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084: Gift giving guide with Ali Linz
2.5k Plays11 months ago
Discover gift-giving hacks for the festive season to save money, reduce your mental load and and buy group gifts efficiently.
In this episode, we interview Ali Linz, co-founder of Group Together, about the benefits of group gifts, common mistakes when buying gifts, and the benefits of a systematic approach to gift buying.
Resources
- GroupTogether
- Get Ready for Christmas Checklist
- Catherine Hamlin
- Fred Hollows Foundation
- Oxfam Christmas gifts
- Kmart Wishing Tree
For the full shownotes, head to Life Admin Life Hacks.
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Transcript
Introduction to Podcast and Hosts
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.
00:00:12
Speaker
I'm Dinero Roberts, an operations manager who's embraced technology to support group gifting. I'm Mia Northrup, a researcher and writer who has a dedicated gift cupboard to stash the gifts that I buy all throughout the year as soon as I see something I know somebody will
Interview with Ali Linz on Gift-Giving Hacks
00:00:27
Speaker
like. In this episode, we interview Ali Linz, co-founder of Group Together, about gift-giving hacks for the festive season.
00:00:36
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Life Admin Life Hacks. In this episode, we talk about the benefits of group gifts to save money, time and avoid stuff going into landfill. Common mistakes that people make when buying gifts, particularly for people you don't know that well, and the benefits of a systematic approach to your festive gift buying. If you're in need of some inspiration to get into the gifting zone, this app is for you. But before we get into the interview,
00:01:02
Speaker
If you celebrate Christmas and you're already anxious about your schedule and to-do list heading into the festive season, then do we have a checklist for you? Head to lifeadminlifehacks.com and download our Get Ready for Christmas Checklist to help pace you through the activities and tasks you'd like to do to prepare for the silly season and if you're hosting Christmas lunch or dinner on the big day. Lean on this list to help minimise your stress and maximise your joy.
The Benefits and Origin of Group Gifting
00:01:29
Speaker
Ali Linz is co-founder of Group Together. You might have used Group Together to chip in for a group gift for your child's teacher or for an office farewell gift and card. She created it when she had four young children and wanted to launch her own startup rather than going back to her career in marketing and advertising.
00:01:45
Speaker
Ali, thanks so much for coming on the show today. Thank you very much. Well, let's get started. Can you just tell us a bit more about group together and how it simplifies the process of buying group gifts for the holiday season? So my business partner, also a woman and I, some years ago, we're scratching our heads. We had seven young children between us and we sat around and we just said, we're constantly buying gifts for
00:02:11
Speaker
The teachers for the birthday kids for the class, for our colleagues at work, the whole thing. And it's really expensive. It's really time consuming. And that would be okay because we love to give gifts. But the gifts that we're giving, to be honest, felt a bit crappy in terms of, do they even want that?
00:02:30
Speaker
plastic and nasty. We all know also like keeping our homes tidy and there's just you're in the night you're treading all over those knick-knack plastic bits and you're aggravated about that. We thought oh look wouldn't it be cool if this is just like a no-brainer why don't we
00:02:46
Speaker
do group gifts and then everyone could actually spend a little bit less, but together give something that is not only better, more wanted by the recipient, really valued, but also that is better for the environment, just less gifts that end up in landfill and that are wanted in the first place. But also at that point, we thought, wouldn't it be good if you could have the option to carve off a bit of that pool for a charity of your choice? And we thought, oh, that'll be really easy.
00:03:13
Speaker
It was so easy, but that was the brainchild. And so did you have tech backgrounds? Like was this kind of did you come with it from a tech angle or as a more as a like an idea angle?
00:03:24
Speaker
It really was more of an idea. So my business partner Julie has a tech background, but she can't code herself. And she's brilliant. I keep on saying to her, can't you just quickly learn to code? My background's in marketing and advertising, but in the end we found some people to code for us. But hey, call out to anyone out there, particularly women. It would be so good to be able to hire more women in tech who could code. And apparently it's not as hard as it sounds, but I'm not sure about that.
