Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
016: Simplifying gift giving
660 Plays6 years ago
Get the hacks to buy appropriate, thoughtful gifts that are within budget and in time for the occasion, efficiently.
Mia and Dinah explore the joys and lows of giving gifts and how to make sure gifts are meaningful without overthinking it. The hacks covered for selecting gifts include:
- setting up wish lists for family members and close friends using your lists app
- simplifying decision making by using categories and themes (eg books, sport, experience, games/puzzles, clothes, accessories, food, plant)
- finding a few favourite online and bricks-and-mortar stores with good quality items
- using social media to identify hobbies or brands the recipient may enjoy
- buying gifts for children’s birthday parties
- planning for Christmas shopping.
They also give their perspectives on Kris Kringles, gift cards, movie tickets and group gifts.
This episode includes hacks on how to make shopping for gifts more efficient including:
- online shopping
- shopping late at night when stores are quiet
- only shopping when you have already decided what you are going to buy
- scheduling in regular shopping trips.
Mia and Dinah also give some advice on hacks related to creative gift wrapping and the task of sending birthday wishes.
RESOURCES
The Five Love Languages – book about how people experience and demonstrate love differently
Geraldine Hickey – from “Upfront 2018” including “Nicole” – stand up comic on the topic of group gift buying
SHARE
Please head to the Life Admin Life Hacks Facebook page to connect with listeners and share your thoughts, questions or suggestions.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Life Admin Life Hacks
00:00:00
Speaker
This is Life Admin Life Hacks, a podcast that gives you techniques, tips and tools to tackle your life admin more efficiently, to save your time, your money and improve your household harmony.
Meet Your Hosts: Diana and Mia
00:00:12
Speaker
I'm Diana Roberts, an operations manager and secret re-gifter. I'm Mia Northrop, a researcher and writer, and if there's one thing I overthink, it's what gifts to get people.
00:00:24
Speaker
This episode will give you the hacks you need to buy great gifts without breaking the bank or spending hours trawling them all. Hello and welcome to Life Admin Life Hacks. It's a privilege to be able to give gifts, not a duty, but it can easily feel like another task on a to-do list if only one in the household is responsible for it.
Why Thoughtful Gifts Matter
00:00:46
Speaker
The quest is to find appropriate, thoughtful gifts that are within budget and in time for whatever occasion you've got coming up.
00:00:54
Speaker
There is nothing like receiving a gift that demonstrates that someone knows your wants and needs. That's really personal and intimate. Diana, what's the best gift you've ever received? Well, actually, I think the best gift I ever received was from you. Done. So I do think that you're a great gift giver. I'm glad my overthinking is paid off. So when we got married, you together with a couple of our other friends,
00:01:23
Speaker
gave us 10 bottles of wine for our first 10 wedding anniversaries. And, you know, we loved it in terms of you put little poems on each of them, it was meaningful, it was really useful, and it didn't create clutter, which are all things that I think are a really great gift. Mia, what about you? Yeah, I mean, I feel like I've got lots of wonderful gifts over the years, some have been very generous,
00:01:47
Speaker
The one that I got that was kind of a surprise was a piano one year. I had started taking keyboard lessons and I was loving it and it was something that I'd always wanted to do. And I came home and there was a big shiny piano in the corner of the room from my mother and husband and family. And that was just amazing. Wow. What about what about the worst gift ever? Got one of those. I have countless.
00:02:16
Speaker
I mean, do we all have lots? I can't even name any. I don't want to, I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. But there's been a few gifts where I've been like, do you know me at all?
Avoiding Gift-Giving Pitfalls
00:02:28
Speaker
Often it's to do with like the taste, like it's just not something to your taste or if someone's bought something that clearly they loved and they would have enjoyed and they wanted to buy it and you just happened to be the person whose birthday it is next. So they gave it to you. I mean,
00:02:46
Speaker
Yeah, nothing offensive, just things that aren't my taste or I will never use. Yeah, I think that clothes that don't fit. Yeah. And I think it's worse the more money that gets spent on it, to be honest, because then it just feels so wasteful and so frustrating. You always, I always receive them with grace. Like it's not, I'm never going to go roll my eyes at somebody. It's just rude. And it's always lovely to be given something and
00:03:14
Speaker
But yeah, sometimes it's just a miss and you're like, oh, that's a missed opportunity. Oh, well. And I do think that's the risk that we face when our lives are really busy, because often then you are buying gifts at the last minute. And so sometimes I think the temptation of people is to spend more than necessary to try and illustrate, I guess, the value of the gift or the appreciation that you show that person. But often it backfires miserably.
