You're listening to Cash Talk. My name is Adrian. Hi, I'm a seat and we are your host at the Cash Talk Podcast you can find us on Facebook Twitter and Instagram at cash talk podcast Happy Thanksgiving everybody Thanksgiving my favorite holiday of the year I love your favorite it is the food and the festivities and like you know winter time There's always great holidays that come up except it doesn't come with the pressure about giving gifts or counting down to midnight That's true. This one is just all about the food and that's that's a fellow ship.
That's something to be something celebrate Yeah, I love it So we decided to get together this week to give you all a real short episode There's a listener question that we thought is really topical that we want to address and we'll go from there If there's any listener questions that you want to ask us feel free to send us an email at cash talk podcast at gmail.com We can keep you anonymous. So if it's maybe a sense of situation something You don't want all your business out there about just let us know and we will answer on the show for you But keep things discreet. Yes this week. This is this question came from Victoria.
She says hey cash talk I'll follow Adrian's Instagram page man versus cash shameless plug and I love the posts It really helps me stay focused and keep myself from feeling alone while I try to get out of debt Thank you I've heard everyone talking about saving money for the holidays like Christmas and stuff and I don't feel I don't like feeling pressured to work Over time or cut corners to buy gifts. So I want to save too, but I don't know where to start. What should I do? What do you two do?
Thanks for any tips Victoria? Oh Thank you for submitting a question Victoria and happy holidays to you and yes, definitely so um, let's see I don't think I have anything that's really that Sophisticated now I have another institution where I have money that automatically goes into it. It's not a lot It's not a lot that goes into it. I don't think I can really give you a dollar amount It really just depends on what kind of budget you want to work with but for me out of sight out of mind works best Yeah, I'm real bad at seeing my count at a glance and I'm like oh okay I have that much in there.
We'll have this much for Christmas and then I'm gonna take some of this out of there So for me I put a little out of time Into another financial institution all together not even the same one not where I can transfer or I can you know easily use a card that I had I'm not any access to it unless I go physically to that place and say and you take out this much money So that makes sense doing that kind of helps me in in no way does that account have like tens of thousands of dollars? But it does it does help me when it comes to Christmas time So you may want to try that you may want to try opening up an account in some places Well, you know give you perks for opening up new account So you may actually kind of get a boost by maybe a ten dollars at that time place will put in there for you Oh, yeah, or maybe even you know an intro savings account interest rate So if you are following Adrian's Instagram, he does talk about one that he recently opened with an excellent interest Oh, God. Yes So if you look around you can do that and you can say that another institution and then just not look at that account until you Decided him and do some shopping. I'm gonna look how see how much I've saved in this other account and you'd be surprised Hmm.
I I wholeheartedly agree with that and I do appreciate that you've realized that Christmas you mentioned that's what you're saving up for that It falls on the same day every year. It's not a surprise. It's not an emergency So you shouldn't have to cut corners upon a credit card. I appreciate that you realize you've been doing this you might do something better Yes, um Just as a piece of advice like Missy said putting money aside if you were to say assuming you get paid by weekly every other week There's 26 pay periods in a year.
So if you were to start today Thanksgiving day by next Thanksgiving you'd have over $500 saved up if you save $20 every paycheck That's really amazing. So you would have $500 for at least for next Christmas. They're really great. Yeah, that's that does a lot Missy says she does like direct deposit to another institution I keep the money in my account where all my other like my savings my checking and my vacation money and all that stuff is That's just how it works for me.
Um, I do something similar direct deposit where my check comes in Automatically a certain dollar amount gets taken out and moved into my Christmas club gets put into my vacation gets put towards my bill So that regardless of how I feel about it what I'm thinking do I really feel like logging on dealing with it? It's gonna happen already you already made the decision for that before you even decided to spend your money So yeah, that's a really good idea now the thing about saving money I mean you have to know your weakness for me seeing it in my account isn't going to get me because for Christmas gifts Sometimes I buy it throughout the year. It's not a big deal now my emergency fund I keep elsewhere and I speak like I have a thousand dollars saved up in case something happens I can dip into that but if that was sitting in my account with the rest of my money I would be touching it left and right and there would be nothing there. Mm-hmm.