00:03:52
Speaker
There's someone who's worked in tech for a long time. Yeah, there's things that are readily doable. I'm always impressed with people that just whip something together. There's always a few entrepreneurial minds who can go away for a weekend. They've created some app over the weekend. So this is an interesting time of year when school in the southern hemisphere is winding down. You've got people changing out of their winter sport into their whatever next sport is happening. There's lots of
The Value of Gift Cards in Modern Gifting
00:04:19
Speaker
gifts for coaches and instructors and starting to think about gifts for teachers or carers. And this was sort of like the gift explosion this time of year, leading up to Christmas as well when you're starting to think about gifts for family and friends. And if you celebrate Diwali, if you celebrate Hanukkah, you know, it can get very expensive and very confusing.
00:04:39
Speaker
with all the gifts that need to fly around. What do you think are some of the common mistakes people make when it comes to choosing gifts? I think it comes down to most people, we all know that most gifts that you get aren't that great, but I'm a really good gift giver, right?
00:04:55
Speaker
I'll know exactly what you want and my gift that I give you will be charming and personal and gorgeous and you'll love it, right? So there's kind of the conflict between I'm a great gift giver and lots of men will then delegate that. I'm terrible at that. You do it, right? That's the other part of it. That's very convenient. There's some interesting research that I read recently. They said that 93% of
00:05:20
Speaker
recipients would prefer a gift card valued at $25 over an item valued at $25. And more even than that, half of the recipients of gifts said that they would prefer to get a $25 gift card rather than an item valued at $50.
00:05:39
Speaker
I prefer a $25 gift card over a $50 actual present, which is all of that sort of thing. We give gifts out of the goodness of our hearts and with love and with appreciation. But more often than not, we get it wrong. That becomes easier when it's
00:05:55
Speaker
for somebody who's not really your bestie. So if it's a teacher, it's a coach, it's the scout person, it's the even your colleague at work who's not your bestie. I think a lot of the gifts that we give aren't to our bestie, aren't our partner in life, whatever. And I think maybe you're better off giving a gift card. We have something called an any card, which lets the recipient even choose which gift card they get.
00:06:19
Speaker
I think that's like, don't overlook that. And I think that the way that we've dealt with, oh, is that, oh, do we feel comfortable giving a gift card? This feels really, is that a cop-out? Is that we've created this group card where everyone can upload a photo of themselves or add a gif, you know, like a moving image and they can write a personal message.
00:06:40
Speaker
together if you ever receive that and I know that you guys have used group together but if you've ever received a card which has all your friends messages and photos all in one
00:06:50
Speaker
It is really, it's really touching. It's very, very moving as a keepsake to have people in your life, whether they're your best friends or your colleagues, actually write something to show their appreciation. So I think that combination of the sentiment in a beautiful card and a group card even more, plus the gift card, which is pragmatic, I think that works in many cases. And most people actually, you choose a gift from us, choose an any card.
00:07:19
Speaker
So I think don't overlook that unless you're really sure. If you're really sure and you know they'll love those long boho earrings, great, go for gold. But sort of catch yourself before you assume that you're the ultimate gift giver. It's funny, there's someone in my family, I'm looking at name names, who's a serial, terrible gift giver and just totally unaware of it. Buyers presents that she clearly wants for herself.
00:07:43
Speaker
And you're like, thinking, I want to buy it. Who can I give it to? That's what, that's probably the thought trade that happens because it's just completely inappropriate. Often very generous, but just hit off the mark. Some people sort of balk at gift cards because I think they're going to be impersonal.
00:07:59
Speaker
But I think, as you said, they're very pragmatic. And often you might know that, especially if you're buying a gift card that is for a certain store, or kind of, you know, you buy those themed cards now, like student, or her, or whatever, from the supermarket. At least you know that they're going to shop at those places, or they have a project in mind, or they're saving up for something, and they can redeem the card at that place. That always puts me at ease.
Practical Benefits of Gift Cards for Teachers
00:08:22
Speaker
I mean, I can remember actually when my kids were in the early years of primary school and I was class representative, putting so much effort into trying to find the perfect gift for the teacher and like taking that responsibility very seriously. And then later now I have actually a friend who's a teacher.
