Money Mom Podcast
Welcome to The Money Mom Podcast—the ultimate guide for moms who want to take control of their finances, crush debt, and create a life of financial freedom and abundance. Hosted by Rachel Coons, a budgeting expert and mom of three, this podcast is your go-to resource for practical tips, mindset shifts, and empowering strategies to help you manage your money with confidence.
Whether you’re navigating grocery budgets, tackling debt, or dreaming of building wealth for your family, each episode offers bite-sized, actionable advice to make money management simple, stress-free, and even enjoyable. With relatable stories, expert insights, and a dose of mom-to-mom encouragement, you'll learn how to transform your finances—one small step at a time.
Tune in every week to discover how to save more, spend smarter, and feel empowered to create the financial life you deserve. Because when moms thrive financially, families flourish.
Money Mom Podcast
36: The Magic of the Holidays Without the Debt Hangover
Let's talk about taking control of holiday spending with confidence. I'll share strategies that pivot focus from financial strain to meaningful experiences, ensuring the holiday spirit isn't overshadowed by a looming January debt hangover. By setting realistic spending limits and categorizing expenses with intent, you'll learn to prioritize what truly matters—connection, joy, and love—while resisting impulse buys with simple tricks like the 24-hour rule. Let's craft a holiday budget that enriches your season with cherished memories, free from unnecessary stress!
xoxo,
Rachel
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Hello there and welcome back to another episode of the hey Rachel Coons podcast. I'm sitting down recording this episode, having just gotten back from our Thanksgiving break. We took a big trip over this Thanksgiving and we ended up kind of doing a circle around where we live. We live in Sacramento, california, and and we I had to go down to Sedona for a business meeting and decided to take my whole family with me down to this meeting. And then we kind of just tacked on. We Brad, my husband, has some sisters up in Utah and we decided we might as well just like make this a whole trip where we go down to Cisadona and then also see the Grand Canyon, because that's on the way to Utah Horseshoe Bend and then Zion National Park. So we're like we might as well just like hit up all of these really cool places that we wouldn't normally see because it's an area of the world that's like not easily accessible by airplane. So we took our kids on this massive road trip and it ended up being so much fun and so magical. It was just so wonderful to be just with our family for most of the trip until we got to Cousins and take our kids and do outdoorsy things. You know I love taking the kids to Disneyland and other fun places, but doing like an outdoor adventure with them. They loved it, we loved it.
Speaker 1:One of our one of the highlights, I would say is Horseshoe Bend, arizona. It's right outside. Well, right outside is relative when you're driving 30 plus hours. It felt right outside of Grand Canyon National Park. It was about an hour and a half off on our way to St George and it was phenomenal. It was definitely the coolest thing we saw over the Grand Canyon, over Zion National Park. That was our favorite thing and we caught it. We left Grand Canyon National Park around three o'clock and we were like, okay, we have to haul it to Horseshoe Bend in order to see it before sunset. And we got there right as the sun was setting. We made the kids run out Like I think it was like a half a mile trail. We made them run out to the end of the trail so we could see it before the sunset and it was magical and beautiful. So I would say, if you're ever in that area, even if you're close by, you have to make the trip out. There it was. It was really so cool. I don't know if our kids loved it as much as Brad and I did, but we thought it was amazing.
Speaker 1:Um, and then, of course because traveling is always, this is always happens when you travel we got the stomach bug. We got home on Sunday night. My kids went to school Monday, just fine, but then Monday night kids started barfing. I ended up getting sick and I'm just now coming out of this sickness. So that's always really fun to deal with during the holidays when we're trying to, you know, organize gifts and parties and all the things that are happening this month. Getting sick was not on my list of things that I wanted to have happen, but I'm. I was telling Brad that I'm really happy that this is over with. Like, we got the stomach bug out of the way. Now we can enjoy the holidays, hopefully, fingers crossed, knock on wood, I don't want any more sicknesses and I'm leaving actually today for a business conference in Phoenix, arizona. So I'm really excited about that and just excited for this month in general.
Speaker 1:I know it tends to be a month of real excitement and family get-togethers and love and giving, but I also think at this time of year sometimes it can be really hard to navigate. It can feel like a lot of pressure, especially if you are stressing about money or your finances are feeling tugged. And I know the season is magical, but it's also expensive. It's a very expensive month of the year. You know you have gifts to buy, you have decorations to put up, you have holiday parties to attend, food to prepare and it may feel like every time you turn around, somebody or something is asking you to spend more money. We just got through Black Friday. It's always a time of like what can I buy on sale for the holidays? And the holidays are supposed to be joyful, they're supposed to be really happy. But for so many struggling moms, it can feel like this overwhelming financial burden. And you may look back in January and be like what the heck happened to our credit cards, to our bank account and we call that the dreaded debt hangover when you feel like what just happened to my bank account. But I'm here to tell you it doesn't have to be that way and we can create a very magical holiday experience for your family, but we can also protect your financial goals at the same time.
