Quick Tip – Simple Tips for a Rich Life

3 tips to help you save on gifts this holiday season

Assuming you’re in the privileged, fortunate position to be gifting at all this year… Because let’s face it: 2025 was a gut punch to most of our wallets.

Tips to help you save on your generosity this season:

1. Make a list of everyone you plan to shop for.

This puts a visual reality to that nebulous universe of family, friends, loved ones and randos that you feel obligated to gift this year.

2. Set targets for the amount you want to spend per person.

This does the most important job of all: allowing you to guesstimate how much you’ll spend this season on gifts alone, before you actually.

Put another way, when you eventually find yourself in that hole, you will have seen it coming this time around. At least if you do this next part.

3. Track what you actually spend for each person.

Seeing this in real-time will give you space to adjust as you overspend (likely), and more chances to get creative with how you stay under budget. You can’t save money without knowing how you’re spending it.

Does this advice feel too clinical, or un-jolly? Well remember the alternative is winging it with your shopping. If you’re serious about trying to grow your money and save in 2026, might as well use the end of 2025 as your pre-season training.

Jolly-o,

Dee

p.s. You can do this with pen and paper, or a spreadsheet. Check out my template on Etsy for a super affordable way to start. 👇

Pumpkin spice won’t get me this season.

Oh, Fall. That time of year when the air feels crisper, the hoodies start to come out, and pumpkin spice returns to coffee shops everywhere. For better or worse.

It’s my favorite time of year for all these reasons….maybe you too. Which is why if we’re not careful, it can also be an expensive time. (Those PSLs add up. And they cost more right now simply because it’s September. Those evil geniuses.)

Some ways that I’m watching my wallet as I get ready for spooky season:

How living below your means allows you to thrive

If you’ve don’t know the phrase “live below your means”, then you’re missing a pretty crucial piece of financial wisdom.

Here’s the deal. Lots of us would love to have more money. And this isn’t about greed: more money in the bank can give us the breathing room we need to feel financially secure.

Which is not something to take lightly these days.

Don’t cancel that credit card just yet.

If I could have it my way, I would only ever use 1 credit card for all my purchases.

Why? Because I’m someone who doesn’t like clutter…even though I’m human and fall victim to it time & again. It’s a mental load to me, knowing that I have multiple credit cards – all originally opened for different purposes – that don’t all get consistent action these days. And it’s a chore to go in and physically pay each bill. (Yes, I can automate this. But for reasons both valid and loopy, I refuse. Another post for another day.)

Maybe you’re the same way. Or maybe for you, having multiple credit cards is just too much temptation. That’s a far more reasonable excuse for wanting to close those accounts.

But as I made moves this morning to cancel one of my cards, I did a quick web search and soon realized that could be an annoying mistake.

All thanks to credit score math.