00:08:39
Speaker
And her talking about the fact that the things you get are so often not what you need. And you can try and be as thoughtful as you like. But the reality is I don't really know these teachers. And so she was like, the gift card thing has been the biggest blessing to her later in life in terms of being able to actually
00:08:58
Speaker
go and treat herself at the end of the year if the parents do all group together, rather than have, as you say, thrust upon them something that I think that this teacher might like. Because, you know, I mean, I've met this person, you know, three times, how am I possibly going to get the gift giving correct? Yeah, I think in the case of teachers, that's a particularly interesting one because as money's tight,
00:09:19
Speaker
You know, yeah, there'll be some teachers who will go and use that gift card for a beauty treatment. Great. You're so happy if they do that. But there are many who are using it for groceries because it's tough. And as a teacher, you don't earn so much. You don't have that much disposable income. If they can use that money to make it a bit easier at the end of the year, great. Different things for different people. Yeah.
00:09:41
Speaker
And I guess going back to, you know, the idea of not only we don't always get it right, how can we become better gift-givers? How can we tune into what people really need or want? I think that there is probably two answers for that. Assuming you don't really, really know them well, okay? Because your best friend, you might get it spot on.
00:09:58
Speaker
I think you can ask them sometimes. You know, just even a hint or sometimes a nice way of doing it is to say, hey, look, I've got a short list of three things I thought would be great for you. Choose one of those. Maybe that's a bit more gracious than, hey, what do you want?
00:10:11
Speaker
But, you know, in some relations you can say, hey, you know, look, we are going to all chip in for a gift for you. We want it to be something that you really want. Do you have something in mind? Right. That sort of thing. Just asking them. The other thing is, is to give a very broad, any card and let them choose because the person who knows what the perfect gift is, is them.
00:10:29
Speaker
We've talked about having gift wish lists set up for family members and friends that you do buy gifts for regularly and taking note of what they're talking about, what they're interested in during the year, so that when it gets to a birthday or when it gets to Christmas or some other kind of milestone, you've got a list that's ready to go to instead of scrambling around trying to think.
Organizing Last-Minute Group Gifts
00:10:49
Speaker
know, what do they want? We're trying to stalk their Instagram and Facebook and see what they've been like commenting on. And I think that it is at that time of the year when we are all starting to, you know, I think it was 75 days till Christmas. I think when we were recording this episode, we all know that feeling of procrastination during this season and the risk that you leave everything up to last minute. So how can your solution, how can group together help
00:11:15
Speaker
assist last minute shoppers with gift giving needs, Allie. I think there are two steps in this. First of all is to write that list, which is surprisingly long of the people, not that you have to give gifts to, that you want to give gifts to. And you know, whether that's the teacher and the coach and the ballet and the colleague and the
00:11:31
Speaker
friend and your own kids and all of that stuff. And then I think there's which ones you want to give as one-to-one gifts. And maybe my grandmother used to have a drawer which had post-it notes on it. As she saw lovely things, she would buy it for whichever grandchild and then would have the post-it note.
00:11:46
Speaker
And I mean, that was incredibly organized, but in terms of the last minute, once you've got that list, you can then, in terms of cost saving, but also giving the better gift, is go, okay, these are the gifts which feel good as a group gift. I'm gonna be the class rep or I'm gonna be the person in my office who puts up their hand and God bless those people. And we all know who they are in our lives. They're usually serial organizers and you probably both are those. And so put up your hand and do everyone a favor and everyone's so grateful that you have.
00:12:14
Speaker
And do what feels scary for about one moment and go, OK, let's organize a group gift. Let's go to grouptogether.com. You press start, whiz. You've got a link. You share it with your group on WhatsApp, or by text message, or by email, or whatever. And you let everyone chip in and sign the card online, which means you can either give people a lot of time, if it's in the case of the teacher's gift, or you can go, oh my goodness, it's Wednesday and we need this by Friday. And because it's digital, it's super quick.
00:12:42
Speaker
But I think that's the great thing. And then you still end up giving something which is beautiful, the card and digital that you can send in a gift card or, you know, flowers or whatever, whatever you want to do. Yeah, I think making the list so that you know at the beginning, I think is such a good tip because I also think that does help with budget because I think sometimes you can
00:13:02
Speaker
it can explode without you actually realizing it and without you sort of being deliberate about how much you're spending on gift giving for the year and the process of going through and thinking about all the people you would like to give something to helps you really moderate your budget and really think, well, actually, I can't, you know, give $50 to every teacher or, you know, otherwise this is going to get out of control. But, you know, I can, if I do a group gift, we could all give $10 and they'll actually get a meaningful gift.
