm. . When you go to Instacart and you log into Instacart mm-hmm.

if you go to 18 wheel talk.com/instacart, it brings it to the Instacart website and depending on where you're at, it'll pull up the stores that are in your, in the area that you're at and Okay. And you can go, you could shop at all these different stores and somebody from Instacart will go around and pick all this stuff up and deliver it to you.

See, and I forgot about that. As long as you have a physical address, truck drivers, RVers, campers, you can have Instacart deliver stuff that you forgot. But who's gonna be out camping at this time of time? You know, I'm just saying. Camp grounds are empty. , if you forgot stuff for Thanksgiving, Yeah, I'm sure they're probably gonna have a cutoff, but don't quote me on this.

But you can order it and have it delivered. Okay. But while you're still at home preparing the other shit. You say that, but a couple years ago when you were still working holidays and I was driving Lyft. Yep. I made mad money on Thanksgiving morning. Mad money, the tips I made driving from like the airport into grocery stores for people.

Yep, yep. I made really good money. Anyway, Anyway, that was then. So yeah, that was like, what, two years? Three, almost three years ago. Yeah, about three years ago. So we were talking about gift giving and ex and the what you're allowed and what you're not allowed. Like my family, which I didn't say was like they were really big into homemade gifts and don't go just buy something.

DIY stuff. Yeah. Di yes. Do it yourself. Diy, DIY. Yes. You know, homemade was really encouraged if you could sew it, bake it, whatever. And it's funny because when we first got together, we used to buy a gift and send a little plate of cookies or a little box of cookies to our family. Yep. And pretty much everybody said, Quit buying us gifts.

Yeah. Just send us a cookies. Just send the cookies. Screw the gift. Give us the cookies. Which turned into roughly 1600 cookies a year that I bake. Oh my God. It well, . It just happened. Listen, this is what happened. Okay. Do tell, I asked Janet one year, which was what, Three years for you? Five years ago? Oh, it was a lot.

It was 2015. It was 2015. Seven years ago. Christmas 2016. I asked you to bake cookies. 15. It was the following year. Okay. 16, six years ago. So I asked her, I said, Hey baby, can you do me a favor? Can you make me some Christmas cookies so I can, you know, bring some, you know, like a plate of cookies in to work, you know?

Mm-hmm. and, and leave 'em on the table for people to enjoy it cuz it's the holidays. And I went to work one day and I come home and or I, I was working third shift, so I woke up to the house smelling like cookies. It's like Christmas threw up in the house. Well it did. And I, Cause that's how I roll. I staggered out to get a cup of coffee and I couldn't find a coffee pot because there was cookies everywhere.

I only wanted like, you know, a couple of like sugar cookies and maybe like chocolate chip cookies or those peanut butter cookies with the Hershey kissy thumbprints or the kiss cookies. Yes. Yeah. I forget what they're called. Blossoms or whatever. Yeah. Peanut blossoms. And she made me, 13 different varieties, 13 types of cookies and, and, and made about, you know, 12 or more dozen.

Yeah. 12 to 15 dozen of each. I, I couldn't eat that many cookies. Well, it wasn't just for you. I know, but I didn't want you to make that many cookies. Well, you said you wanted a lot of cookies. I said I wanted you to make me a little, You said you wanted about a dozen cookies. Now, to me, that meant a dozen types of cookies.

You didn't, you weren't specific enough, just saying you're moving, you're moving lightning speed over there because you're froze again. At least it looked like you're frozen. . I kept hearing your mouth move, but your mouth wasn't moving. . You had to be specific. You have since learned your lesson. Yes. You have to be very, If you say you want a couple types of bread, You have to be specific.

Otherwise you're gonna get like banana bread, pumpkin bread, apple bread, every, Oh my god. Apple butter bread. I know. Oh, I should make that this year. Oh my God, that would be great. I should make that this year. You should make apple butter bread and banana bread and pumpkin bread. No, you don't have to make, Oh, I, Anyways, okay.

Anyway, sorry. Recipe the in the show notes in the show. Actually, you know what, if y'all, if y'all email me at Patrick 18 Wheel Talk and say you want the bread recipe, I'm sure Janet would be so happy to email you the recipe for the bread that she's gonna make. I know what's better. You know what my most requested recipe is?

