Simplify the Holidays: Spending with Intention

This episode helps you reset holiday expectations and build a simple, firm budget that keeps stress low while making space for meaningful traditions and lasting experiences. We’ll walk through practical steps like using cash envelopes, safe shopping habits, and decluttering before buying, plus ways to teach kids the value of experiences over quick thrills like game skins.

What We Cover:

• Setting a clear family budget and spending caps
• Avoiding swipe traps and “small discount” lures
• Using cash envelopes and safe shopping strategies
• Decluttering closets before adding more
• Balancing fairness without overspending per child
• Choosing experiences over piles of gifts
• Teaching long-term value vs. temporary buys
• Shopping early and skipping panic purchases
• Giving within your means (and supporting Angel Tree)
• Setting healthy expectations with kids and partners

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Chapters

• 1:08 Welcome And November Shock
• 2:03 Setting The Holiday Budget Focus
• 4:07 The Cost Creep And Swipe Traps
• 5:58 Equal Spending Guilt And Fix
• 7:13 Cash Envelopes And Safety Tips
• 9:45 Declutter First To Avoid Waste
• 10:54 Teaching Kids Value Over Skins
• 11:45 Traditions On A Budget
• 13:24 Experiences Versus Stuff
• 15:54 Mindful Shopping And Early Deals
• 17:55 Give Within Your Means
• 18:50 Angel Tree And Giving Back
• 20:04 Plan Now And Set Expectations
• 21:22 Follows, Shares, And Sign‑Off