00:13:28
Speaker
for example. I agree and I think on that budget issue is that we made a call a while ago which is that not everyone has to give for every occasion but they might want to sign the card you know when you send out that group together link you've made a decision as the organizer to let people hey you can give a set amount we maybe I'll ask you for a set amount on this occasion and you're either in and you're out okay that's fine but there are other times when you might just say
00:13:53
Speaker
hey look I'll leave it up to you or five to ten dollars or some sort of guide but hey if you're not if this is not for you just if you sign the card that'd be great and so sometimes for a colleague for example or financially just not in a position to give to everything but you still want to be included I think that's really important and that's kind of fundamental to the the notion of appreciating somebody else but not in a financial way always yeah I think that's a really great thing to be able to do yeah
00:14:19
Speaker
With our most recent group gift giving, we printed out the card, printed out, we ended up getting vouchers like transferring because that's another option on that app. You can transfer the money and just take the money, no buying something. And luckily this person had a very clear
00:14:34
Speaker
long-held hobby that's easy to buy for. So we went and got things related to that. And then I put the gift in, I put the pieces of paper in an old box, like some fancy sunglasses that come in an old box. My kids covered the box in thank you stickers. We whacked a ribbon on it and off it went. And I think that's another thing that gets talked a lot about is gift wrapping and eco-friendly ways to gift wrap now because everyone sort of
00:15:00
Speaker
turning off the idea of the single use paper. What sort of novel gift wrapping ideas have you guys stumbled upon? Yeah, I think the end of perfect is that it's completely digital and that it's an experience. So for example, you chip in together to give somebody online meditation lessons or something like that, you know, zero footprint. OK, so that's 10 out of 10 and the card is digital. If you want something, if you want to actually have something which is a physical gift,
00:15:27
Speaker
sometimes using old beautiful fabric that you've had you know the something that you had which was beautiful and you just take some of that and you if you I mean the Japanese are masters at this taking cloth and wrapping it in magnificent ways but you can be clumsy and it's always kind of cool you can use newspaper if you are a good rapper and then you take a ribbon it can look wonderful or you take a big marker pen and put a big
00:15:50
Speaker
you know, a big love heart on it. And it looks cool and graphic and interesting to make something feel great. Well, I think one of the things I used a lot of when the kids were smaller was their art, because I would say, let's choose a very special piece of your art to wrap Grandma's present in. And that I got one more piece out of the house and I gave Grandma a piece of art. So I think that's another really good idea. And very cute, the hand print.
00:16:15
Speaker
I remember that face too. I've also like, I've trawled through op shops and got like old wallpaper. And I went through a phase where I got like dress patterns. There's always dress patterns at op shops. Yeah, which is retro and cool. Yeah. And they, you know, the paper's quite fun. There's all those options there out there if you go find one. Actually, I found in our piano stool some really old music that I've got now put into the gift wrapping section. Cause I feel like no one is ever going to play this sheet music ever again, but it will make very cool wrapping paper.
Efficient Holiday Shopping Strategies
00:16:45
Speaker
In fact, if you want to make your children howl with laughter, you'll show them an old street directory and use that to- Oh, I don't have a milway lurking in my bookcase. Phone books, street directories, maps. You know, like the maps you fold out. Our kids cry with laughter when I explain that concept to them. So I guess there's stashes. You can make anything look good with a little bit of style. And just as you said, a consistent ribbon. Pick one thing that's going to be consistent throughout and it's going to look a little bit stylish.
00:17:12
Speaker
So how do you, how do you approach efficient shopping? So you're not, you know, there's obviously there's the online shopping. We talked Diana about not trying to do this spontaneously and not leaving it to the last minute and just think, oh, it'll happen. But to actually schedule the shopping, what are some of the hacks we recommend around?
00:17:30
Speaker
getting the shopping done in an efficient way. I mean, as you said, I think scheduling that time is really important. And also I think thinking about like, you might need to schedule in batches, because for example, horror, I might need to go to Chadstone Shopping Centre, which was like the worst possible thing for me to do, but the reality is I might need to go there.
00:17:49
Speaker
to get specific gifts, but to know, okay, I'm going to be able to do those five stores on this particular day, and to really make sure that you've thought about it in advance, because there's nothing worse than going and then feeling like you have to go back again, certainly in the December season. I particularly like going in there because there's a few shops that like get into the mood, I don't mind it.