What my sugar cookies with royal icing. Yeah, but that's a secret. I know. That's, that's my most requested cookie too. I know. And that's, that's an ancient Chinese secret that doesn't, Chinese, that does not get given. That does not get given unless the money's right. Okay. We got, we got really off track here. Okay.

Let's rewind if you rewind and go back to present day. Okay. Yeah. Let's go back. Present day. How much are people spending on families this year for Christmas? Do you know? With money being so tight and everything, I wi with money being tight. I very little. I'm gonna, I'm gonna guess very little, but I'm probably wrong.

Okay. So last year and the year before it, people gave their children will say experiences. Which were very expensive. Trip to Disney or trip to Hawaii or stuff like that. Which is, which is pretty, I pretty weird. Seems that we were in a pandemic and travel was kinda limited, but everybody had all that extra money.

You know those So they're going this, they're going, they're taking those trips this year? No, they gave them, they took him last year. Those What are they called? The, the checks. We got travelers checks from the government. Oh, the Yeah. Stimulus checks. The stimulus checks is what they used on Christmas last year.

Remember upstairs neighbor threw out all their furniture? Yeah, I remember that. And bought all new furniture. And then they took their kids to Disney in California. Yeah. Cause they, they got, because they got a lot of kids and checks. They got a lot of checks. That's what it was. So the thing is, is people aren't doing that this year because the stimulus as the government's not giving them stimulus checks,

So money's tight. Why? Okay. So. I did this research and on the day I did the research, this came out from the Deloitte 2022 holiday retail survey. Okay. Families are averaging $1,455 per household. Wow. Which to me is Wow. Yeah. That's, I wanna know who these families are, can they adopt me? So, but they're only, they're only averaging buying nine gifts this year.

Okay. Now that's for total household spending. Okay. As opposed to 16 last year. Okay. So they're spending the same amount of money on nine gifts this year that they spend on 16. Less on deco'r too as well. Right. Yeah. So, So the decorations are even going down. Yeah. They're not spending as much on extra decorations.

Like, you know, sometimes you buy little extra things that you see at the store and Cuz every year you add to your decorations. Yeah. Normal people like me anyway. Well, I used to buy at least one new ornament. Yeah. You know, like when the kid, when the kid was first, baby's first Christmas, you know? Yeah. And then you'd get the second Christmas and then you'd get a special ornament every year because the kid would start making it in school.

Mm-hmm. . You're, Wow. We're having really freezing problems. It's cold out ,but I don't know. Software looks like everything looks like it's running good. I don't know. So, anyway. And who you froze. I forgot what I was saying. Did I freeze? Yeah, you froze. So, People are spending less on decor. Oh. And for decor, like my thing is, I call, I like to put up a little, I collect Santa Claus as you know that.

Yeah. Well, my big Santa Claus, my three foot Santa Claus got destroyed in the move. Remember from New York to here? Yeah. And I haven't replaced him yet, so hint, hint, hint, hint. Anyway, hint, hint. So they're gonna spend the same amount, but because prices have increased, they're not gonna get as much as they got last time.

And here's a tip. Choose gift cards. Even though I hate gift cards, if you are a gift card person, it's easier to spread your budget. Okay. What I do when I buy gift cards, I got a question for you. Hmm. Why do you hate gift cards? Because I think they're impersonal. But if it's to a place that somebody knows you very well, that's when I do like 'em.

But when someone just says, Here's a Visa gift card. No, it, it's like, here's a hundred dollars to Starbucks. Oh, that's, you know, I mean, but that's different. I'm talking like a Visa gift card or, Oh, hey, if you give a, I got a $50 gift card to coach for you to go get yourself a new bag, or here's a gift card to your favorite restaurant, that's something you know they'll use.

Right. But a Visa gift card or a MasterCard, or, you're definitely gonna use it. But I get what you're saying. It's impersonable. It's like it's just got it to get it. Exactly. That's the gift you put under the tree for the unexpected person that shows up, because that's what you do. Anyway, if somebody unexpected shows up, they better, They better know somebody who knows somebody.