Streamlining with Wish Lists
00:03:40
Speaker
It doesn't always translate into monetary value, it's more the thought. It really is the thought that counts, that cliches. Couldn't be more true. The gifts that I've appreciated the most have had them, you know, the ones that have been thoughtful rather than expensive. It's funny when you have occasions where you've got to give someone a gift and you don't know them very well, like a Kris Kringle, the work Kris Kringle situation.
00:04:04
Speaker
What's, I don't know, this feels like a debate. What's your position on Kris Kringle's? I think that a token Kris Kringle that's done as a fun way of expressing the season is OK. I think that the interesting one, and I was actually having dinner with someone recently, we were talking about this episode and she was talking about within her family how
00:04:25
Speaker
their Kris Kringle had grown to the point where each person got allocated another person they had to buy a gift for at Christmas with a fixed limit. And then everyone was just saying what they wanted to buy. So, you know, you're buying for me and I want a new iPhone and therefore that's what you must buy me. And so... Oh, spells. What was their Kris Kringle limit? New iPhones.
00:04:50
Speaker
So there's a few things about that that make me really uncomfortable in terms of they don't actually fulfill what gifts were supposed to be in terms of showing that appreciation for someone meaningfully and it being a little bit of a surprise and unexpected thing. And I think it can slide into this kind of economic exchange rather than true gift giving. So I think it's OK, but I think it is a slippery slope.
00:05:16
Speaker
Yes, so we're going to talk about how you might use wish lists and how you get to know what someone wants without being in some prescriptive trap like that. But we wanted to talk about gift giving this episode because some of us spend way too much time shopping and running around trying to find things.
00:05:36
Speaker
you can just stress about it or you can overthink it or you can second guess your purchases. That's the worst where you bought something and then you're like, oh, I don't know if I've got it right. Oh, it's just, you know, what a waste of time and effort. If you do the last minute shopping, as you mentioned, you might spend more than you had intended or you find something that isn't a great fit. And really, we want to avoid waste. We don't want to be given things that end up in landfill. We don't want it to buy more cheap, fantastic plastic or
00:06:06
Speaker
the other versions of that. Let's find something that's great and ideally sustainable and going to be a great fit for the person. Something that's truly going to be appreciated. And not only that, I think that when it's that amazing how good you feel when you give a gift to someone and you think you've really nailed it or that you know they're going to absolutely love it. It's such a it's a real happiness booster, I think, when you get the gift giving right.
00:06:32
Speaker
I do think it's important to know the receiver because for some people missing a birthday or a sort of hasty, thoughtless gift is probably okay if they're not massively into receiving gifts. So for my husband, he probably really wouldn't mind if I didn't buy him a birthday present.
00:06:51
Speaker
But for others, it would be disastrous. That includes me. So if he didn't buy me a birthday present, I'd be very upset.
Understanding Love Languages in Gifts
00:07:01
Speaker
So I do think it's important to think about the person that you're buying for and how important it is that you put that level of thought in because for some people it's much more important than others.
00:07:11
Speaker
That's interesting. I remind you of that book, The Love Languages. Have you read Love Languages? Yeah, there is. There's that language of gifts, isn't there? Yeah. Some people, their preferred way to express love and receive love is through gifts. And for all of us, I think there was five love languages and gifts is on everyone's spectrum somewhere. So if you know you've got someone in your family or your partner is someone who really values gifts as demonstrating love, then
00:07:39
Speaker
Yeah, you're gonna put some thought into that. So when you're not sure what to buy people, like where do you go to to come up with ideas?
00:07:47
Speaker
What do you draw on? It really depends on who it is. So when it comes to my own family and in particular, I think my children, I think that having a list and I have one in my to do list app of gift ideas for them is a really great thing to build up over time, you know, towards the big events like Christmas and birthdays. And I know that you're big into the wish list mayor. So what do you do for wish lists? So on my iPhone, I use a notes app.
