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258. The True Cost of the Holidays: How Much Are We Really Spending?
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Does holiday stress overshadow the joy of the season? Join us on this episode of A Wiser Retirement® Podcast as we dive into the true cost of holiday spending and its impact on both finances and family dynamics. From uncovering hidden expenses like holiday decorations to embracing simple pleasures such as driving through festive neighborhoods, we’ll share tips on how to celebrate meaningfully without breaking the bank.
Related Podcast Episodes:
- Ep 196: Your Year-End Financial Planning Checklist
- Ep 254: Closing the Year Strong: Key Financial Moves Before Year-End
Related YouTube Videos:
- Reduce Your Taxes and AGI by Giving to Charity
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True Cost of Holiday Spending
Speaker 1It kind of feels like we've gotten away from the holiday spirit when it's all about the shopping and the planning for that and right, the heart of what is the holidays to celebrate with family and bringing us back to the core right season things. Time to slow down, be grateful, celebrate each other. Look at the year past.
Speaker 2Welcome to a wiser retirement podcast, where we believe the best financial advice should always be conflict-free. I'm your host, missy Beach, and guiding you to financial freedom today is my co-host, shawna Theriault. Today, we're going to talk about the true cost of the holidays. We're going to talk about the true cost of the holidays how much are we really spending? Oh, shauna.
Speaker 1Oh.
Speaker 2Shauna.
Speaker 1So we're a couple weeks by the time. This airs from Christmas, but of course the holiday season with other things too. But it's really amazing when you think about what are you actually spending.
Speaker 2Because it's always more obviously than you think you're spending. Yes, I mean you can set a budget like X number of dollars per family member, but that's not what you really spend.
Speaker 1No, there's so much more that goes into that, and when I when I stopped to think about this when I was preparing for this episode, I thought, oh my goodness, there really is completely Well.
Speaker 2I mean okay. First of all, the stat holiday retail sales in November and December. Let's just round it up. The number is so huge. Basically it's going to set a new record this year almost a trillion dollars, that's how much it's going to jump to this year. It's going to set a new record. So last year it was 956 billion oh my gosh, yeah, and this year they think it's going to be between maybe 979 billion and 989 billion. Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised.
Speaker 1That's kind of scary that's really kind of scary when you think about the credit card stats and how those have been going up and people have not been able to pay their. You know we saw that in that conference the other day. I really hope that they're not charging up the credit cards, but we know they might be. I know it breaks my heart.
Speaker 2Exactly Because, like all the deals are already out in the stores, black Friday is already here, even though the real Black Friday hasn't even hit yet.
Speaker 1Right, it all starts coming out right after Halloween, right? And?
Speaker 2then the way retailers portray it, you know you get this FOMO, the fear of missing out, like if you don't get this deal, maybe they're not coming. And then I hear like some pundits saying, like all the best deals are going to be in November this year, so if you don't shop now, you might miss it, shauna. I mean, what is a buyer supposed to do?
Speaker 1Right. It kind of feels like we've gotten away from the holiday spirit when it's all about the shopping and the planning for that and right, the heart of what is the holidays to celebrate with family and bringing us back to the core of the season.
Speaker 1Things. Time to slow down, be grateful, celebrate each other, look at the year past and just um, it's just. You know all of this hype, but I feel it. I feel it as a mom, I feel it as a consumer. I feel it because, you know, we've been preparing for the last couple of weeks for it.
Speaker 2Oh, exactly. So, your house probably has all the trees up right. Yes, we do.
Speaker 1We do.
Speaker 2You might as well enjoy it at home if you're going to be assaulted in the stores and online Right.
Speaker 1Exactly All right.
Speaker 2So you know, obviously we have the basic tips to you know, create, create your gift list and estimate your total spending ahead of time. Um, you know to use these sales opportunities to buy ahead. Don't be like my husband, john Beach, who buys at the very last minute because he thinks he needs to be super dad to fill in. So don't let your spouse, who might be the spender, thwart your savings plans, because it seems like in a lot of couple dynamics there's always like one planner and then one person who wings it. Well, I'm the planner, my spouse is the winging it and thinks he'll be super dad. How do you and Mark do it?
Speaker 1Uh well, I, I'm the planner and, um, he does fill in a little bit here and there, but he, he's honestly like just you know, tell me where you need me kind of thing, so he goes and grabs things and does whatever and I coordinate and you know.
Speaker 1So it really does work, but it's a lot of pressure on me to do it and and not that he's putting pressure on me, but you know it's a. It's a little easier now that the girls are older and it doesn't have to be all the surprises, but you know, with, with Santa and all of that, but, um, you know it, uh, I don't know. It's really quantity or quality over quantity.