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:34

Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the Gaggets Pot. I am your girl Charlie Shantae. Thank you for joining me on another episode. And oh my gosh, can y'all believe it's November? Like, we we in November, like holiday season November. Like we were just in summer. But anyway, thank you for joining me on another episode. Uh, if you have not already, please make sure that you are liking and subscribing. So every time a new episode comes out, you are the first to know. Because if it's a new episode, guess what that means? It means it's a Friday. And guess what? It is Friday in November. Like that just sounds crazy. Like, how do we get here? Like, it is November. Like, what? Like, how do we get here? So that means the holidays is coming up. So holidays means spending money, means buying presents, means all kind of this stuff. So that's what we're gonna talk about today. We're gonna like, I'm gonna have to make this into a little thing. Like, how are we gonna save money and budget during the holidays? Because you know, we got Thanksgiving, you got food, family, furniture, a lot of moving parts. So grab whatever it is that you drink or whatever it is you do when you listen to this, so we can go ahead and jump in today. I got water, and I got me a little coffee. Because when I tell y'all it's been a rough week already, but when I'm recording this, it's not gonna be same time. Y'all hear this. So by the time this comes out, I be good to go by then. So but holiday budgeting with kids in mind, like the what this is the time of year where people get the most stressed out. And look, y'all, I am doing my big what I got by notes again, so that I can still task. Yes, but no, seriously. Um, this time of year, I feel like it's a time of year when a lot of people stress out. So if you know somebody who is already stressing out about like holiday shopping and how to do things for their kids, whatever, make sure you send them this episode in the next few episodes to come because we're finna break down how we're gonna do this budget. We're gonna break down how we're going to buy stuff, how we're gonna strategically buy stuff, and how we're not gonna put ourselves into debt while doing it. Um, this is the time of year where, like I said, the holidays come around and you know you gotta set your budget. It also teaches, you know, you can it'll it'll it's a good time to teach your kids about budget because they're gonna get holiday money. But we're gonna talk about that um in some more episodes, in some episodes down the line. But today we're just gonna talk about keeping it nice and mellow, make sure you're not overspending and make sure you're not purchasing things that you know you don't really need. I know this year the big hype is about laboo boos and stuff like that. I really don't even know what a laboo-boo is. I I don't know. I don't know. Um, so let's let's first talk about like the reality of spending because like this stuff costs, and we know this year uh things are very expensive this year. Inflation, tariff, there's a lot of key and moving parts and whatnot. And these costs can add up. I cannot tell you how because you just swiping, swiping, swiping. You're like, oh, this is a good deal. It says five dollars off. Let me go ahead and get it. Swipe. Oh, this is this. Let me get it swiped. And by the time you end up swiping, you don't know because you just swiping, swiping, swiping, and it's going through. So you just like, all right. And then when you get home, you have kind of like that sticker child. Like, oh my god, like I really spent this amount of money. Um, so the average family, and this is crazy. When I was researching for this episode, like this is crazy because I thought I spent a lot of money. The average family spends between 15 and$2,000 uh, I believe, is per person during the holidays. This is crazy. Now, I thought I was doing a lot of spending because I spend no, I sp I spend probably about a thousand dollars, like a between five hundred and a thousand dollars a person, just depending. Um wow, that is crazy. Oh my goodness. And I think I want to say that the reason why I spend that much because I buy something for some one one child, and I'm like, oh, okay, well, I bought them this, so okay, I need to go buy this kid this, and then okay, well, I bought them this, and it costs a little bit more than what that, and so it ends up being a ping-pong and a back and forth, kind of like a guilt trip. Like, okay, well, I spent this amount of money on this person, but I spent this amount of money on this person, but I'm never taking into consideration. Well, you're talking about people who have a 10-year age gap, so they're not going to be in the same thing, and what one person likes is probably gonna cost more than what the other person likes. So if I continue to just barter and compare, go back and forth, it's just gonna be a back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And that's how it evens it that's how it just adds up. Last year, what I did was I said everybody get$125 budget and we're gonna make it do what it do. And guess what? I spent$125 on everybody, and everybody was happy. Okay, as a matter of fact, the stuff that I bought, I ain't seen since then. But guess what? I'm only out of about$500. I'm not out of like$3,450 because I'm spending all this money on stuff. I ain't even seen this stuff. I think I think Marco Polo has the picture like laying on his dresser or something that I got him of the F1 thing. So um, you know, like you gotta be mindful when you're shopping and buying. Like, how long am I gonna see this stuff? How long are they gonna use this for? Is this something that they can use long term? Set a family budget. Now, this is easy for me. Every year, I always start at the beginning of the year and I put a certain amount of money back. My kids are older, so is I just done took the guesswork out of what they want for Christmas because you're older. I don't have to be like, well, do they want this toy, do they need this toy, or do they need that toy? I pretty much let them tell me what it is that they're gonna be wanting for the holidays, and that allows me to save X amount of dollars throughout the year so that by the time the holidays roll around, you know, I have enough money to get it. Or if I see it come