So know your weakness and Bite that basically. There's other things you can do like if maybe saving $20 a paycheck is a bit hard Some people will take their tax returns or if you do budgeting you'll get two extra pay periods per year We're essentially you get paid by weekly most people in America get paid by weekly and you'll find twice a year There's two separate months where you get three paychecks instead of two Mm-hmm some people will take back their tax return or they take money like that for those extra checks where you get three that week three that month If you have a side hustle if you sell stuff if maybe you budget a hundred dollars for your bills It comes in at 80 that's an extra 20 bucks any additional money you find it throughout the year But I decide that's what some people try to do I do it a little bit myself also I always find that if you are trying to save up for something specific and you give yourself a gold date I Think let's let's say this date is and you maybe you decided to kind of last minute that you didn't You wanted to save up and you have like four months until you know Until that date use that entire four months to let's say let's say every Tuesday and Thursday your favorite restaurant has a special Don't go to that restaurant, but take the money that you would have spent there put it in save it aside This is actually what I this is actually what I did. Yeah I'm really bad at not so much anymore because I got myself out of it, but I was really I was really Bad at going to places that were like dollar Like dollar meals or dollar this and that but I would still be spending eight and nine dollars and think I would do that stuff all the time But I could justify it to myself because they were just a dollar so I stopped doing that because I had The kind of birthday to go to our camera I think it was a I'm oh god was a wedding reception It was a wedding reception I was going to for these for this couple That's kind of one of those where you buy them gifts even though they really didn't need anything But you're trying to show you trying to show up. They don't want to be empty So I was like okay, I cannot afford to I'm not showing up with a ten dollar Walmart gift card So I was like I need to show up for this so I actually cut out those things that I was doing and Cut out those dollar purchases and actually I put all of that money that I was going to spend on that in an envelope and I kept putting them up every month and by the time I had gotten to it was by a week or so before the Deception and I had saved seventy five dollars.
Nice. I did not know that that's like whenever I would go because like Because it's kind of easy to put yourself when something's individually cheap. You don't think about the Like it like let's say you you buy something at the vending machine and you've had five diet cooks in that week That's five dollars. You know, you're like that's fine.
That's just a dollar here dollar there It really added up to seventy five dollars Yeah And so I think I forgot what I ended up buying but at seventy five dollars that I didn't realize plus it made me look at the way I'm spending my money and and how that really adds up So if you have a short period of time to save up for something Then that's a short period of time that you're sacrificing something So now and if you do after you do that and you see how much money you've gained that may actually Also get you to look at how you're spending just period. Yeah, so that may be twofold for you I mean, so there's that one thing I'm actually going to try there's a pair of pants sing in my car right now I've been too lazy to go buy a target and actually return it but Something I'm going to try I have decided to call it the are you serious moment because that's what it is I bought these pants and the pants they were on clearance. They were nine dollars. They're great pants, but they're great dress lacks I bought them for work.
I have about four other pairs of gray dress lacks. Don't really need them I brought it home. I tried on I'm like, you know what this is great, but it's like all the other ones I'm just gonna return this when I return it and I get my eight dollars back I'm going to put that money and savings instead of putting it back in my account to be used again because I've already Okay, spending at one time So while I'm just gonna put it back to just let it disappear on something else stupid five minutes later I'm gonna put it somewhere that I can do some big use for me later on Yeah, there you go. Yeah, that's I mean, yeah It helps you save up and also have you look at your money and you're spending and you know spending your money on things It's not it's not a bad.
It's not a bad thing if you if you need to buy work pants or if you know If it is just you and you do go to a dollar menu because it is just you You know, you don't you don't have to feed you know if kids are espoused to feed or whatever. So it's cheap That's you know, that's fine It's just I think when it turns into habits and that's when anyone like Adrian was saying and he has all this great I do the same thing I'm real bad with I love navy and black and so I find myself buying a lot of the same and like the same kind of style So I had to get like the same kind of dress and I'm like why would I do this but they're so different though I mean, it's like this color is yeah, it's longer than the other cow so you You all suppose you look at yourself and how you're spending money, so You know, you can choose to save that way. Yeah, I don't think I mentioned without actually stating but most financial institutions offer like additional savings accounts such as a Christmas Club where that's essentially what it is is it is a Account there's even some that are locked away where you would deposit money every single month into this thing and Like one that I know if that I used to use you would deposit however much you wanted to deposit five dollars You can deposit a hundred dollars you can do it as you feel like you can set up to happen Automatically, but that money would be in an account that you could not touch until October 1st point blank period if you decided you really need to get into it They could close that Christmas Club out and give you the money, but then you couldn't reopen another one to October 1st Yes, yeah, but that's so smart. Yeah, it's so smart like that way You can't dip into it but as you get additional money You can just transfer it over and know hey well here's how much I'm gonna have and look at that number building And I'm I still have control of the money, but I can't touch it every time I'm coming up with some excuse to get into it That's smart.