Speaker 2So you know it used to be all the presents and now it's different. But and that's. I think a tip for the younger parents is that it's not about creating a mountain of gifts from Santa or, you know, whatever characters in your life. It doesn't need to be that Because your kids are so overwhelmed and just excited about this, the whole atmosphere. Yeah, A few presents and they're all good.
Speaker 1Yeah, and really creating those traditions with your family the Christmas breakfast, the Christmas pajamas, all of those things that we just really, really love too.
Speaker 2Leaving cookies out for Santa. Yes, yes and just stories on Christmas Eve. So, you're right, the magic of the season.
Speaker 1Absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 2So, oh, what are other areas where you might be spending and not realizing it? And this is where you excel. Shauna holiday decor.
Speaker 1Yes, it's the only holiday that we decorate for us. We kind of go crazy, but you know, you really don't realize all those little things add up in the decor and you know, um, I don't know, we're not doing holiday lights outside this year and you know, trying to cut back on those kind of things that are just not necessary.
Speaker 2Exactly so, if you don't need to hire the lighting crew don't hire the lighting crew, throw some little lights on your bushes and call it a day. Exactly, and you know, you don't need to invest in brand new decor every year too.
Speaker 1No, you know.
Speaker 2I have friends that'll do that. Like change the whole theme every year Wow you know, one year it's a white Christmas, the next year it's all like tartan plaid and you know that's just really a little excess. So hey, pick a theme and go with it. Make it your family theme Exactly. But you're right, every little trip to Michael's in Hobby Lobby it might only be like $75, but they all have it, exactly, exactly. What else do we spend money on Shawna?
Speaker 1Well, holiday meals and gatherings, gatherings getting together. So you think about all the parties and get togethers and the friends giving and then, um, I don't know, things at school for the kids that add up, and then a lot of kids are in sports and they do like gift exchange and gatherings for that, and so when you put together all of the food and little small gifts that you do throughout the season, when you're doing all the little parties and gatherings, that adds up to a large amount too, especially if you're hosting your home.
Speaker 2That's a big one, yeah, hosting the holiday meal whether you know it was Thanksgiving or upcoming Christmas, Hanukkah, whatever it might be. Yeah, that's a big outlay. Um, you know, sometimes you think having it catered might be a great solution. Sometimes it'll actually come out ahead.
Speaker 1Um, well, and plus your time, what is your time worth?
Speaker 2That is a huge thing, shauna. That so many people overlook is the value of time.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2Because you know me and you working moms with kids and husbands. And how do you grocery shop? How do you meal prep? How do you get your table set beautifully? How do you make all this stuff?
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2Well, I'm not even a cooker. So John Beach steps in John Beach steps in and cooks our meals, thankfully, and we have a beautiful holiday feast, but you're right. So the value of your time, consider that and don't be afraid to tap on family members to assist when you're doing this, or kids, kids.
Speaker 1That can be part of the festivities to help our teenagers. Helps them cook you know being in the kitchen with mom or organize all that. So when they move out they know what they're doing.
Speaker 2Heck. I mean, we even have two college age boys, but they get tapped on to help in the kitchen and you know, learn these skills.
Speaker 1Absolutely.
Speaker 2They're going to live on their own in the not too distant future and they need to know how to find their way around a kitchen. So everybody can help and do their part, and I think most family members are more than willing to, especially in the holiday season. So that's where you can rope them in, yeah, and not feel too much guilt.
Speaker 1Our family always, we always. You know rotate homes, but then everyone brings something to always. You know rotate homes, but then everyone brings something to eat, and you know so we all contribute to that. So it just takes the stress off a little bit.
Speaker 2Never turn down an offer for someone to bring something.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2And don't be afraid to assign someone you know a task Like hey, can you bring the dessert, Can you bring a couple appetizers? Because in the holiday season everybody's willing to help out and share the burden. Yeah, not that it's a burden, but you know it's a lot it's a cost prep and cost for sure um, and that adds variety, especially when you're inviting friends you know that may not share your religion or your ethnicity. I mean, that adds the ultimate spice to the season and sharing different traditions. So yeah, that's really cool.
Holiday Season Traditions and Expenses
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Speaker 2Here's another good category entertainment. Yeah, because everybody has family together or family in town and so you want to wine and dine everybody and figure out fun things to do. And figure out fun things to do, but everything seems like it has a cost or you need tickets, like five months in advance, for your party of 18 to go to, so it's hard to not fall into that trap of all right. Well, we had to take the whole clan to go see the lights at the botanical gardens and things like that. But hey, drive around some great neighborhoods of inflatables and lights and turn on your cell phones and FaceTime from one car to the other and do crazy, dumb stuff like that.
Speaker 1Yeah, Well, I'm picking just a couple things maybe to do for the holiday season that you like to do and then just honing in on that, instead of trying to do all of it. First of all with time, obviously, but then the cost of it too.