Otherwise they're gonna get Maybelline. No. What I mean is we always have gifts under the tree. And my mom started this with me. What you, okay. You have gifts for everybody I know. And then you have a couple gifts that you wrap. Woosah. And put under the tree. I got you. In case an unexpected relative shows up just in case.

And they've got a gift in their hand. Oh, I did get you something. Let me find it. It's back here. And then it's tucked it way back in the manger. My mom had a tendency to say, Janet, that's the gift on the top shelf in my closet. And I would run back in her bedroom, grab the gift that she meant, wrap it real quick, put the person's name on it and bring it back out.

You sneak you because I like to wrap and I'm fast. And boom, it was covered. You get creative with bows and everything. I know. I can't do that. I always pre-made some bows for, for those times that we had that happen. That's some crazy crap you do. And my mom always looked really good because she always had a gift for everybody no matter what.

Neighbors stopped by Uhhuh. . So anyway, anyways, they came over for a pie. That's all it was. So if you're going to and my mom's cookies. Well, yeah. So if you're gonna buy gift cards, okay. You can buy gift cards using your credit card points like I did. Yeah. Remember I, I took my credit card points mm-hmm. and I converted them to a gift card.

Yep. To restaurants we eat at. Yeah. They got mailed to us and then we went out to eat on our own gift cards without ever spending money except for happy birthday, Merry Christmas, yada yada yada. But you can give those gift cards and it really doesn't cost you anything cuz that's your credit card points.

Right. Or you can use your, if you buy a gift card and your, the store you shop at, Like, say you shop at a Kroger store and you've got a Kroger card. Mm-hmm. . And this weekend they've got four times the points on their gift cards. Oh. You buy your. Four times the gas points. Yeah. Buy your gift card that day and now you got four times a now four times gas discount on gas, which you can combine with the upside code that I gave you earlier.

Exactly. I mean, sometimes, sometimes upside will say, Hey, you know what, you saved a little more money doing it the other way. But we still gave, sometimes they do that. We gave a little bit, We'll, a little bit bit. We won't give at all. We'll give you a little bit. Yeah. So, so they call you a power saver? Yeah.

If you're gonna use gift cards, that's a good way to do it. I did that one time. I, I think it was the, the 5 cents off a gallon on upside. And we used our Kroger gas points, which was like 30 cents off a gallon. Yeah. And upside still paid me a, a penny a gallon. So they were like, Hey, you power saver, you

We see that you keep, and we got our points back on the gas station. We went to a Circle K and I slid my card. Mm-hmm. . So we got all our points on Circle K for free drinks. Yeah. So, yeah, we triple saved. So anyway, Janets' the connoisseur of saving. So look for, we have episodes, this is true on, on ways to save, to save Money.

There's a link. We have a Saving Money episode. We have a couple of 'em. Yeah, we do that, that we did. I think one of 'em is like 25 ways we save money in the apps that we use. Yeah. Was it 12 ways? I dunno, I think it's 25. I don't know. There's a couple of 'em. I'll, I'll put the links in the show notes. Okay.

So anyways, everybody to go ahead and click on 'em this year. Look for more homemade touches around the kitchen and the house and the tree. And a little less store bought everything. People are taking online classes and learning to do things and buying less expensive pre-made stuff, say from bakeries.

And they're not buying as many side dishes straight from the freezer section. Yeah. Everybody's using YouTube now. Everybody's using YouTube. And like I have everybody's, You, I have a lot of Christmas recipes. Not a lot, lot, but like a dozen or so Christmas of my, my favorite Christmas recipes on me? No, they're on my YouTube channel.

Oh, mine not ours. Oh. You know, okay. From my, I didn't know you had your own channel. You did too. . You just look for my name. It's like, So what's your handle? I don't have one yet. What? I haven't done that. I've been too busy. What's your, what's your YouTube channel? Janet McCue. All right. That's your. Oh, I don't have it put down yet though, but it's, No, they automatically gave it to you.

Oh, okay. So my handle, is Janet McCue, you, you can go in and change it to, at Janet m or whatever. I can see lots of recipes and lots of pink. It's me. I'll tell you what, we'll put, put a link and the show notes to the cooking, to, to Janet's YouTube channel and her cooking videos. There you go. And if, if you end up using one of her videos to, and you use one of her recipes, email us Patrick at 18 Wheel Talk and tell us that you did my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe is there.