Yeah, that's a really good idea And you know like Adrian said earlier on know your weakness if you really want to save up and you know You're hoping to maybe this Christmas is not gonna break you and that you're not having to skip a meal because you're having to buy Christmas gifts That's really what you want then one of your main things You should be looking at is what your weakness is when it comes to spending money just get real with yourself And then because it's you it's your money So get real yourself and you're spending it I feel like that's budgeting that that's finance in general was being honest with yourself and knowing how to be stronger than yourself to protect your future Self it's a lot, but that's what it is easy to be frivolous. It really is frivolous can be just can be as small as buying you know three Fast food combo meals in a week that could be frivolous for you So if that's you know if that is you know you find yourself not want to cook so that means you're eating out warm Then you know take a look at what you're doing and just realize that while it's not fun now You'll you know it'll really pay off when comes Christmas and you're not stressed out Yeah, and through that that's a whole thing in itself the first time that I actually saved up for a full year And I have money in the holidays to buy what I wanted as I wanted to not think twice about it was Leaving it really is it really is and that's you know, it's not entirely that easy to do But I tell you what I feel good with anything in life you it is difficult You if to get the your actual desired results sometimes takes a little sacrifice sometimes it'll difficult sometimes it hurts because Maybe you want to go out with your friends, but you told yourself, you know, you were only gonna spend $20 this week and you'd already spend 19 That's the last night. Yeah, you know So it hurts but it'll help you know I'll leave you with one final tidbit also and this applies well beyond just Christmas in the holidays One thing I remind myself of all the time when it comes to buying a purchase that maybe I feel like it might not be a Great idea or even if it feels like a good idea Except I know it's something I wasn't planning to do I will look at the price and look at my hourly wage and say how many hours do I have to Work to pay for this thing in my hand. Yes, and if it's more than I want to deal with if it's like hey Well, I know I have to work for five hours to pay for this dinner or something like that I'm gonna think twice about eating out that night I do that with my daughter all the time when she you know if I buy or something and she plays with it one time Or she wears it one time or I'm gonna say, you know, and I don't like that took me two hours of work to afford Mm-hmm.
I had to work two hours for you to play with that toy or I had to work eight hours for you to enjoy what you're enjoying right now So basically if you if you cut it down like that and that I mean is it worth it? Yeah, and I mean it's not like it's money you're losing you're not sacrificing You're just putting perspective you're making a plan and control for your own money. Yeah, yeah, yeah So honestly the fact that you've acknowledged you want to do something about it is a great first step That's a good. That's yes exactly I know a lot of people who live their life and don't even think twice about it They just every year for a perpetuity They will freak out when the holidays come around and start trying to pick up over time and start cutting back here and cutting back There and putting stuff in like credit card and lay away and things like that The fact you've seen that you don't want to be a part of that life anymore That's a great first step.
So it's up to you to take the second one exactly exactly. I mean, you know things happen things happen throughout the year I am one of this year my mom had a emergency room visit that I think she thought was gonna turn into an overnight That was an overnight thing turned into five days being in the hospital. So Things happen that you know that we don't plan but in that case is something that happens and that means you're a little shorter for Christmas Hey, you know what? I'm happy you're still alive from that hospital visit I'm expecting you to get me an expensive game console or or the newest smartwatch or things like that I'm not expecting that.
It's happy that you're here Yeah, if you know if something's happened to you or something has happened where you can't afford Christmas because of Maybe your maybe your hours were cut at work or maybe something like that happened then that's fine It's all about it's it's about spending time with those that you care about I mean I Don't put dollar amounts on my relationships with my mother or my friends or anything. So don't do it for Christmas either Be thankful that stay within your means and be thankful for the people you have because that's what's most important over anything You can buy anybody yes, so there you go I hope you know I hope that helped hope that's in if you're able to save and it even helps you in the long run on your own Spending and how you look at your own budget, and that's that's a big win. Yeah, exactly So yeah, let us know I definitely want to find out what you decide you want to do and how it goes for you because next year I want you to like message us and say hey guess what I did this and this year here's where I am and I'm excited Yes, I'm rooting for you. I would love a follow-up So thank you for sending a question Victoria if anybody has a question They can always email it to cash talk podcast at gmail.com and we will answer it for you Since this is the Thanksgiving episode I feel like we would be remiss if we did not you know say a couple things that we're thankful for So I suppose since I brought this up.