00:18:09
Speaker
We all have a notion of it. There's the Christmas carols and there's the tinsel and it's beautiful and everyone's got their... Yes, the notion of that is great, except when you reverse and scrape your car on the low bollard thing on the way out. Not cool. You don't want to go in the frenzy. You want to go late at night when the stalls are quiet. You want to go first thing in the morning on a cheese day. You're not going there Saturday afternoon when it's
00:18:37
Speaker
Oh, the humanity. There's a life out. Yeah. So pick your times strategically. Only go when you decide what to buy because there's nothing also worse than just wandering around and more looking for inspiration and the panic setting in because that's when you blow your budget. You end up panicking and buying something that costs way more than you were expecting because you're, you know, the clock is ticking and you just want to leave with a gift. So decide what you're going to buy.
00:19:02
Speaker
and then go to the store. Yeah, and I think one of the other ones is share the load. So share the load of not only thinking about what you're going to buy. So if you do make that list of all the people you're going to buy for and put the budget, like think about what you're going to buy and divide the shopping between you, even if it is online shopping, because online shopping is still time consuming.
00:19:22
Speaker
So really think about dividing it up amongst if you have a partner or even if you've got children. Children are very capable of doing online shopping as unless you give them some constraints about what they can use your credit card for. But I've certainly got my daughter involved in purchasing things online and making sure, you know, she goes through the process of selecting the exactly right thing.
00:19:43
Speaker
So do you guys ever make gifts? Do you ever make gifts? Do you make your cards? Because obviously you can buy stuff, but handmade is another way to go. Yeah, so I have definitely been a homemaker of gifts for the neighbors forever. So I love to do a bit of Christmas baking and that means we get some baked goods at home.
Creative and Eco-Friendly Gift Wrapping
00:20:02
Speaker
but we also do enough baking that we can give to our neighbours as kind of a tradition to. And in terms of card making, definitely have had the kids make cards. I still make them make cards actually all the time. So I definitely think that's an area where you can save lots of money because greeting cards can be incredibly expensive and a handmade card is really thoughtful. What about you, Allie? Are you home? I'm a chronic baker. Yes. So yes, lots of people have got fat because of me.
00:20:29
Speaker
But it was it was meant with love. I also think, you know, sometimes you can't make the gift or make the card and deliver it. Some of the things that people are doing, which are which is cute digitally, are they having their kids, for example, do really simple things, not not full on elaborate things, but for example, hold a little sign of with one word of what they would like their teacher to receive this Christmas, for example, you know, a pink unicorn or a handprint or making a little, you know, their little tiny fingers.
00:20:58
Speaker
into a heart shape for their teacher. And then you just take a snap of that and you upload that, you know, to the card. Those sorts of things are really cute and make it more personal rather than whole craft projects, which sometimes we have great intentions for at the end of the year, but just run out of steam. That's such a fabulous idea, getting all the kids to do something too. Like it's quite stylish too. You can just picture the card where all the kids are doing the same thing. It's going to make it much cooler, isn't it? Not much effort, but you know, lots of impact. So that's a great one.
00:21:25
Speaker
Yeah, I'm thinking Canva must have templates of them ready to go. And where do you both stand on re-gifting?
Re-Gifting: Etiquette and Experiences
00:21:31
Speaker
OK, so can I tell you my horror story of re-gifting? Yes. Yes. So I have been known to re-gift, OK? But just last minute, we were invited to my husband's, probably one of his best friends, and they said, please no gifts, please no gifts. And I thought, oh, you know what? It's just sort of nice. And I opened my, where we keep our booze, and I had a beautiful, really beautiful boxed Japanese whiskies, really expensive and very beautiful.
00:21:55
Speaker
And it just looked gorgeous. Anyway, so great. Excellent. Grab that, pop a card with it, and we'll whoosh out the door. And when we arrived, gave it to him. And one of his other friends saw it and said, oh my god, I'd love to try that. Can you open it? Can you open it? And he's a very gracious guy. And he said, of course, of course, he opens the box to pour a drink for his friend. He pulls out the bottle. It is half empty.
00:22:17
Speaker
Now, whether you're a half-law, half-endicator person, this is not cool. Well, of course, I was just in fits of laughter. I mean, he knew, he knew, like it was, I couldn't pretend. He knew, I knew we were in hysterics. So, you know, all for me, I got caught out, red-handed at it. He was, he was sipping at it and putting it back and forth. Bloody hell. That's my question. But it was perfect. Whoever had done it, perfect.