00:08:17
Speaker
to make a wish list for my kids and my partner and my mum and other family members. And the beauty of the wish list is that whenever I see something that's appropriate or I think it'll be fun, I write it down or I take a photo of it. You can add photos to those things or if it's online, I'll put a link to it. If I remember shopping with the kids
00:08:37
Speaker
And they're like, especially if I'm shopping for someone else's bed, they present with them and they'll find something they want. I can say, well, add it to your wish list. I get out my phone and I take a photo of it, or I put my, you know, I write it in and they can see that I'm listening. And it shuts down that I'm not buying you the thing now conversation. Cause they know that I'm taking it into consideration and putting it away for later.
00:09:01
Speaker
Even if I, you know, if those scholastic book catalogs that come twice a term, we usually buy a couple of books, but half the time they've circled every third item in the catalog. And I'll say, well, you can pick two, but I, you know, I might take a photo of some of those things and store it away for later. The kids often write letters to Father Christmas as well. And I put these on their wish list too, just in case Father Christmas has other things in mind for them.
00:09:28
Speaker
As you said, I don't shop entirely from the requested items because you want some unexpected, thoughtful stuff in there. He's showing that you listen to them and notice them. I think the other good thing about for a wish list is to have a wish list for yourself. That helps me stop spontaneously buying stuff.
00:09:49
Speaker
But it's also handy if people ask what you'd like. So if you've got, you know, a birthday or Mother's Day or Christmas coming up and people are like, oh, what do you need? What do you like? You can't think of anything. You can just say, well, I shall share you my list of things I've been covered in all year, or at least refer to it and send it on to them. Yeah, I definitely use the wish list too for, you know, close friends who I buy gifts for every year. So if I hear them say or if they see something in my house or they talk about something when we're out,
00:10:19
Speaker
I definitely add that to the to-do list and I put a due date, you know, a month or so before their birthday as a reminder because the reminders come up around the due dates. And that's a great way of buying gifts for friends and family members that I know is something that, you know, that they'll actually want and really enjoy.
Finding the Perfect Gift
00:10:40
Speaker
And then for other people who I don't buy regularly for, I tap into their hobbies or if they collect things or if I know they're into certain brands of things like they might be fetishistic about candle brands or
00:10:56
Speaker
whatever, they're quite easy to buy for those kinds of people who just have lots of interests and collections and stuff. Others seem to have everything or they buy everything that they want as soon as they want it. Or there are some people who've got really opaque tastes and you know that you can never pick something that they
00:11:13
Speaker
might truly like. Those ones require a bit more creativity. I have been known to jump onto people's Pinterests and see what they've got in their boards, if they've got public boards and like look on Facebook and see if they're loving some band or something. Otherwise, yeah, it just requires some close observation about what they're talking about or what they've noticed.
00:11:36
Speaker
You know, one of the things that I've been sort of doing more recently is giving the gift of my time. So which is, you know, not just saying I'll give them my time, but doing something with them. So something that I know that we'll enjoy to do together, taking someone to a nice restaurant for lunch or
00:11:55
Speaker
buying tickets to something like the comedy festival and you know going with them or to the tennis or in some cases even you know agreeing to help on a project or something like that and I do think that that can be a really thoughtful gift because often we don't get to spend as much time as we'd like with family and friends so giving that and that gift that you can share together can be really meaningful and
00:12:19
Speaker
Yeah, I love the experience gifts. I think I try and find an experience gift as the first option whenever I'm buying a gift for someone because we all have a lot of stuff. And as he said, it's nice you had to spend time with them or just do something a bit different instead of getting a thing. And that makes me think actually that when I do have Christmas or birthdays to buy for when we're going to be buying more than one present, perhaps for someone.
