😭😭 Black Friday Regrets + 🎅🏼 Spending $1000 on Christmas? + Savings Struggles

The money stuff that you wish they taught in school

Jan 11, 2024

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Your Questions & Answers

😭😭 Black Friday Regrets
🎅🏼 Spending $1000 on Christmas?
Savings Struggles

😭😭 Black Friday Regrets

Q. “I spent WAY too much on Black Friday sales. What’s wrong with me 😭😭?“
-Chloe, 22, Vic

Answer

Hey Chloe, I’m sorry that you’re stressed about this. But the answer is really simple. Nothing. Nothing is wrong with you.

Black Friday has been popular in the US for a few decades. It’s a more recent thing in Australia. But it’s gotten big. Fast.

I read a statistic that some retailers will earn about a quarter of their sales for the whole year during the Black Friday period.
This year in Australia alone we were estimated to spend $6,300,000,000 ($6.3 billion) across the 4-day Black Friday weekend.
On average, that’s a spend of about $300 per Australian adult. But that’s just an average. Some of us (including me) spend more than that some years.

Black Friday has become this incredibly powerful marketing tool. Because it harnesses one of the most powerful factors that can influence us: the fear of missing out (FOMO). In this instance, our ‘fear’ is of missing out on saving money or missing out on an item that might sell out.

And then basically every company in the country pumps advertising dollars into making sure that we hear that message. Over and over. For a month.

Here’s a couple of practical things you can try:

You said you think you spend too much - Get into your banking app and do some math. Tally up how much you spent this year on Black Friday promos and sales. Write it down on a physical piece of paper or post it note. Then put that number somewhere you’ll see it every day like your bedroom mirror or wardrobe door. That’s going to feel uncomfortable and make you upset / annoyed. That’s the point. If you feel that feeling regularly you’re more likely to remember it when you get to Black Friday next year and feel that ‘buying stuff’ itch hit you.
Unfollow brands on social media in September next year - following brands on socials helps us to see when they come out with new stuff we might like. It’s also really good inspiration for all sorts of stuff. But science shows that our brains will be influenced by seeing the same message over and over. It’s why marketing works. If you’re following a bunch of brands going into this high promotional period you’re going to see a LOT of marketing. That’s going to make it much harder to spend less. Make it easier for yourself. Unfollow. You can always follow them back after Black Friday or Christmas ends.
Track your usage. I’m sure you bought some stuff that you love and that you’ll use heaps. But I’m sure there’s some stuff that isn’t going to come out of it’s box or have the tags cut off for a while. Make a list of what you bought. And track when you wear it / use it. Doing this might help you see what was really useful and fun for you (which means it was a good purchase) and what was an impulse buy that you didn’t really want or need.

Final key thing that I want to say again: there is NOTHING wrong with you.

You’re trying to resist the collective efforts of an entire industry telling you to spend during this period. And there’s nothing wrong with buying stuff that you enjoy using / wearing / having. But hopefully some of the ideas here help you avoid the purchases you don’t really want to make next year!

🎅🏼 Spending $1000 on Christmas?

Q. “I feel like my family and friends spend way too much on Christmas and presents. I’m pretty sure some of them got close to spending $1,000 on gifts for others (in total). We’ve got a pretty big family so that’s probably part of it, but still, are we way outside what’s normal?“
-Taylor, 18, NSW

Answer

Hey Taylor, this is a super interesting question. Luckily there’s data for this, which I looked up.

The average spending for gifts over the Christmas period was $646 spent per person. That might seem like a big number. But if you’re buying for parents (x2), one sibling, a girlfriend / boyfriend and grandparents (x4) that’s 8 people right there with an average gift amount of $80 which isn’t going buy a hugely excessive present.

If you’ve got a bigger family (blended family or more siblings) or also buy gifts for friends then that overall amount is going to get higher pretty quickly.

So while the average spend is $646 per person, there are plenty of reasons why that amount might be higher for you / a family like yours.

My big tip here (and one we’ve done in my family) is to propose Secret Santa, with a spending limit, for Christmas 2024. It works out to way less than $646 spent per person for us, and everyone still gets a few gifts they really like.
It’s so much better receiving one or two slightly more expensive, better gifts rather than multiple small gifts that might be less wanted.
And it’s also less thinking, shopping and gift wrapping for everyone. I think this is actually the biggest benefit. More free time, less stress.

Now that we do it this way no one can believe we did the ‘presents for everyone, from everyone’ version for so long. It’s also a great time of year to suggest it in the family group chat since everyone is cringing at the sight of their holiday bills right about now.

The other thing that I like the idea of is to buy experiences rather than things. If it’s something expensive like skydiving or a whale watching boat trip make it a joint present from you and someone else in the family.

My take on it is in 3-5 years, most ‘things’ end up living in a cupboard, or donated, or not used very much. But if you give an experience that person gets to make a memory. Extra points if it’s something you can do together.

Personally, I have pretty much zero memory of the ‘stuff’ I got 3 or 4 years ago for Christmas. But I remember the gifts that were experiences: tickets to a Big Bash game my brother in law got me, or the concert that we went to after I gifted the tickets to my wife.

That’s obviously a lot of stuff that me and my family do that works for us so take or modify anything in there that you think might suit you!

Savings Struggles

Q. “I get that saving is a good idea logically. But I don’t really care that much about it so I don’t do it consistently and just dip into my savings whenever I want something. Just confused about whether I’m doing it wrong and what the point of saving is I guess.“
-Alexander, 17, Qld

Answer

Hey Alexander - this is a really honest question and lots of people might not be comfortable asking it for themselves, so thank you for asking it.

Saving without a specific goal in mind (first car, overseas holiday, whatever) can be hard. Like you said, it makes it harder to care about saving and harder to be consistent with it. But you’re not doing it wrong!

The way I look at saving money is that it gives me options and more choices. But here’s the thing: those choices might be for things I haven’t even thought about yet.

🏂 Short Notice Snowboarding

Here’s an example. When we were in uni a mate of mine rang me in April and said something like “Hey Ry, New Zealand to go skiing and snowboarding in July - you in?”.

He’d been saving for a while to go with his girlfriend and two others. One of them had bailed. So there was a spot free. But I was studying and working part-time, and was only earning between $150 - $300 a week. So I had precisely zero chance of saving a few thousand dollars for flights, accommodation and all the rest of it on short notice.

But my answer to him was “Yep. I’m in.”

I didn’t have to save the money I needed in just a few weeks. For some reason (I still don’t know why I started doing it) I was in the habit of saving 20% of my pay every week.

When I made that decision to save 20% of every pay, I didn’t know specifically what I’d use it for. But when something good came along, it was awesome to be able to say ‘yes’ without having to think of how I’d find the money or ask my parents for a loan.

Which brings me to the other point about money and savings. It’s there to be spent on things and experiences that make you smile, ideally with people that you enjoy spending time with.

If you save regularly, you have the option to say ‘yes’ to more of those things, and plan more of them.

Hopefully that helps with why it might be a good idea to save consistently - it’s giving your future self the option to say ‘yes’ to something you’ll want to do (but don’t know about yet).

Thanks for Reading

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