Speaker 1:So let's start with why the holidays feel like such a financial whirlwind. First off, there's a pressure to do it all. It's not just about buying gifts anymore. It's about creating the perfect picture holiday experience for your children. We want to give our kids the matching pajamas, the Santa visits, the Santa pictures, the magical tree, the holiday dinners and, of course, all the gifts that we want to give. But let's be honest when we look at social media, that doesn't make it any easier for us. We're comparing ourselves to other people and their experiences, and sometimes, when we scroll through Instagram, we're going to see moms who seem like they have it all together, like the perfectly decorated homes and the lavish gift piles under the tree.
Speaker 1:And let's talk about the holiday charcuterie boards. That first off. If you've ever made a holiday or any charcuterie board, I'm always amazed at how much they cost. They are insanely expensive to make. But even though we may know that that's not the whole story, that there's probably more to it, it leaves us feeling like we're not doing enough. So what happens? We end up swiping our credit card to make up for it. We're just purchasing whatever we can to help ourselves feel better. Better, because in the moment that might feel like the answer. We don't want to disappoint our kids or we don't want to feel like we're falling short. But then January hits and we're left with the very real consequences of holiday overspending. But here's the thing it doesn't have to be this way, and I want to challenge you to think about what actually makes the holidays magical and, spoiler alert it's not the amount of money that you spend. You can have a very magical holiday that doesn't require the lavish gifts and the expensive decorations and the crazy expensive charcuterie boards.
Speaker 1:I think back to my childhood, and I grew up in a family with a ton of kids. We had seven children. My dad had a very modest job and I actually remember one morning we were always given the opportunity, I would say, to gift things to our siblings that didn't cost money. So we were making presents and we were creating experiences that we could give. And one morning my dad gave my sister a journal for Christmas and she opened up the journal and it was filled out Like it wasn't a blank journal and we laughed so hard about that because my dad had regifted the journal. It was a journal that had been used and he was like, oh, I can give this to her. And it wasn't. It was something so funny. We laughed about it. We still laugh about it, and it didn't have anything to do with my dad going out and buying my sister something expensive, but it created this magical memory of us giving what we could at the time.
Speaker 1:And spending a bunch of money on gifts was not what my parents could afford, and the memories that stand out the most for me was not the expensive things. It was the time that I had with my family when we went caroling, or the cookies that we made for the neighbors and baking with my mom, or driving around and looking at Christmas lights with my family, or sitting by the fire and watching holiday movies. Those are the moments that I remember. I do not remember any gift that I got. Really, truthfully, I have a really bad memory, but I don't remember very many gifts that I got. So the moments that don't cost much can be the ones that we can hold on to the most.
Speaker 1:So, before you get swept up in this holiday spending frenzy, take a moment and ask yourself what am I actually going to remember from this season and what do I really want this season to feel like for my family? Because chances are, it's not about having the fanciest gifts or throwing the fanciest parties. It's about truly creating traditions and memories that breed connection and joy with your family, and none of those things require you to go into debt for you do not have to spend money for those memories. So but let's get a little bit more practical. If you want to avoid that debt hangover, you have to be really intentional with how you go into the month and how you set up your spending. And I know budgeting isn't exactly a really fun topic to talk about, which is why I want to talk about it in a different light of intentionality, because one month of intentional spending can make all the difference, especially when it's the month of December.
Speaker 1:So here's what you need to do in order to be an intentional spender this month. First, you need to figure out how much you can realistically spend this holiday and that is hard Sometimes. That can feel really scary to look at your bank accounts and look at your credit cards and what is a realistic amount that you could spend. We're not going to dip into savings and we're not going to rely on credit cards. If you do not have the money in your bank account, you do not get to purchase the thing that you want on a credit card. You have to have the money ready to go to pay for that credit card. We don't want to go into more debt this month.
Speaker 1:Then, once you've figured out, you know what is our spending limit, what's the amount that we could reasonably spend this month and not feel like it's going to put us into a financial pickle at the end of the month. Break it down into categories. So what is the amount that you're going to spend on gifts and what is the amount that you're going to spend on travel or food or decorations, if you want a decoration? So you're going to break it down. For me, I'm going to put more emphasis on the things that matter to me. So my money is going to go more towards the things that matter to me than the things that don't matter to me and hopefully your categories and your amount that you're spending will be broken down onto what's the most important to you. So it's a really good way to kind of an exercise to kind of figure out what's the most important and where is that money gonna go, and then you're gonna prioritize.