00:12:45
Speaker
I simplify the decision making by thinking about categorizing and categorizing the types of gifts. So you have to think instead of thinking, oh, God, I've got to buy six gifts for Christmas or something. I think, oh, I've just got to find one book, one outdoorsy thing, one experience thing. And then you just find one thing in the category. So for me, the categories are, as I just mentioned, a book
00:13:10
Speaker
something that promotes physical activity or being outside, something sporty, an experience, it might be tickets to a show or the zoo or some exhibition or something, a dream item, because usually there's some item on the wish list, especially for the kids that they will just die if they don't get, a game or a puzzle, maybe clothing or accessories, if they're into clothing or accessories, some kind of STEM technology kind of gift
00:13:38
Speaker
especially for my daughter, I really encourage people to buy her things that aren't to do with craft or stationary because we could open our own smiggle. Frankly, she needs things that are going to make her that, you know, that aren't craft or stationary. At least you're still at smiggle. We've moved on to typo, which is another kind of horrible. I prefer typo to smiggle, I have to say. At least the things in typo are less perfumed.
00:14:06
Speaker
I like to find something that promotes creativity. Sometimes they're into special food, especially older people. Like my parents-in-law, they love a bit of a gourmet thing or something nice, something, I mean, a jar, a jar of something or a nice kind of meat cryo fat or a plant.
00:14:26
Speaker
So thinking in categories like that, you just think, and actually I've done that where I've had themes. I'm like,
Efficient Shopping Tips
00:14:31
Speaker
this Christmas I'm buying everybody books. And even though the readers might be enthusiastic about different genres, at least I'm just thinking books. I could just go into a bunch of bookshops or look online and then I don't have to, you know, it's much easier to think of appropriate
00:14:47
Speaker
things within the category than just having a free-for-all might give you some boundaries. And I think I've done that often in a year. I will think, actually, this year, I'm going to try and buy most of my friends this kind of gift. Obviously, sometimes to be meaningful, you need to move away from that.
00:15:05
Speaker
And I guess an extension of that is to find a couple of your favorite websites of particular online stores that have some really nice things and that you think might be appropriate for a large number of people. And to say, actually, I'm going to try and buy as many gifts as I can from this one location. I know it's good quality. I really like it. And I think that most of my friends will. I've done that particularly last Christmas, used a couple of websites to buy a large number of gifts, which
00:15:32
Speaker
It's, you know, it's a really way of streamlining that process. So what do you do for your kids' friends' birthdays?
00:15:43
Speaker
When they have parties to go to after celebrating a friend's birthday, how do you determine what you should get that kid? So my kids are now of an age where I really encourage them to decide themselves within a budget. So one of the things we try and do is have a monthly family shopping trip that we have scheduled in our calendar. So when we have those invites that come up,
00:16:09
Speaker
We're usually trying to talk about it at the time in terms of the sort of gift that that person might like. And we try and knock off those gifts purchasing together so that I think that the gift then has the gift giving has more meaning for the children rather than something simply that I've decided to buy for them. So hopefully it's sort of engendering in them that the joy of giving as well as going to the party.
00:16:36
Speaker
What about you, May? Your kids are probably a little bit younger. It's a bit more challenging, I think.
00:16:40
Speaker
Yeah, my son's in prep and my daughter's in grade three. And sometimes, you know, they have class parties where the whole class is invited and there are kids in there. My son might be going off to a party with a kid that he's never mentioned, which is fun. He's happy to be there. He likes them, but you know, they're not, I don't know anything about them. So in those occasions, sometimes when I'm RSVPing, I will just straight up say, is there anything that the,
00:17:08
Speaker
this child wants or needs, I just ask the parents, or if I know their siblings at school, if they've got a big sister or a little brother or whatever, I might ask them. I sometimes buy multiples of things that I know are popular, like classic things, if there are Lego kits, or those awesome military dug puzzles, or those Ravensburger jigsaws, or if there's the latest has just come out in some book series, like, you know, a Captain Underpants or a
00:17:37
Speaker
tree house, I'll just buy a bunch of them to give to gifts as gifts, audiobooks, I just buy a bunch and then
00:17:45
Speaker
or give them to someone if they feel appropriate. Sometimes you can't be sure what they've already got. But if it's, you know, if it's the new version of something, then that's a pretty safe bet. Usually we ask around. Often my son or daughter will have suggestions. So what about for other adults? So we've talked a bit about buying for kids. And I think we've talked a little bit about family. What about, you know, friends and other sort of extended family members?