on sale early in the year or what have you, then I'll go ahead and get it, and then I just know that I kind of got to pay myself back for go ahead and advancing it. Now, the best way to do this, y'all know me, y'all know I love the budget with cash dollar bills. So I will go to the bank and I will get an envelope and I will break out on the envelope and write, kind of like how your mama used to write you a note on the envelope. I write down everybody's budget, what I need on there. Like I make like a column like New Face, Marco Polo, X amount of dollars, Malia, Naya, da da da da da da da da da. Break it down like that so I know what I'm working with. And then I'll take everybody's individual envelope because I don't because of holidays and people rob and they steal, I don't shop for everybody at the same time, so I'll never have whatever my budget is, I'll never have that amount of money on me. Ever. Like that is just unsafe. That is just dangerous, and I don't have big ticket items, or if I'm getting a big ticket item or something like that, I make sure I do it in the middle of the day. I don't go to like the 5 a.m. or whatever like that. If it's a big ticket item, I make sure I do it in the middle of the day. Um, and I take alternate bags with me. Like if I'm going to buy like a PlayStation or something like that, I'm not gonna walk out with a Best Buy bag. I'm not gonna walk out with a GameStop bag, it's gonna be like a JCPenney bag, a dealer's bag, or something like that. People not stealing pillowcases and stuff like that. So, or you can do a digital system. I'm not good at digital. I I have purchased many of digital worksheets, wasted my money completely because I my my mind don't compute like that. I just can't do it. Like, I'm a write down, like I don't even have my book in here. I was gonna show y'all my money book. Like, I write it down, stable. I can't get with the digital, like I'm so I am so old school with it. Like, I just can't, I can't get down with the digital products. Uh so how do we do this without you know without going over? Um, I always make sure that the kids go through all of their stuff, get rid of whatever you don't want, get rid of the stuff you don't play with no more, get rid of stuff you don't wear anymore, get rid of all of that stuff because what's the point of getting new stuff when you're just gonna put the new stuff on top of the old stuff? And one year I did that, and when I tell you, I ended up, I want to say it was right before the hurricane hit last year. New face had this big gross work, and I had probably found about$500 worth of clothes in his closet that still had tags on it that he had not worn because we did not go through his stuff from the previous year, and so he outgrew all of this stuff. So somebody um I donated it, so somebody got some nice items. Um, courtesy of us not doing our due diligence. I always try to model good spending behavior. I always say if you want something, make sure you save up for it. Is what you're getting a temporary fix, or is it something that you can utilize long term? One thing that New Face always does is he likes to play these games and buy these skins and these Roblox and the whole nine. And I always ask him, like, every time you do that, you buy this stuff, then we go somewhere, and then you want something, but you don't have no money for it because you spent it on this these Roblox because you got the skin of the week or whatever. This is temporary stuff. You have got to realize that you need to save your money for your long-term stuff. Every time we go to the mall, you love to go to the bookstore, you love to get a new book. This is something, and he gets a book and he will read it long term. You know, you like to read books, and you know this is something long term. Why would you not pick the book over the Roblox? Because the Roblox is something that does not last a long term. We always do traditions and different stuff like that. So last year we started doing Elf on the Shelf, and Elf on the Shelf came through with some crazy stuff. Um, I can't wait to break him out this year. Uh, his name is Didi. Welcome down. Uh I think he's somewhere in here. Um he's getting ready. I talked to him the other day, he's getting ready to come on back out. Uh, he might make an appearance a little early this year. I don't know. We see. He said, you know, it's a little cold where he's been, so he might make a little appearance. Um, some of the things we do, uh, Malia is the baker of the children. So Malia will bake. Um, I'll cook. Like I said, I know, and I've probably been saying this for a couple episodes. I don't know. But I owe these kids a banana pudding. So I have got to uh I have got to get on, I've got to get on that because if not, these kids are gonna tie me up. They want their banana pudding. Um, we do we always have uh game night. I don't know, we've never done like my little note says handmade gifts. We never did that, but we might do that this year. We might just do a little painting or whatever. We do that typically with um with Halloween, but I don't we really did no arts and crafts for like Christmas. Like, nah, we ain't we did that, but it might be something that I might do this year. I don't know, Wizard. Oh, don't do that. I know I ain't getting to the bottom. Moving right along. Um, so uh I just talked to y'all about that. So with my kids being older, it's a little bit easy. Like I said previously, I don't have to go buy these like little small gifts or whatever. We're starting to do experiences and different stuff like that. Experience trips we have in our house what's called Heavy Christmas, Light Christmas. Heavy Christmas means we're not going on a trip, we're not doing anything. I'm gonna throw some gifts under the tree. Light Christmas means we're going on a trip, and this trip don't have to necessarily be for Christmas, it can be sometime during the year because it's gonna cost some a good amount of money. So if we do uh a light Christmas, that means we're taking a trip somewhere or we're doing something big, so it's probably not gonna be nothing under the tree. This year is uh I don't know what this year is because uh what would I call it this year? New Face already has his gift, so I'm not even I'm thinking about not even putting up a Christmas tree. He got a guitar and he got Chris Brown tickets. That's that was