Speaker 2Exactly yeah. Do you and the girls have any traditions that you do?
Speaker 1We do always go see Santa. So we do book a session with Santa so that they can have one on one, even though they're older now. So we do book a session with Santa so that they can have one-on-one even though they're older now.
Speaker 1So we do that for a family picture. And then we do holiday lights at a couple places, but it's more like donation only type thing. So we do that. We always have family game night. So we have a family game night. That's an inexpensive way to spend time together and you know, spend time and do that. So those are just a couple of the things that we do during the season that's fun.
Speaker 2Um, one tradition my family used to do up through covid and then it just kind of fell away was the movie on christmas day, which I know a lot of other families do, and it was just a good way to get kind of the older kids out of the house. And you know, you get a little cabin fever on that day too much togetherness there is such a thing, and so that was a great way to get out of the house. Yeah, um, and you know, see a new flick yeah.
Speaker 2I feel like there's just not that much out there to see these days. I don't even know what movies are coming out this Christmas season.
Speaker 1Right, I don't really watch TV anymore. I know my kiddos do some, but you know, but we do things like the gobble jog, oh, that's a good one, so we do you know a fundraiser where you can go and exercise on Thanksgiving morning. You know, I know a lot of families do that, so we try to find things like that throughout the season that I love that to do together, but they're not expensive and we're still together.
Speaker 2And it doesn't even have to be an organized run like that.
Speaker 1No.
Speaker 2On the holiday, get out and walk.
Speaker 1Absolutely.
Speaker 2Actually, on Thanksgiving we always run into tons of neighbors out in our neighborhood, you know, later in the day trying to walk off all the calories neighborhood, you know, later in the day trying to walk off all the calories Absolutely.
Speaker 1Oh, this expense is huge. Travel, holiday travel I feel like travel has just gotten so expensive between planes and hotel stays and rental cars.
Speaker 2Yes, and I don't even know if there's a game to play anymore in trying to find, like, cheap airplane tickets and things like that. I don't know, I'm not winning at it. If there is a game, definitely not definitely not um, I mean, yeah, there's always booking early to try to get better rates, but it seems like sometimes the last minute deals are the way to go.
Speaker 1So I did see this season. I was just looking we're not going anywhere, but I just happened to look. It looked like some of the beach pricing was coming down for the holidays and those were filled up for years and I did notice that. So I'm wondering if there's more availability, which is unusual. So I wonder if more people are renting out and trying to offset some expenses or if less people are traveling to those kinds of places for the holidays.
Speaker 2Ooh, maybe that's it your first thought that people are trying to get some more revenue on their rentals Because that's a perfect time to rent, you would think. Yes.
Speaker 1But they have been very. It hasn't been very. There hasn't been very much availability in the last few years from what I've noticed, and it looked like there was more available this year.
Speaker 2Are you talking like Florida beaches? Yes, georgia beaches.
Speaker 1Florida and Panhandle. Yeah, it was interesting. So I thought, hmm, maybe they're trying to offset some of those expenses.
Speaker 2Interesting. Yeah, offset some of those expenses Interesting, um and so. Other thing with holiday travel is you know, a lot of times people don't feel like staying with relatives because you know it's just uncomfortable, you feel like a burden. But it's the holidays. When the heck else are you going to stay with your family? If someone offers you a room in their house, come, stay with us, just go, stay with them.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2I mean life's too short to not stay with your family.
Speaker 1I always feel like we have five people so I always feel like we're moving, like it's too much, like overstaying our welcome, but your kids aren't little anymore.
Speaker 3No, no.
Speaker 1But they require full-size beds now. So that's true.
Speaker 2Of course you can just tuck them in somewhere.
Speaker 1No, no, in the border crib or something, and maybe if you do start planning early to your point. So the stat flights around thanksgiving, christmas and new year's see 25 to 40 percent increase in hikes due to demand. Wow, so maybe just don't travel over the holidays, exactly Maybe you like, celebrate your holiday somewhere in an off-peak time. Gosh, that's expensive.
Speaker 2Like, do your Thanksgiving in October. Do your Christmas in January, or, you know, celebrate amongst yourselves and then go travel to see your family in off peak time.
Speaker 1Yeah, I guess it's just hard. I guess we'll see you know where, where, where our kids land uh, both of us, you know, off obviously after college, and so it's really maybe traveling kids home and or going to see them once they have kids, cause I know, you know, once, once we started having children, a lot of family would come to us because it's so hard to bring the kids and all the stuff and you know they adjust to that.
Speaker 2That's kind of how we did it too. We kind of laid down the law we're like, well, Santa knows to come to our house. So I guess, if you want to see the kids, yeah, it's too hard to bring all that stuff, so you should come.