00:18:12
Speaker
Yeah, well that's where I do a bit of social media stalking. Look at some Pinterest boards, look at some Instagrams of what they've been liking lately. I love to support people if they've got new habits or there's new goals. So if they've decided to learn an instrument or they're learning a language or they're trying to get fit or they're trying to cook more or whatever their little goal is, I'll try and find something that supports that. Or I might want to add to collections, I might give an experience gift or some
00:18:40
Speaker
food and drink thing. I recently gave some nostalgic. I came across this shop that sells all sorts of chocolate and candy from America and I gave it to a school parent who's from America and I didn't think she'd notice this mother lode of
00:18:59
Speaker
candy existed. So I bought her a whole bunch of this nostalgic chocolate that she grew up with and she really liked that. Whiskey's good, wine's good. Yeah, I always like to buy six bottles of nice wine or champagne when I see them on sale and put them away already as I guess thank yous or last minute gifts or to take to dinner parties. I think really you can't go wrong for most people with that if you are having to buy something at the last minute.
00:19:28
Speaker
Yeah. If I do see things that I think are good quality, and I know someone would be silly not to love it, and maybe it's not something they'd buy themselves, and I don't mind stocking up on a few things like that. Sometimes when you see all those candles and diffuser sticks and soaps in stores, you kind of think, who likes to receive this? But
00:19:50
Speaker
I love for saying stuff like that. I love a good soap. Give me a good bar of soap. I'm pretty happy. Give me some nice diffuser things. It's canned like a quality one. That's something that smells toxic.
00:20:03
Speaker
I love that kind of thing. So yeah, they'd be good to have in the cupboard if you've got space
Are Gift Cards Thoughtful?
00:20:08
Speaker
to store that. So one area which I think is interesting in terms of I think there's a lot of mixed views about is whether buying a gift card is actually a thoughtful gift. And I do think it's a bit of a contentious issue. I do think a gift card can be thoughtful if you know that the person really is saving up for something special.
00:20:29
Speaker
I recently had an example of a friend of my daughter who really wanted to buy some basketball shoes and her parents wouldn't buy them for her. And so a few of us teamed together to buy a Rebel sports voucher so that she could go and buy her own basketball shoes. But I would say that generally gift cards are not a great option. They're not really showing much thought. But if there is some thought behind it, I think they're fine. I don't know, Mia, if that's your view.
00:20:59
Speaker
I actually did a research project on this once for a client about they are rolling out gift cards and they were thinking of creating customizable gift cards where you could get a photo printed on them or the person's name. And I had to do a lot of in-depth interviews with people and there were people who hated getting them because they felt it was completely impersonal. They were just like sad, like sad.
00:21:25
Speaker
serious emotions coming out in these interviews about how sad and disappointed they'd been when they'd been given them. But as you said, if you know someone shops at a certain place regularly and they need something that's a chunk of money, it's great. I've been given gift cards for things that I know I'm going to be spending and I'm totally happy with that. Because at least I know they've been listening to me. If it's some generically kind of thing that hasn't been
00:21:56
Speaker
I guess bought with an intention when you can communicate to the person, I've got your Bunnings gift card because I really know that you're planning to landscape your courtyard or you really want to buy a new welding kit or whatever, then at least you've expressed how you thought through it. You haven't just been at Kohl's and seen the display of gift cards dangling there and grabbed one.
00:22:20
Speaker
Yeah, and I definitely feel like movie tickets can sometimes fall into that category. I feel like I'm constantly getting movie tickets that I need to keep a track of because it feels like it was a really easy option for people to buy as a gift. So I'm definitely not a lover of movie cards, actually, as a gift. So you're not a fan of the movie cards? Definitely not a fan of movie cards.
00:22:46
Speaker
I actually have asked for movie cards as a gift because I go to the movies every month and I use them every month. I've been given those cards. I think it's okay then because you go to, as long as you get them for the right cinema, whereas everyone seems to give me Village and Hoyts and I don't want to go to Village and Hoyts.
Organizing Group Gifts
00:23:04
Speaker
then I'm kind of forced into going there or either giving them away or just watching them sadly expire because I never get to use them, which is even... Everybody done this more. I know. She's a palace. She goes to palace. She sees classy foreign films. Very sophisticated cinematic taste.