Speaker 1:If your budget feels tight or it feels like you're not gonna have enough money, then it means that you might need to prioritize more things that matter to you and your family. Maybe that would be experiences. Like you know, every year when we go out with my family, we love to go. Do we love to go to dinner and then go look at Christmas lights? Maybe, if our budget is a little bit tighter this year, maybe that means our dinner is going to be at home and we're not going to go get takeout. Or maybe we're going to change up the gifts that we give and we're going to do something a little bit more simple. And when you do that, you give yourself permission to let go of the things that don't make the cut, that aren't important to you, so that you can put the money towards the thing that are important.
Speaker 1:And then the most important thing I would say is to track your spending along the way so, as you are purchasing items, keep a running total of everything you're spending your money on so you don't accidentally blow your budget. There are so many spreadsheets and apps and things that you can use to help you with this. I think a really simple way to do this is to just pull out a note on your phone, something on your phone. You don't have to purchase these expensive apps. You could literally just pull out a note on your phone and anytime you purchase something that is going towards the holiday budget, you're putting that number in your phone so you can run a grand total as you're going through the holiday budget. You're putting that number in your phone so you can run a grand total as you're going through the month, so that it doesn't creep up on you, so that we're not left at the end of the month amazed at how much we spent, because we know what we're spending as we go through the month.
Speaker 1:Now let's talk a little bit about impulse spending, because this is where a lot of us will get tripped up Like. You know how it goes You're at target to grab wrapping paper or whatever, and suddenly you're checking out with five other things in your cart worth $100 of stuff. Maybe this sounds familiar. I know it's happened to me. So here's how to really be intentional and avoid impulse spending purchases. So first, when we go into the store, we really need to make a list and have a list of things that we're going to get, that we're shopping for in the store, and have a clear list of what you need and stick to it. Don't get sucked into these quick deals or random things that you may need later on. You need to be really intentional about what you are purchasing.
Speaker 1:And then another thing that I love to avoid impulse purchases specifically is I give myself a 24-hour rule. So if I'm tempted by something that maybe isn't on my list when I go in the store, or if I want to purchase something that's on sale, hopefully the sale isn't over within 24 hours, but I wait 24 hours before purchasing it. That gives me a chance to really think about the purchase and think about do I actually want this item? And some of the time I come back and say, yeah, I really do wanna purchase this item, I'm gonna go buy it. And then sometimes I realize I don't actually need it and I was in the moment thinking that it would be really exciting and I was excited to make that purchase, but it isn't actually going to change anything for me. So I choose after 24 hours do I want this item, do I not? And then I make an intentional purchase. I'm not doing it on a whim. So let's fast forward to January.
Speaker 1:I want you to imagine what it would feel like to start the new year without that sinking feeling of credit card debt hanging over your head. How would that feel to start the new year 2025 on a better foot than you started 2024? I want you to imagine looking back on the holidays and this month and feel proud, feeling proud of the memories you created and not stressed about how you're going to pay for them. What would that feel like to you to know that you were intentional the whole month and you took power over your finances. You didn't let the month run you, you didn't get sucked into the consumerism that happens so frequently in this month and you're still come January. You're still feeling like you had a wonderful holiday season, that you created memories and that you didn't overspend. That's what we want, that's what we're looking, working toward and that's why you're listening to this episode.
Speaker 1:It's not about depriving yourself, about depriving yourself. It's not about living in. How can I penny pinch every dollar and never spend any money? That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about being intentional with your finances, whatever that may be, because I know that my audience runs the gamut. I have people who are living paycheck to paycheck and really worried about finances and are trying to get out of credit card debt, and then I have the other end of the spectrum where people who are fine, they're not worried about finances. But that doesn't mean that both ends of the spectrum shouldn't be intentional. Both should be intentional with your money. Ends of the spectrum shouldn't be intentional. Both should be intentional with your money, because being intentional with your money unlocks so much freedom emotional freedom, financial freedom, relationship freedom.
Speaker 1:So I want you to be able to enjoy this season, but also protect your financial goals, whatever they may be.
Speaker 1:So here's your challenge after listening to this episode, I want you to take a few minutes to set aside some time and set your holiday budget to make a plan. Decide first what matters most to you this season, what are the things that you don't want to give up, what are the things that are really important to you and your family, and then let the rest go, because when we stop trying to do it all, we're going to make space, we're opening up opportunity for what really matters. What really matters and I'm willing to bet that most of what really matters is connection, joy, giving and love. So I hope this episode leaves you feeling inspired and empowered to tackle the holidays with confidence and not stress. And if you found this episode helpful, share it with a friend. I want to spread this feeling that less families can feel financial stress during the holidays and more of that magic that comes with the season. So thanks for tuning in and I'll see you next week.