Speaker 1Exactly.
Speaker 2So that's a good way for young families to not travel and save on travel expense. Yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2What's oh? Here's a big component of the holidays, and I wouldn't call it spending money. It's charitable donations, yeah, and a lot of people do that all year round anyway. But it just kind of becomes more of a talking point, I think, during the holidays, and it's a good thing to bring the family together.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, there's so many volunteer opportunities but also helping with food drives, toy drives, all of those things. And then of course you're at year end tax planning, so you're looking at charitable contributions then too, um, but that's where you know we we carve out, and I'm sure many families do this carve out some time and some money to. You know be able to give back to others too during that time, for the ones that um can't during that time for the ones that can't.
Speaker 2So exactly yeah. Is there a certain way that y'all do that, or does it vary year to?
Speaker 1year. Well, we usually do food drives, so you know, during Thanksgiving and Christmas, and contribute to that, and then the toy drives wherever, and I know our cheer gym also does a toy drive, and so we do that as well.
Speaker 2Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1Adopt a family. We've done that before we adopt a whole family.
Speaker 2That's what I love, shauna the adopt a family and you can tie that into budgeting with your little kids too.
Speaker 2So, what we used to do when our boys were younger was, you know, we would pick the family off the tree and then we would give the boys a set budget of X number of dollars and we'd say, okay, well, this is the mom, the dad and these kids, this is how much we have to spend. And you know they need like the outfit and then they need like the gift items. And so we would tell the boys, okay, so how much are you going to spend for the mom, the dad, each kid, and they would have to budget the family gift budget amongst the people in the family. And so the boys were really animate about like, oh my gosh, well, we have to make sure the dad gets something warm to wear and we have to make sure that the dad gets something that is going to make him happy and, you know, something fun on Christmas Day.
Speaker 2So it really engaged the children when they were little. But it also made them cognizant that, like, gifts aren't free, there's not an unlimited amount of money to make people happy, so things come at a cost. So, even if it's not like adopting a full family, but just when you do the toy drive with kids, you know setting budgets and parameters so that way they're aware that you know toys come with a cost and let's make sure we find something that's age appropriate, that the child's going to love, and it's within the budget. Yeah, so I think all these things are valuable lessons about helping others and budgeting and, just you know, growing that heart, yeah, from a meaningful place, but not at your own expense yeah, it really does create the holiday spirit too, about giving to others.
Speaker 2That's what it's all about at the end of the day, because when you overspend, it gets you into such a negative space. And you see clients that come in with the credit card debt.
Speaker 1Stressful, stressful. It causes stress in relationships, your health, all of that. So overspending is just. You know you get that bill in January and it takes time to pay off. And then you know some some pay it off with their refund during tax season. But what if you owe also? You know so then it's like a double whammy. But I know many Americans do use their refund to pay that back too, so it's kind of, but then you know they're not really getting ahead.
Speaker 2Exactly, and as you referenced that conference we were at last couple weeks ago. American credit card debt is really spiraling out of control.
Speaker 1It is, and the interest rates. What they've done is they've gone up so the minimum payments. What was the average? It went from like 130 to like 270. It's doubled. So you know, they're having trouble paying their credit card bills just because the interest rates have gone up too.
Speaker 2And that's just it. Minimum payment.
Speaker 1Right, not it. Minimum payment right, not making a dent in it exactly and so any new charges just.
Speaker 2Oh, it's such a bad web right vicious web to leave. So um, you know, just planning ahead, being mindful of those true costs. You know, just take some of the stress out of it and just realizing it's not all about material items, I think, is the key thing, Just spending time with the loved ones and creating the memories.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2You know decorating the tree, putting you know special ornaments on.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2One of my family's traditions is I used to take their school pictures every year and put them in. You know those little two by three frames, and so their school pictures are all over the Christmas tree. So it gets into a little competition when we decorate the tree. You know who gets pole position on the tree with their pictures. And you know the awkward middle school pictures. You know where those get hung.
Speaker 1They want to put them in the back and hide them, Like don't let anybody see that.
Speaker 2But you know the good pictures they want front and center. So you know, just develop little things like that that become a family giggle or funny, thing, whatever it might be Absolutely Well.
Speaker 1Thanks for listening to today's episode. If you're interested in learning more about Wiser Wealth Management or want to schedule a consultation to meet with one of our fiduciary financial advisors, you can do so by going to wiserinvestorcom or you can click the link in the episode notes. Other podcasts referenced here that you can go to episode 196, your year-end financial planning checklist. Episode 254, closing the year strong key financial moves before year end, which is an important one. Any go on, follow us on YouTube and the video reference there is reduce your taxes and AGI by giving to charity. See you next week.
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