5 Hacks for a Credit Card–Free Christmas (Without Killing the Holiday Spirit) | 85

So I'm really excited about today's episode, talking about a few of my favorite things. OK, I'm not going to start singing, but today's episode is for you. If you have thought January, you get your credit card statement and you're like, how is the world? Did I spend so much money at Christmas? Because you said, you know what, this year is going to be different and you got your credit card bill and boom, snuck up on you and you did it again, right? So First off, I want to, I want to help you with that.

And then second, I want to help you create a credit card free Christmas this year. So stay tuned. I have 5 hacks for you to help you have a credit card free Christmas. Hey there, I'm Jules the budget nerd and welcome to the Debt Rebel show. This is the place where working families like yours learn how to stop living paycheck to paycheck, crush debt for good, and build a life where money actually works for your family. In about 15 minutes, I'll share practical family tips, tough love strategies, and actionable steps to move toward debt free living without the fluff, the shame, or the confusion.

And I know a thing or two about this. My family and I have eliminated over $107,000 in consumer debt and that was after I got my degree in economics. So stay tuned. This is going to be a great episode. So grab that coffee, your planner, whatever you need to make this a great experience. Maybe a snack if you're like me. And let's make your money work for your. All right, So today's episode is one of my favorites because, OK, First off, we're talking about budgeting. And I'm Jules, the budget nerd.

But we're going to be talking about Christmas holiday spending. The stuff that we, this is one of the times of year that our budgets can get completely off the rails. We start feeling guilty, we add to that debt load, we overspend, and then the shame spiral just continues to get worse, right? So I want to halt that right now and to help set you up for a credit card free Christmas because that is could be your gift this year, right? To open up your credit card statement in January and see the balance go down.

What Oh my gosh, how great of a gift would that be to to your future self, to your family, to your marriage, to your future goals, So many things. OK, so I'm going to talk about today 5 simple hacks that that you can apply this year right now to help you enjoy the holidays without that credit card hangover in January. So if you are new to the web, if you are new to the podcast, I just want to say a special welcome. I love talking about budgeting and debt elimination because of what has done for our family and the life that is created for us.

So I am on a personal mission to help families break free from that paycheck to paycheck cycle and eliminate debt for good so that you can focus your time attention on other things instead of paying for yesterday and reliving the shame of past purchases. All right, so let's get back to that because I want to talk about these things because these are gifts that you can give yourself right now to set yourself up to have a more enjoyable holiday season. So some of my absolute favorite things about Christmas are just, Oh my gosh, the smells, the food, the time with people and just kind of there, you know, yes, it can be a super busy time.

There's like some interesting pockets of breaks and things like that. But one of the things that has helped our family is focus in on what is the most important thing for the season. And so for us, it's not necessarily about spending a bunch of money, but the first hack that I have for you is to set your holiday spending cap upfront, whatever that amount is, is to decide now what that's going to be and then don't go over it. So I know that's so much easier said than done. But when we have that money and we know what that number is, it's so much easier to stick with that when we know what that number is instead of just this vague, I'm going to spend less than last year Will do you know how much she spent last year?

OK, go back and look. And then maybe that's what your target is this year, but I would say the best way to stick to this is to treat it like a boundary and not a suggestion. Whatever, once that money is spent, it's spent. And so being specific and intentional with it is going to help you stay within. That's whatever that set amount is. So another, another hack is to use a sinking fund, even if there aren't, depending on when you're listening to this, if there aren't very many weeks left until Christmas or whenever you do your gift giving or your gift purchasing or your holiday spending is even if it's just a little bit every single week, set that aside.

So even $2550 a week is stash that in a separate savings account or checking account or if it needs to be cash and it needs to be in an envelope so that you're not tempted to spend at other places. You know yourself well enough to know which one's going to be the most effective for our family is I have it in a separate account so that it's not something that I can see on a regular basis. And it's just money that's set aside that I save throughout the year so that I know exactly how much money I have to spend at the holiday time.

All right, so this is hack #3 simplify gift giving with some boundaries. So you'll kind of hear this common, common thread throughout this and it's about setting boundaries for ourselves. And it's super healthy to set boundaries for ourselves, especially we set them for our children. So let's set them for ourselves. And so one of the things that's helpful for us when it comes to the gift giving process is in our gift planning process is deciding there is there a limit. So maybe you have a large family.

I know I was talking to a friend who has seven kids and she's like, I just want to give up gift giving all together because it just it's so out of control. So for for, you know, for them, maybe it is focusing on a family gift or a family experience. One thing that my mom has done for us every single year for the last few years is she gives a family gift to my sister and her family and myself and my family. And we all go have an experience, which all is hack #4 I'll tell you about that in a second.

But we all go to The Nutcracker ballet together. And so we experienced that together. And so this year my daughter's actually going to be in it, which is very exciting. So it'll be even more amazing this year. But that is something that we have started and it's now a new family tradition. My mom gives, is able to give the gift because she loves giving gifts, but it also helps us, helps her stay within some boundaries, but it also creates an experience for our family that we absolutely love. So to go with that is normalizing the fact that scaling back isn't necessarily about, it isn't about the money.

It's about the meaning of what you want, your experience, what you want your Christmas to look like with you and your family. So I know some families will do 4 gifts per child, something they want, something they need, something they wear and something they read. Pinterest is full of all kinds of those types of ideas, but the whole point is to maybe reduce what you have done in the past to help with the financial goals. But that takes us to the next one is getting creative with your memory making.