00:23:33
Speaker
I don't know, have you seen that Geraldine Hickey comedy sketch about Nicole? No, who's Geraldine Hickey? She's just a comedian and she has this comedy sketch that talks about that every group of friends has a Nicole and Nicole's the person who organizes, who books the tickets, who books the restaurant and organizes the group gift.
00:23:57
Speaker
Who's the Nicole in our group, Diana? You and I are both Nicole. We are Nicole one and Nicole two, depending on the situation. How lucky is our group to have two Nicoles? Two Nicoles. And I think that we take it in turn, so we're quite good at tag teaming being Nicole.
00:24:13
Speaker
So in Geraldine's comedy sketch, she talks about, you know, this idea of having this Nicole and Nicole does organize group gifts. And so I do think group gifts are a great idea.
00:24:28
Speaker
For example, recently we bought a George Jensen watch for a friend's 40th birthday, something she had coveted for a very long time, and a whole bunch of us got together with her mum and dad and her sister, and she got something she really wanted for such a long time, such a thoughtful gift.
00:24:47
Speaker
And we also, one of my daughter's friends really wanted to buy an e-reader, so all of her friends contributed to a group gift. But group gifts take work, so someone has to be the Nicole. And I guess the one thing I have learned about when I am the Nicole and organizing the group gift is to be really clear around. I tell everyone that I'm doing it, set them a clear deadline. I give one final reminder.
00:25:14
Speaker
and then collect the money first before I buy the gift, because too often it has turned out pear-shaped in terms of that I end up having to pay for more of the gift than I'd expected. Yes, people out there, listeners, if you have a Nicole who's going to the effort of doing the group gift, then you have to respect the deadline. Don't interfere in the process and make suggestions for, oh, I can add this or do this, or should I just go with it? Get on board or don't.
00:25:44
Speaker
and thank them for doing this task and taking it off your to-do list. Definitely. So I do highly recommend watching that comedy sketch, particularly if you are a Nicole, it really, it feels a little bit like therapy. So is Geraldine Hickey issue on YouTube? She is. Where do we find it? She'll be in the show. Okay, I could watch that. Nicole. I've never thought of myself as a Nicole, but yeah. Some of my other kind of hacks I guess around
00:26:13
Speaker
when I'm buying, I shop online whenever. I love shopping online because obviously it's ultimately convenient and you can price compare pretty easily. I do, I'm getting increasingly weirded out by the amount of packaging that sometimes comes. So I actually
Creative Shopping and Wrapping
00:26:29
Speaker
do pay attention now to what they're going to send it in and recycle the packing, but it's awesome. I visit stores midweek at night if I can. And I'm talking about the Ikeas and the H&Ms and malls and wherever.
00:26:43
Speaker
It's quieter, it's calmer, there are fewer children, it's usually easier parking. Kmart is open, my Kmart near me is open till midnight, the IKEA is open till 9pm. There's no reason to be doing any of this on Sunday afternoon. I've also sussed out my local toy stores that have become my go-to stores that I know have gifts in the price ranges.
00:27:07
Speaker
that I can handle and the brands that I like. You know how you go to some gift stores and everything in there is ridiculously expensive or it's full of crap and you just gotta find the gift stores that you feel like have got it right and they're the ones you just go to.
00:27:20
Speaker
Yeah, I've got a couple of those locally to a toy store and a bookstore. And in particular, I really like those stores because they also do the gift wrapping then and there. So it feels like it's really making the whole process much more efficient that I come home with a gift wrapped, ready to go. I like wrapping it myself. I love, I love stationery. So I love wrapping.
00:27:45
Speaker
I really, it's one of those things that I dread doing, so. Really? Yeah. I delight in it. I delight in finding paper or finding stuff to wrap it in. Like I've bought wallpaper before. I've been known to raid op shots for like posters and old wallpaper or tea towels or even like dress patterns. When I went into one op shop in the country and they had all these old music scores for songs that no one has ever heard of and I used them to wrap presents for a while.
00:28:15
Speaker
So I like, you know, maps, old calendars, scraps of fabric. I collect all that stuff. I've got a big box. I've got a wrapping box for like normal wrapping. That's also full of kids artwork. That's now going to turn into wrapping paper. And then another one for Christmasy stuff. And I tend to make cards around here. That's my family's from a long line of card makers. I definitely encourage my kids to make cards for their friends in particular.