00:22:43
Speaker
That's so funny. I definitely think regifting is permitted. I think once someone has given you the gift, it's yours to choose what to do with it. And if you think that it's actually better in the hands of someone else, I think it's completely acceptable. The gift did its job when it landed with you as its gift and you've received it and decided to, you know, probably best not to gift it back to the person who gave it to you. But I think regifting is definitely acceptable. Mia, are you a regifter?
00:23:12
Speaker
We talked about this a long time ago when we were talking about de-nuttering. People who went cupboards full of stuff that they'd be given that they felt too guilty to let go of. And as he said, Diana, the gift has done its job. Put it out into the world, give it to someone who's going to appreciate it. I've got to say, I can't re-gift something that I didn't like. You keep that thing and you think, what am I going to do? And you think you might re-gift it, but I just can never put my name to what I don't like. Off to the option for that.
00:23:40
Speaker
If we come back to the idea of group giving, Ali, I think one of the things that puts a lot of people off it being the organizer of the gift is like the challenge of like getting it there on time, managing the contributions, but also kind of like the cutoff date, like the risks, you know, the fact that there's always one person who's at the last minute wanting to contribute when you two, you know, already closed the doors. So how does your group together solve that problem?
00:24:08
Speaker
Yeah, I think that the trick here is that at the point that you volunteer, you think, oh, this is actually, you don't think of the pain of it. You think, oh, this is fine. I'll just send out a text with my bank details and Bob's your uncle, everyone will send me the money and I'll go and get the gift, right? Like it should be a big flashing stop sign at that moment when you're about to do that, because what inevitably happened and we've all been there is you either put your own money in for somebody else,
00:24:33
Speaker
or most often you just have that awkwardness of how many times can I ask Mia for the money? Like it's just it's just becomes so embarrassing that you either you avert eyes when you see her in the street or you put your own money in or it's just awkward. If it's colleagues money there's the ick of having people's money in your personal bank account
00:24:54
Speaker
I know I'm honest, but do they know I'm honest? And then how do I keep track? And oh my God, who was that mother who just thrust $20 in my hand when I was waiting at the bus stop? And she knows my name and she knows my four kids' names and whatever. I don't know who she is.
00:25:10
Speaker
or she gives me the name of her child of which there are four in the class because you know we will have that so I'm like in a panic who would you know whose money is that right but you don't remember that at the moment that you quickly just send out that text message right you never do so then you're halfway down the track and you go I should have used group together duh right some helpful person says so the way that we've designed this is that it's like a one minute
00:25:33
Speaker
Walk through and you don't need instructions you press start we walk you through you know the process we give you a link or you can add in email addresses so that we can send those reminders automatically for you every week and the day before the collection closes the collection closes you haven't left karen off the card because when.
00:25:52
Speaker
Karen gave you the money, she also signed or she just signed and didn't give you money, all good, but you've got that all in a dashboard. So there's that transparency, there's the control of it. As long as it's before you spent the money, if someone says, oh no, can you take my money, too, can I be in it? You just go back into your dashboard, you click, you know, reopen collection or whatever the words are, it's very simple, extend, and you can reopen it so that, you know,
00:26:15
Speaker
Karen can be in the in the gift as well because Karen thought that she would do something more personal and herself, right? And that's why she hasn't given money because she thought to do something better. But poor Karen's realize I'm not going to get it together. I'll just do that group gift, right?
00:26:31
Speaker
And so that's why she's come to you at the last minute and gone, Oh no, I'm in, I'm in. Right? So yes, you can, you can extend it. You can open it. If someone says, I don't know how to use it, you can even put their own, their message in for them. Like we've designed it for ourselves, for our imperfect lives. Yeah. And it also automates some of the nudging as well. Like it sends out the notifications from mine.
00:26:51
Speaker
And so then you can either, as Dan said, you can either withdraw the money to buy those boho dangly earrings that you thought were perfect and give the card and print the card if you want or you can buy a gift card from us or you can buy flowers or baby hampers or all sorts of gifts from us to have sent on your behalf with the card or you can print it all out and hand it over.
