Transcripts

Mike Carruthers:
Spending discipline... it often flies out the window this time of year because, well, we need to buy holiday gifts for people.

Mary Hunt:
Let me ask you a question:"Tell me what you received for Christmas last year?" Yeah, you see people don't remember, so why in the world should you buy a gift now that you're going to have to pay for for the next twenty years, when the person you give it to isn't even going to remember?

Mary Hunt, Publisher of the Debt-Proof Living Newsletter, is not against gift-giving, but says: "Think of what it's going to cost you to buy gifts that no one remembers."

Very conservatively - if you have a thousand dollars on a credit card bill, if you pay only the minimum payment each month, it will take you between fifteen and twenty-two years to pay it off depending on what the interest rate is. And you will pay it at least three times, which means you'll pay back three thousand dollars in order to get rid of the thousand.

So, rather than put yourself into debt to do your holiday shopping, Mary says…

Go for consumables, go for food, go for stuff you can make in your kitchen. Go to a bulk food store, buy a bunch of pistachio nuts, come home and repackage them into smaller containers, throw in a few Hershey kisses, put on a nice note and a bow - you've got a gift. Bake cookies - who doesn't love a plate full of…wouldn't you love a plate of cookies from me, Mike? You know, make your cookies and top it with a nice note, tell this person what they mean to you, pour your heart out - that's going to become the gift that's really remembered, and after all that's what you want isn't it - to be remembered?

You can link to Mary's website from ours: somethingyoushouldknow.net - I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.