00:28:43
Speaker
Because again, I think that's kind of reinforcing the joy of giving rather than just, you know, thinking about themselves. It's interesting that...
00:28:53
Speaker
that task of teaching your kids the joy of giving. That's a long task to kick in, isn't it? It's a long task. I'm glad your kids might be closer to the end goal of
Teaching Kids the Joy of Giving
00:29:05
Speaker
mine. I do insist most of the time on taking the kids shopping for other people's gifts because I feel like it's a muscle that needs exercising. And we only go once we've discussed what we're buying and where we're going. So it's like, you know, we're going to this shop, we're buying this and we are coming home.
00:29:23
Speaker
to try and shut down the tantrums and the FOMO that can happen. You want to make it surgical in and out. They need to learn those healthy shopping behaviors that it's not free for all. They're not there to buy something for themselves. You're buying something for someone else. If you see stuff you want, you put it on your wish list, but let's just contain the experience.
00:29:47
Speaker
I do think that there's a halfway house there, Mia, that I have actually been using recently, which is actually getting your kids to sit with you while you shop online. And so they get the opportunity to browse and to look at the different prices and to make a judgment call about the best gift without you having to be there with the physical temptation of them seeing the things that they might want to buy. So I really
00:30:10
Speaker
I like the idea of shopping online immediately as soon as you've thought about what it is that you want to buy. And then effectively, not only have you figured out what to buy, but you've crossed it off your to do list all in one fell swoop. And if you do have those couple of websites that are your go to's and certainly now with Amazon available in Australia, there's a lot of things you can buy on there.
Monthly Shopping Strategies
00:30:33
Speaker
You can really make that process seamless in terms of deciding what you want to buy, get your kids to have a look, purchase it, and you've kind of crossed it off the list. Yeah, so we do try and buy, do one shopping trip a month and try and knock off all of the shopping that we need to do for the next month. Obviously, it doesn't always work out because sometimes people's party invitations come out with less than a month of
00:30:57
Speaker
But it does mean that we cross off most things and increasingly as the kids get older, they know which parties are going to be invited to because the parties generally get smaller. And even if their closest friends aren't having a party, they're still wanting to buy some sort of gift. So we're really getting to that place where we can do that.
00:31:17
Speaker
know which ones of my friends and family's birthdays are coming up so we can try and knock that all off in one trip. We also try and do something fun with that trip so go for lunch or go and see a movie or do something else so that it's kind of an outing as a family that we get some shopping done, gifts and also any clothing or other items that they need as well as presents. That actually does sound fun. It is fun.
Organizing Christmas Gifts
00:31:45
Speaker
What about Christmas? When do you start planning for your Christmas purchases? When do you buy? Are you one of those people that's like, it's all done and dusted by December and you just sit by smugly? I have been that person. I have definitely been that person in the past, but I wouldn't say I am every year.
00:32:03
Speaker
I do think that having those lists and knowing what to buy is the key. So once you've got that, then I feel like it's really reasonably straightforward to do the actual purchasing. But I think it depends on the year because it depends on who you're going to spend Christmas with and how many gifts you need to buy and how complicated it is. So I aspire to always be that organised, but I can't say I always am. Mia, what about you?
00:32:32
Speaker
I have a spreadsheet that I use every year. I have a matrix. Oh people would be horrified for the things I have spreadsheets for. I have a matrix with like who's giving to who and that's where we put like the wishlisty items might come across from the wishlists into that so we can see.
00:32:54
Speaker
you know, how the gifts are playing out across the family. I start planning probably, I start thinking about that in like October, I reckon. And I kind of pounce on, you know, those November sales they have in America, like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, because there's now all this sort of global sales cycle, I tend to jump on some of them and buy stuff in November.
00:33:21
Speaker
And I asked you especially because I've been doing this no buying stuff for myself thing for, I was going to go for a year, but I think I'm going to expire on my birthday. I really loved shopping at Christmas time.