That my great grandma Clanney taught. My grandma taught. My mom taught me is there as well as scalloped corn that I learned from my grandma. They're both on there now. Oh. And my cranberry sauce, if you can't tell, Janet likes to cook. You know, it's like every time she mentions it, she gets this Kool-Aid smile on her face.

Go to 18 wheel talk.com/youtube. This is episode 64, I think. I think. And, however far we are. Every time she talks about food, she gets like, Oh, that is like this. Hey, Kool-Aid smile pops up on her. But not about eating. It's about the memories. I know. Oh my gosh. I know the memories of Christmas and all the holidays and grandma teaching me to cook and mom teaching me to cook.

I know. I just think it's. I just think it's awesome watching you get this like Kool-Aid smile and your cheeks get a little rosy red when I bring it. Bring, bring it to your attention. You're like, Oh stop. So anyway, you're embarrassing me. So instead of buying whatever corn dish from the on with the show, from the freezing section, go to my YouTube channel and check it out.

It's the best. If you've never heard of scalloped corn, this is the bomb diggity. Yeah. As like I said, we will put And who is it? Larry says that bomb diggity. Oh God, yeah. . We will definitely put a link to the a playlist. I think. I think Janet has that on a playlist. I do. And we'll put a link in the show notes for her playlist so that you can all go check out her cooking videos.

So one, one thing I really like about this year, and it'll let us know that you like the cooking videos. This is true. Free of charge. . One thing I really like about this year. Yeah, what's that? Is because people are going back to homemade everything. Mm-hmm. . is, it's like a year of renewal, you know, bringing back all the traditions, less store bought, everything.

And it makes me remember all the, the stuff I learned growing up. Mm-hmm. , you know, it brings back so many good memories for me at least because I grew up in a family where you made everything right. You know, and you didn't go out and buy, We bought cran canned cranberry sauce, but we made homemade cranberry sauce too.

Right. You know, so we had both, Its fairly easy to make, you know, And the, and the canned cranberry sauce. My grandma used to, when we were little, open it up and see if you could get it outta the canned. Perfect. You know, I, I can do it and lay it on its side and slice it, it slices, which is, although just my male cousins always found that funny, although nowadays they round the end used to be able to just like pop the, Yep.

Pop pop up on one end and then, and then pop push it through, just pop it on the other end and it would just slide right out. Yeah. And it's not as easy. Now you gotta like put the can, you gotta have a special can opener. Yeah, I know. So anyway, take a screwdriver. You mentioned buying everything with cash because you know, credit card interest rates are crazy.

Oh, that's the interest rates are, That's an exciting face that you just made. What you froze when you went. Interest rates. Yeah. I don't know why I don't want, It Must be the update, the update's, you know, a little hinky. So cash, which is okay with interest rates being so high. Cash is obviously gonna be the better way to go.

Cash is always king. Well, I'm gonna take and roll all our coins out of the big jug if we Yeah, that's our gambling money. Well, you're gambling on Christmas this year, baby? I guess so. But there's a lot of ways to save money and come up. I was like, you know, roulette craps tables where Oh yeah. The casinos due live now here.

Yeah. So anyway, let me finish what I was trying to say. There's a lot of way to save money and come up with money for your holiday season. The Saving Money episode, but you can also roll coins. My hint for rolling coins is do not take 'em to a machine, because banks don't do your change anymore. So don't take 'em to one of those Coin Master or whatever those machines are because they charge 10 to 15%.

Yeah, that's, that's ridiculous. So just, it's real easy. Just roll your own coins, count your money out and roll. If you got kids, have the kids put 'em in there. Yeah. Here, here. Put this in there. You count it out and you make 'em roll it or you have them roll it, You teach them to roll it, teach 'em to roll it. Yeah.

No, it's a good way to teach 'em. So, so let me break down that $1,455 of family into percentages. Okay. This is, again, this is from Deloitte's holiday retail survey. Right. Which, which came out right as you were doing this research for this. Correct. 65% is usually spent on gifts. That would be $945.