I will go first. I thought you're gonna put me on the spot. I was like oh crap All the time that to you and it's fine. I go Well, I really could give a long list now I know and this year it's kind of been told to us I feel like for me But at the same time I still have a time to be thankful for I'm thankful for this podcast for one.
I really enjoy the time I get to spend with my bestie. Yeah, so you're like I know pretty great as well And this is you know what it makes me happy that we you know, we're not We're not billionaires that are telling and we're actual we're average people and it makes me happy that we get to Yeah, that we have from our own perspective and it makes me happy that you guys are writing in that you You know that you agree and that you're kind of where we are and we can help you in that makes me thankful for that I have two wonderful kids who unfortunately are growing up and it makes me sad because I hate I hate seeing them grow up I hate seeing them become young adults or whatever because it just makes me sad because they're never when they were babies So how's everything old so I don't like either of them. I am incredibly grateful for them. They are They're wonderful and my daughter will she's got the attitude.
Why don't you think she'd be on say she is she's a lot like me And I can see her growing up really great to really well-rounded young women. I'm happy and Definitely my parents as a recording this it is Veterans Day and And my dad is I was in the Air Force and I want to say thank you dad For serving and my dad has always met our family first And he's the kind of person that has he is that hard that still has to say he's like the same person he always has been and has the same Heart and love and my mom Raised us all with the same kind of love and appreciation and that I'm that I'm passing on my kids So I'm thankful for my family and friends So your turn yeah, I mean I'll keep mine brief. I like to be short I am especially thankful this year for the circle of friends that I have when I was in high school I had a few I've always had a few like real tight best friends I've been close with but the last time I had a series of friends so I could get together and do stuff with and Everybody's friends with each other. It's not like we're being invited to a party and there's just bunch of people who know each other because we all Have like this one friend in common I've been there and that sucks But actually having like people who get together and like seeing my friends hang out with each other and like Missy has dinner with my parents all of a sudden now I know that was good too.
I was good. I'm calling tomorrow And we were going on a cruise next year and it's nice to see as I grow up I'm being surrounded with like-minded people who we all share similar interests and although we have different views and different opinions on stuff That doesn't change how we feel about each other and it's nice just to have that that connection with somebody outside Somebody who sees something in you that you don't who's willing to challenge you willing to encourage you promote you stand behind you And they'll let you have their back to stuff. They said just like they've had yours. Yeah, we are pretty great Mm-hmm.
It means a lot it it seriously means a lot I've never had these many best friends in my life and it is a true honor as an adult That's hard to do too because you know sometimes I'm guarded because I feel like as an adult a lot of adults have ulterior motives Mm-hmm, and you feel like you're like are they being real? I mean so when you can keep real True adult friendships Lot and when you feel like they're not you know, they're not friends with you for some other reason other than just hey We're just friends and that's great. Mm-hmm. So that's what I'm thankful about But most importantly what I'm also thankful for is everybody who takes the time to listen to any of our episodes yes We've said a dozen times that we get together and we put our headsets on say a bunch of stuff I do some editing toss it online and then just hope for the best and I can see I can't I don't know who listens Neither of us do unless they respond to say hey, I listen or they reach out and say something I just get a bunch of numbers like we're here's how many people who've downloaded it.
That's about all I know so I appreciate all of you who take the time listen to the things that we have to say act upon it challenge yourself to maybe Adjust something change something learn something try something You are literally the reasons why we do this and that is corny, but that is the truth Yes, it is so I appreciate all of you for taking the time to check us out Take a few minutes tonight or today or tomorrow whatever point you're listening to this in your life and find some By around you and tell them that you're thankful for them. Yes, exactly I agree with that definitely even just beyond Thanksgiving you Happy Thanksgiving everybody Although we are self-titled money experts everything you hear on the show is for general education and entertainment purposes only You shouldn't take advice from people you don't know so consult with an industry professional before you make any financial moves We're not on the clock right now So neither of us are speaking at the representative of any company or organization. Bye