00:33:34
Speaker
And I did it quite early. So I was one of those people by early December. I was all done. I've also had a Christmas where I did everything online and got it sent to the destination where we were going to have Christmas. And it didn't actually arrive. And on Christmas Eve, I had to run around and buy all of the Christmas presents for my family. And I thought it was going to be horrendous. And I was actually fine. So I feel a lot less
00:34:01
Speaker
stressed, I guess, about finding the right gifts. The stress really is only about finding the time because of all the social events and end of year stuff that pops up in December. I definitely think the key is knowing what you're going to buy because I feel like as soon as you know what, then you can
00:34:21
Speaker
employ lots of different techniques to do the actual purchasing.
The Importance of Birthday Messages
00:34:25
Speaker
So I think the key is thinking about it almost all the time of the people who are nearest and dearest of what you might be able to buy them for their next event and being thoughtful. And then I think then the process becomes much easier. Yeah. And then those shopping things, they can be just like 10 minute time filler tasks where you're jumping online or you're slipping into a store rather than a major production.
00:34:50
Speaker
And I remember last year when we were on one of our hikes and we'd stopped in some country town to go to the bakery and there was a country target. And one of our friends was like, I'm just going to sleep in here to see if they have the Lego that her son wore for Christmas that had sold out all over Melbourne. And lo and behold, we were in the Grampians and she walked out with this massive box of Lego. That's because she knew what she wanted.
00:35:17
Speaker
The other thing I want to mention, to do with wrapping, like just who the million are into wrapping, I'm sure you'll agree you need to buy a few rolls of sticky tape to last the year.
00:35:29
Speaker
You just need to have that on hand. Yeah, definitely. And I begin to buying, you know, some kind of generic paper that can be used sort of for adults, children, Mother's Day, Father's Day, kind of everything except for Christmas and just buying one roll rather than having... I definitely don't want the massive box of gift wrap options. That's definitely... You know how on Pinterest you see those people who have like caddies, gift wrapping caddies? Yes.
00:35:58
Speaker
seven types of paper and three types of ribbon and six types of tape. It makes me feel a bit unwell to be honest. I do like to have a few different types of hair but I kind of pick a style and get them after last the year and everything's going to be wrapped like that this year. You do want to avoid waste in any single year stuff.
Episode Recap and Community Engagement
00:36:22
Speaker
Okay, so I think we've talked a lot about gifts, but I think there's one other part to gift giving, which is really just sending birthday messages or other messages on meaningful days and how thoughtful that can be and some of the hacks that you can put in place to make that easier. Mia, you're really good at remembering everyone's birthday, so how do you go about doing it?
00:36:45
Speaker
I can be. I put the birthdays in the shared calendar, so I try and have them there so they pop up as reminders. I will go onto Facebook if I can't quite remember.
00:36:58
Speaker
And then I think I just, do you know what? There's nothing nicer than getting a phone call on your birthday. I think there's a hierarchy to the channels that you send birthday messages. A phone call is great. If you're not quite up for a phone call, you don't have time for a chat or you don't want to have, you find those birthday chats awkward. At least send a phone message. I don't mean leaving a voicemail. I mean using like the SMS thing.
00:37:23
Speaker
to record a voice message and just send that or text them or email or do the little Facebook thing. But it's so nice to give it, you know, send someone a little thought on their birthday. And you know what? You got to do it first thing in the morning. Don't overthink it. Just get it done. It will make their day and you move on with yours. We hope these hacks will make buying gifts for the important people in your life more enjoyable and less expensive. Keep in mind,
00:37:49
Speaker
wish lists, set them up for yourself and your family members and start using categories to simplify what you have to buy. Talk to people about what they would like and stalk them on social media if you need to get ideas. Set up your rapping so that you're good to go for the rest of the year and don't have to think about it. And delegate. Don't do all of the thinking about gifts.
00:38:15
Speaker
Have your partners, children and other family members contribute to ideas as well. If you'd like to join us on our life admin journey, please head to our Facebook page, life admin life hacks to follow us and share your thoughts on what we're doing and feel free to post any comments or certainly post suggestions that we might be able to use. We hope to see you there.
00:38:36
Speaker
Thanks for listening. Show notes for this episode are available at lifeadminlifehacks.com. If you're a fan, please subscribe and share the love and tell a friend or review us in your podcasting app.