That's ridiculous. And gadgets is the trend this year. Everybody wants gadgets. But listen, I'm the gadget guy. I like, I like the new, the new trendy electronic stuff that, that you kinda go, eww eww? I know I can't afford it. Yeah. Who wait until it goes on sale next year. I'll wait. I'll get, I get this year's trend next year.

It's okay. Cause they'll have all the bugs worked out of it. Yeah. They'll be like this year's trend 2.0 food and decor. So like your meals and decorations, the little stuff you add on. Okay. 23%, that's about $335. It's still a lot. And the, the remaining 12% is about 175 bucks. But I don't know anybody. I mean, no, I do know people that spend that type of money and we've spent that type of money, but that's a lot of money.

It feels like that's a of this year that's a lot of scratch. If you too bad to we didn't win the lottery. But if you, if you think about your budg, your average budget, Yeah. I wish I'd been that person in California. You know what, I was only four numbers. We were five numbers away and one state away. Yep. I was only one state if I'd been in California.

Five. We had five more numbers. We don't want it in California. . Yep. But we didn't. So, So if you think about your budget, first of all, you're in charge of your own money. You don't have to be the average person if you can't afford, you know, 1500 bucks. Basically don't spend $1,500. If you have a hundred dollars.

Been there, done that for Christmas. Yep. If you have a thousand dollars, that's fine. Whatever you have working really good. You can work it. Work it, baby. So here's some tips for Christmas spending. Don't spend more than you can really afford. In other words, don't go into debt to fund your Christmas wishlist that your kids have.

Okay. Ver think of that want versus need. They want the latest gadget. Like I know for a long time everybody wanted the, the newest Xbox, the newest whatever. Oh yeah. They don't need it if they've got the, the last one, if that's the one and only gift they want. But then again, True. Is it a $600 Xbox? Yeah.

Yeah, that's true. If your budget's 500 and you're spending 600 because you Oh, I'll just put it on my credit card. It's true. Okay. I don't wanna spend that agreed with you on this. Okay. I'm sorry. Stop arguing with me. Okay. Damn. You get feisty on this. I get feisty on money on these episodes boy you get roar, That's just me in real life.

Oh, is that, Oh, please, whatever. You're like, I am woman hear me roar. Okay. You talk meow. I just did. Okay. Next. What's next on list

When you know what you have to spend , create your budget. I knew you couldn't hold out. Well, I don't like dead air. Dead air. Dead air. Dead air. Dead air. Create your budget. So if you figure out how much you have to spend, that's your budget. That's, you have your bills are paid. Income minus bills equals your holiday money.

Holiday budget. Kids nowadays, kids nowadays, like bills what bills, screw it. Let's, let's, I'm just spending baby. Who cares about rent and utilities that could, Let's make rain. Yeah. Right? No. And we already said use cash, not credit cards. Yeah. So after the bills, After the bills are paid, what's left over is holiday money.

Yeah. If you got money left over. Correct. And if you're living paycheck to paycheck, you're doing something wrong. A lot of people live paycheck to, We have lived paycheck to paycheck, but we always managed to come up with extra money. Money to put away, Believe me, I know this. Yeah. I went when we were back in New York still, I was getting paid weekly.

And then when we moved out here, I went biweekly. So it was like, that was a tough change. Hoo. Gonna have to stretch this out a little bit. So if you work, say in an office or wherever you work, you don't have to buy a gift for everybody you work with suggest a secret Santa, but say, or what they call white elephants or something like that.

Or Yankee Doodle dandies or, I don't know. It used to be that you bought a gift for everyone you worked with, but if they're suggesting say, Hey, let's do a secret Santa this year. Let's mix it up a little bit. Take $20, go buy twenty, one dollar lottery tickets and and hand them out. Hand 'em out. There you go. Merry Christmas. Merry and make 'em the holiday ones.

Yeah, I've done that. , I've done it. You know, buy a two dollar ticket. You never, you got a $40 budget. You never know because you know somebody, I think one of the guys I gave won 20 bucks. Yeah, there you go. On a dollar scratch off ticket. That that's $20 more in their pockets. Make, when you make your list of people you're giving to, put 'em in a priority, top to bottom, put a dollar amount next to each person's name.