that was his Christmas, so I'm not even sure, you know, experiences. That's that's just what it is. So that right there was five uh$750. So that's his Christmas right there. His Christmas is gone. Uh Marco Polo, he turns 25 this year, and his birthday is a couple days before Christmas. So I don't I don't even know when I'm gonna get the boy for either. So there's that. Uh so you know, just gotta. I I like to give experiences. Go experience, go have fun. Um, I know one year for Christmas, you know, new face, Marco Polo, get the kids mixed up. Marco Polo drives, he has his own car. So one year for Christmas, I was like, I'll pay your car insurance for a month, bro. Who wouldn't want that? And he was like, for real? I was like, Yup, I'll pay, I'll I'll cover your car insurance for for one. Actually, I think I did it for two months, and he was like, Dope. And I was like, Yep, that's your gift this year, so don't look under the tree. I want you to look outside because your gift is right there. Insurance on your car. That is your present. Merry Christmas. Um, but I'm just more leaning toward experiences. I I so desperately, and the kids are not on board. I so desperately want to rent an RV and like drive for the holidays, but they are not on board. So hopefully we can get the kids on board to do that. But we might go to Great Wolf Lodge or something like that. Uh probably not Disney or Universal because everybody does that. Like everybody wants to surprise their child on Christmas morning with Disney. We don't do that around here. We we don't do that. We like to we like flights and baits. That's what we like. But this year we're not doing anything like that. So yeah, no. Uh no. Uh, and last but not least, when it comes to holiday spending, I always say get things that are mindful, things that are practical, things that are useful. I always say don't just because you always go to the store and you see people grabbing stuff, uh, and it's kind of like you're just grabbing it because it's last minute. Like, did you put any thought to that? One thing I always tell people, I tend to find the better deals before the holiday season. I'm gonna do an episode about this because the way that I on the years that I do buy stuff, I have a method to my madness and it works, it avoids the long lines, big crowds, and then things like that, and it just works for me. Everybody, everybody's gonna do their own thing. Um, but when you go into it, just have a budget. Things are tight for everybody. I'll just say it like that. Um, things are tight for everybody, and do what you are comfortable with. I always say if people don't understand that you are doing things within your means, then you may need to re-evaluate uh some things. Do not go out here overspending, trying to make people happy, trying to impress people. Don't go max out your credit cards, putting yourself in a lot of debt, trying to get things for people. People have to understand that sometimes the the money gets a little funny, and I have I can only do what it is within my power. Every year I always set a budget aside and I always buy off the angel tree because my children literally have the world. I always get a child off the angel or two, just depending on what my budget is like for the year. I always get so I think this year I'm gonna end up getting two kids off the angel tree just so I can get back. So I have a budget set aside for that. I always I typically get an 85% of what is on a child's wish list. I do draw the line at like Xboxes, iPhones, and different stuff like that. I focus more toward the clothes, the shoes, and plus I like getting like little, little kids, and then I also like getting teenagers, and then this year I think I'm gonna get a couple of teenagers um to support. So this year, just make sure you are being conscious about your money. Make sure that if you don't have the means to do Christmas like how you've been able to do it in the past, sit down and make some traditions, do some low cost, cost effect effective stuff. You can always go to stores like Dollar General, Five Below, or different stuff like that. They have great gifts as well. Don't break the bank this year because you still have bills, uh, you still have daily living expenses, you still have food and different stuff like that. So do not please do not break the bank when it comes to spending for the holidays. Do what is within your wheelhouse. Start, it's the beginning of November. Go ahead and start doing your budget. I've already started doing mine, but mine is pretty clear-cut because New Face is already having stuff. I just gotta figure something out for Marco Polo. Um, and I don't got no spouse, but if you have a spouse, sit down with your spouse, sit down with your kids and set the expectations of what the holidays is. The holidays is just not about spending uh money, seeing who can get the bigger gifts and different stuff like that, but actually sitting down, making some holiday traditions, ensuring that the love is there because money can never replace love. Yeah. All right, and again, if you have not already, please make sure you are following us on YouTube and Instagram at the gag is pod. And make sure you are following us on your favorite podcasting app in the right-hand corner. There should be a little plus sign or a little check mark. Please make sure you are hitting that so that when a new episode is released, you are one of the first to know. And Ford, I don't I don't have a you can't make this up. I haven't been having too many you can't make this up stories because well, I do, but I can't talk about them, which is the crazy part. Um I can't talk about them yet, so they'll be in some later, uh, in some later episodes. But yeah, make sure you share this with your friends, your family. It's a good holiday season. Um, yeah, so our song, lyric of the week. I've been waiting a whole year. I've been waiting all year to put this song on the song lyric of the week. So the song lyric of the week for this first week in November is Mariah Carey, All I Want for Christmas. I had to do it. Cue the music. I had to do it. Well, I can't cue the music because copyright, but cue the music. Um, it's the that that's just like when you play summertime by Fresh Prince. Same thing with Mariah Carey and All I Want for Christmas. I am your girl, Charlie Shantae. This is the Gag is pot. Bye, guys.