00:27:12
Speaker
The date I'm hard ass, like when it's expired, it's expired, move on. I was like, it's too bad. I am too, there's no reopening for me. I'm like, I'm sorry, that was the date, the end. You tried. I used to be accommodating, but the older I get the less accommodating I get, particularly if I'm the one who's doing the organizing.
00:27:30
Speaker
Boundaries, boundaries, everybody.
Charity in Group Gifting
00:27:33
Speaker
So, Ellie, in the spirit of giving, do you have any ideas or suggestions around charitable donations or acts of kindness people can incorporate into holiday gifting? I'm really, really happy you asked this question. This is very dear to my heart. Yes, giving a group gift gives a better gift and it also saves you money and it also saves landfill. But I think in many situations, there's an opportunity to carve off a portion, 20 percent, for example, to give to
00:28:00
Speaker
to charity and I think that makes everyone feel great. So you know that we've had examples where a class mom has, a class rep, has said I'll organise all of the group gifts for the year or a mum has said or a parent has said hey to the whole family everyone chip in for Billy's Christmas gift but we're going to just take that little piece and give it to charity in honour of that person's birthday or whatever the occasion is.
00:28:27
Speaker
And I think that makes everyone feel really good. The fact that it's a much larger gift, you know, so let's say you've got 20 kids in a class or 20 people in your organization, each giving $20, that's a $400 gift. If you give 20% of that, $80 goes to a charity. If you then amass that and go, okay, well, it's everyone in our family for Christmas, we all do a bit of that, or it's every one of the kids across the year are donating 20% to a charity, to the same charity.
00:28:54
Speaker
At the end of the year, you've really made a significant difference. I think the recipient really enjoys it. I think that all of the contributors really enjoy that. And I think as the organizer, knowing that you've done that, and by the way, from our perspective, from grouped together, we manage that so that the money actually gets to the charity. If it's a proper Australian registered charity, the charity will, we orchestrate that so that you'll get tax receipts from the charity. So everyone gets a tax deduction. And it means that like we heard stories of people who,
00:29:21
Speaker
had done this manually themselves and said, oh, look, I feel so terrible. You know, after the whole thing with the 40th birthday and the party and whatever, I never actually managed to get the money to the charity. And it was like, oh, no, that is not that that can't happen on our watch. So we we manage that for you if it's a proper charity. Otherwise, you as the organizer do that.
00:29:40
Speaker
But the hard work's done because it's all tracked for you and it's all, you know, on a downloadable spreadsheet. Diana, do you have any traditions related to giving to charities? I don't for this time of year, but I have traditionally given to the Catherine Hamlin charity as I always make a donation and try to buy a gift from them for Mother's Day for my mum, like that's been.
00:30:00
Speaker
a particular tradition like a charity that's close to my heart is related to being a mother. So that's been one that's been kind of traditional in our family of big supporters of Fred Hollow's Foundation. And so it gets embraced in all kinds of parts of the year for all sorts of things. And certainly my daughter has a number of occasions elected for donations from her friends rather than gifts. And I think that's
00:30:23
Speaker
you know, sparking that idea for your kids, I think is something really good in terms of trying to, you know, establish the idea of philanthropy from a very young age and that there are many people less fortunate than ourselves that we should try and support. Yeah. So there's always places like Oxfam where you can give the gift of like goats and wells and practical things and places like Kmart who have their wishing tree. So you can go and buy, you know, something within Kmart and leave it there.
00:30:49
Speaker
for them to distribute to people who need them.
Conclusion and Call to Action
00:30:52
Speaker
So there are opportunities out there too to extend that giving, to give back to the community at this time of the year. Wrapping up, Allie, do you want to give us your top hack for anyone looking to make the holiday gifting experience more enjoyable and stress free? It's going to be stressed regardless.
00:31:09
Speaker
You know, that's kind of the nature of the holiday season. But I do think being able to harness everyone's goodwill in a collective manner is great. I think if you have family overseas or you have family who aren't going to join you for the holiday season, being able to
00:31:25
Speaker
send them an invitation to chip in for the train set that you would have never been able to give to your kid or whatever their dream thing is, the trampoline or whatever. I think that that could be special and having that keepsake at the end of a card is really nice. Yeah, gorgeous. Ellie, thanks so much for sharing your experience and ideas with us today. It's been a pleasure. My pleasure. Thanks for listening. Show notes for this episode are available at lifeagminlifehacks.com. And if you're a fan,
00:31:54
Speaker
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