So if you know you've got set budget, Put a dollar amount next to each person's name. So if you're spending, I know I have it in here somewhere. Give me just a second. Okay. 300. So if your budget's 500, I went to the bottom, honey. Yeah. If your budget's $500, 65% is $325 for gifts. Yep. Cause you broke this down.

Yeah, I broke it down. On a $500 budget, you'd spend 325 on gifts. So if you've got 10 people on your list, or you know, because they say the average is nine, just say 10. If your top person you're spending say, a hundred bucks on, that's a lot of your budget. So you gotta stop and think, do I wanna spend a hundred bucks on that person, or can I break it down to 80?

How much do I really like this person? No, it's, it's a matter of, I wanna buy gifts for all of these people. Yeah, no, I'm with you. But break it down. Put the person, put the dollar amount and put gift ideas. And then when you do, when you buy that person their gift, if it budget is 80 and you get it for 60, cuz you used coupons and digital coupons and sales and everything else in your bucket that you're able to in your pocketbook.

Yeah. And you've saved 20 bucks. Put the 20 bucks, write it down on the side so you know you have 20 bucks out of your budget to spend on the rest of the people. Look at you bobbing your head. Are you imitating me or something? Maybe a little bit.

I do love you Patrick . So at the end, all of the people on your list. Okay. When you bottom it out, It should not go over the amount you put as your budget. If you did, you did something wrong. Yeah, it shouldn't, because that money's gotta come from somewhere. Yep. But buy unique items be just because someone asks for that.

You know, If your kid asks for that big, expensive tech gadget or the brand new Xbox or whatever it is this year, it doesn't mean you have to buy it for 'em, you know, Well, you wheel and deal and say, you don't have to go broke buying gifts for people. No. You say, I'll tell you what, I'll get it for you this year, but that's all you're getting.

What if it's more than your budget? What if your budget is only 250 for 10 people and the gift your kid wants is 400? Yeah. You can't buy, But yeah, I'm not putting it on a credit card. I'm, I'm, You ain't, You're gonna go without, Sorry. Sorry. I'm gonna have to get you this, I could buy you some coal. No, he's already say the kid say the, say your daughter that you're buying for already has an Xbox.

You buy her a gift card. Or a video game to the store where she likes to get games at. Yeah. And she can get a game at it. This is true for the current machine she has. I agree. That's all I'm trying to point out is I know. Go with options. Yes, I'm with you. I like options. I'm with you. Without you, with you, without you, with you.

So, you know, everyone's been on a tight budget at some time in their life, and I'm just trying to say, been there, done that, and I feel your pain. You know? If you, you know, if you already haven't started saving, now's the time to, If you get to that two weeks before Christmas and you're, you're at the bottom of your budget and you still have two people to buy for, have you done things like, have you cut out Starbucks or, what are you insane?

Or BlackRock Coffee or any of the other coffee places? Are you outta your freaking mind? Have you cut out takeout pizza? And started making it at home. You can make, you can make it at home. You can make You're insane lady. There's Starbucks recipes. You can at home. I think you've fallen and bonked your head one too many times.

You can make those fancy, fancy foo coffee at home, iced coffee and all. I've done it. Okay. I used to make 'em for Kyle at home. Well pew pew. Beep beep, beep beep. And pizza. We make good pizza. Ours is. Oh, hell yeah. Ours is as good as any store, any restaurants. Even better. Okay. So give up some of the stuff like that.

Make it at home instead of will. Instead of buy the ingredients, they're in the kitchen. Oh, okay. So these people that buy lunch or go out to lunch every day when they're at work and money's tied at home for gifts or for Christmas dinner. Uhhuh take, buy the ingredients. Take your lunch. Yeah. And if someone makes a comment, Hey, I'm saving for Christmas gifts for my kids.

That's right. You know, you know Thanksgiving's coming. Yeah. So, So just make yourself a Turkey sandwich. Bring it to work. Oh, that's a good idea. Idea. That's a really good idea. I mean, cold Turkey sandwiches, you just gotta give up creative, you know, chips. Yeah, it's, And if you want it warm, you put it on a plate, you can microwave and wahlah.

Well, and there's other ways to get creative. You know, we were talking about making homemade instead of like for dinners. Don't buy pre-made stuffing. Start saving up your bread ends. Stuffing is so easy to make. Jenna has a recipe probably, I don't know if I have it on YouTube yet. I'll have to look. Well, but I make my own croutons.