So for us, creating those those memories together and like I talked about that family gift that my mom does, that is a memory that we have year to year and it's so much fun. We have photos and it's just a great experience for our family. We all enjoy it it and it gets better and better every year. So this hack about creating, getting creative about making memories with your families, sometimes the best memories you can create with your family cost very little or nothing at all. SO1 tradition that we've had in the past with my family is we'll, we'll do, we'll make hot chocolate, put it in a thermos and we will drive around and look at Christmas lights and listen to Christmas music and eat cookies in the car, like that kind of stuff.

So it's getting getting creative and it's not about necessarily the dollar amount, but focusing in on the experience is going to is going to help you stay within your financial parameters, within those boundaries, but have an amazing experience and celebration with your family. I know some families do like a thrifted like ugly sweater party. You know, maybe that's a Pollock. Everyone brings something they have their ugly sweater and it's just a time to be together and to celebrate. But not a lot of money has been.

Another thing that we do with our extended family is we have we each bring a family gift and so each, each family wants to participate. We do a gift exchange and there's a limit on it. So we don't spend more than $25 on the gift. And all the families that want to participate get, you know, do participate. And then we do do a gift exchange. It usually ends up in some sort of, you know, very animated discussion about the rules that don't go well, But it's about the experience and the time together.

That's another part of our family tradition is we don't necessarily spend a lot of money on that. But usually the memory that we have is that there's a specific family member that never gets the rules right, even though it's the same game we've played for years. It's kind of this ongoing joke. So one thing I want to remind you is in all of this, your kids are not going to remember the price tag. I don't remember the price tag of the gifts that I was given as a kid, and neither will your kids. What they will remember is the time that you had together, the memories that you created together.

So when our family says keep your eye on the prize, that's the what we mean in this scenario is it's not about the amount of money that you've spent or even if you stayed within your budget. Your kids are going to remember the time that they got to spend with you. And that's what that's what most kids, whether they are going to tell you that or not with their words, that is what they want. And so in all of the years, I worked with youth for over 20 years, and that is the common thing with all of the youth that I've ever worked with, mostly with teenagers, is they just really want to be able to spend time with the people that they care about.

Sometimes that's their friends, but most of the time they want they just want the attention of the adults in their life. And so I highly encourage you this holiday season if you have youth in your life that sometimes we feel like they might not need us because, you know, teenage years can be very challenging and especially if you're parenting a teenager. I see you. I'm not in that stage, although sometimes it feels like I am with my 6 year old going on 16. But with all of the teenagers that I have worked with in my career have seen the one big common thing is that they want to spend time with the adults in their life.

They they want to, even though they might not necessarily say that. So that's just a total side note. But having having those experiences and realizing that our kids aren't going to remember the price tag for the, you know, Tickle Me Elmo. I don't remember how much Tickle Me Elmo was when I was a kid, but that was a big one. I have no idea what it cost. I don't even know what it cost now. But the whole point is they are going to remember the time with you and not the price tag on the thing, the gift that you gave them.

All right, hack #5 So when you are shopping, I'll, the app that I use is the every dollar app, but you can use whatever you want. Maybe it's a simple no on your phone is track as you go. So that you know, I'll do this too with my, with my gift list is who am I going to purchase gifts for? And then I know what I have spent on them and what gift I've gotten them. So that one I don't forget. And then also I know that I've, I've given them a gift. I've accomplished what I set out to there, but keeping track in real time is going to help you see where maybe you overspent on one or you know you can have more to spend on another.

See within the parameters that you have set for yourself, right. So to recap the five hacks real quick is to set that holiday spending cap upfront and so know how much you are willing to spend for your holiday celebration. And then 2 is create a sinking fund for that. Even if it's just $25 a week to add to that, it's going to help you steer clear of that credit card this holiday season. And then #3 is simplify your gift giving boundaries. So having maybe a family gift exchanges and normalize the meaning of the holiday experience and not the money part of it.

So refocusing, redirecting your attention on that hack #4 is getting creative with your memory, making it can be a be something basic and remember that our kids are going to remember the time and not the price tag of their experience and their holiday celebration with you. And then hack #5 track as you go so you know when when you could be getting off track and it helps you create it. It helps you prevent the oops I overspent moments. O so as a reminder, you can do this and you also don't need to go into debt to make the holidays magical this year.

So I want to encourage you just to pick one of those things today and get started with it. See what could happen so that you are giving your future self, your January self a gift right now by picking one of those hacks to get started on. So if you also are like, hey, these are some really great ideas. Do you have more? I would say absolutely, I definitely do. And I'm you can jump on mywebsite.rebelpodcast.com and grab the Debt Rebel Star Starter Kit. And you can grab the free Debt Rebel Starter Kit.

It's not only going to give you some ideas to help bring peace to you in this holiday season, but it's also going to help you set out and create a budget that works for you and your family. It's going to give you some ideas on ways to save, create some margin in your life, and to finally eliminate debt from your life. So that next Christmas, you won't even have to put these hacks into place because you're already working on them and creating these habits for you and your family that are going to serve you and your goals and your future self so much better.

So check out the Debt Rebel Starter Kit. It's available on my website. It's totally free. And I hope that it is a blessing to you and allows you to have a holiday season that is full of joy and not about financial regrets and the shame that we can feel when it comes to overspending. So I hope that you have a fantastic holiday season and we'll talk with you next time. Thank you for tuning into the Debt Rebel show today. Ready to take your family budgeting to the next level? Stop that paycheck to paycheck grind and start living debt free.

Head over to my website, debtrebelpodcast.com. That's DEBTRE delpodcast.com to grab resources, tools and tips to make it happen. And don't forget, subscribe, leave a review. And if you know another family that will love hearing today's episode, it would be such a gift for both of us, your friend and me. If you share this episode and remember your debt free life starts with one brave step and I'm cheering you on every step of the way. We'll talk soon. Debt Rebel.

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