Even it's, you can, you could send them a recipe on how to do it. Yeah. What you do is you make your own croutons croutons, which you every, Yeah. Those are so yummy. And then you take your, croutons, you them into snack, make 'em into your dressing, which makes really good dressing. Yes, it does. So, like I said, so let's, your other is, On a $500 budget would be 60 bucks for me.

If I've still got the 60 bucks and haven't spent it on everybody else's Christmas, I'm gonna buy that fancy tablecloth or some sort of decoration item or that stemware, cuz 60 bucks, I can buy a couple pieces of stemware that I want for Christmas. You know, Uhhuh just to finish off my holiday dishes, not that we need stemware.

Do not buy me stemware. Do not buy me dishes. What? That's not on my Christmas list. I'm giving you an example. I thought it was No, no, that was a first item on the list. I have my parents glassware perfectly fine with their stemware. Okay. Okay. Okay. That was a for instance, but all the little extras here and there, they add up.

You know that and if you do all of that and you keep off of your credit cards, you're gonna end up not spending 2023 paying off Christmas 2022. No. Yeah, definitely not. Instead, you're gonna spend 2023 saving up your cash. For 2023. Christmas. Yeah. You know, start now. Start now, and you won't be broke next year.

God knows how inflation's gonna be next year. . Everything's just gonna keep going up. Let's be honest. Yeah. It's like, yeah. Nothing's cheap. Gas is gonna be $10 a gallon the way. Shut your whole, The way they're shut it. Well, at least I'll have the upside app. They could use . All right. You can speak a little.

Oh Jesus. I was holding my breath. Oh, I wouldn't hold your breath. You God. No, I just said, shut your hole. Well, I did, but to do that, I have to hold my breath. No, you don't. Just have to close your mouth. Stop talking. Now. You look like a pug. I sound like one too. Oh my God. Been around them too long. . Oh, and you gotta buy your pug gifts when you're making your list.

Make sure you have a gift. Include your animal. Yeah, Include your animal. Include your pets. Yeah. Whether it's a fuzzy pug like Daisy, one little tote. One little tote. One little toy. One little toy. One little toy, little extra rawhide ball. And what? And whether you have kids or pets. What we do every year, and I encourage people with kids to do this, I've told all my friends with kids before Christmas, have them go through their toys, clean up anything that they don't use any anymore.

If it needs sewing or stitching or whatever, donate it. Repair and donate it. If it's animals, donate it to the local shelter. Same with blankets, because shelters can use any type of blankets you can donate. Yep. And kids toys, you can donate them to women's shelters, homeless shelters, all sorts of stuff.

Kids everywhere can use toys if they're in good shape. Oh yeah. So that's. My special announcement. My public, my psa. Your psa, Animals and kids and peoples Oh, oh my. Same with you. Go through your clothes. People what? Go through your clothes. Donate a few things to a shelter. Yeah. Anything else? No. Maybe Happy Holidays.

Okay. From 18 Wheel Talk podcast, Show Okay. Patrick. And Janet too. And, And the pugs too. And the pugs. Don't forget the pugs. You can't forget the pugs. Well, anyways, we hope that this is helpful. This is our third year doing this, and we want you to. Enjoy the holidays, and I'm sorry I talked a hundred miles an hour.

Not regret the holidays, but we want you to enjoy the holidays and we'll leave a bunch of links and everything for, for all the stuff that we talked about and in the show notes whether it be on YouTube or our website, 18 wheel, you mean YouTube? Or they can, they can ring our bell. They can ring our bell.

they can go to youtube.com/ 18 Wheel Talk podcast. I had to do. Well, no, it's 18 wheel talk.com/youtube. We'll take 'em to, or they can just go to YouTube and in the search bar, the @ one eight Wheel talk. You know what else I wanna say? What Have a Holly Jolly Christmas you to look up the, you look up the lyrics. I don't know if there'll be snow, but here's a cup of cheer, here's a couple of beers.

But here's a couple of beers. Anyways, say goodbye, Janet. Goodbye Janet. Thank you for joining us! Hasta la Pasta!. We'll see you later. Bye. Okay, bye.