EoR No. 4: Amazon feelings and how to avoid overspending
Plus, how to recover from holiday spending guilt-free and a new advice column I’m loving
Wow. Your response to my post about (not) boycotting Amazon gave me so much to think about this week! Thank you all for sharing your experiences and thoughts — and remaining kind about a big-feelings topic. You showcased some great ways to exist with these big marketing greed machines in our lives while continuing to spend and consume mindfully, while also not projecting your expectations for yourself onto anyone else’s circumstances. Keep taking care of each other and yourselves this year 👏
Onto this week’s round up!
News and upcoming events:
Enter to win a free copy of You Don’t Need a Budget and nine other titles from my publisher, Little, Brown Spark, to inspire your progress in 2025! Just enter your name and email here before Jan. 31.
A reminder to sign up for my session on preparing our finances for a fascist regime before Jan. 29!
🥑 ICYMI at Healthy Rich this week
You don’t have to boycott Amazon this year if you don’t want to
The return of the Healthy Rich podcast: How do you avoid spending money you don’t have?
🔗 Things to catch
In case you’re avoiding the news (good call, generally!) — Israel and Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire and return of hostages!! A good summary of the details and the long-term plan.
- ’s take on Amazon shopping is (of course) nuanced, thoughtful and full of care.
My latest for Salon: how to recover from your holiday spending hangover without guilt.
I loved this conversation with
at : Money is for Spending, Not Hoarding.My friend (and a CFP) Robin Hartill has started a financial advice newsletter for the 99%:
. I’m completely enraged for this question asker but love Robin’s advice!
💬 Let’s discuss
How are you feeling about money post–holiday season?
How do you feel about the ways you used money (or didn’t) over the holidays? Any changes you want to make for next year? Did you use debt? How do you feel about the impact on your finances?
This post contains affiliate links for Bookshop.org, so if you buy a book mentioned here, you support the author, local bookstores and Healthy Rich!
I feel like I just ate a huge 4-course meal and now must atone for my gluttony. Our Amex bill was extremely high(for us) and not with gifts per se. It’s the other stuff - wrapping paper, tree, lights, etc. that gets us every year. We’ll-meaning extended family that wants to have a White te Elephant gift exchange instead of the usual thoughtful gift exchange. Those tacky presents cost money, too.
Our children are young adults now and don’t ask for much for Christmas and my husband and I don’t exchange presents as we already have everything we need. Seriously, if I need new underwear or a sweater, I’d rather purchase it myself.
As our kids get older I feel much more able to make holiday presents utilitarian and I feel really good about what we got them this year. Almost everything was off their lists, and almost everything was something they could wear or use in their daily lives. With teenagers, we are now past the endless toys, which is such a relief. I did do secret Santa at work this year, but I love how the person who organizes set it up, because they did a very thorough questionnaire which allowed people to say exactly what they liked and didn’t like and wanted and didn’t want, so I was able to shop thoughtfully for my recipient. I have a lot of thoughts about next holiday season, though, and hope that we can get to even fewer material goods for our kids, and more experiences. I did do a cookbook and some eating out gift cards, and movie gift cards for my son and his girlfriend, and I definitely want to do more of that kind of thing next year. Although I know you say we don’t need to quit Amazon, I did completely quit them last July, and made it through all of my Christmas shopping with zero Amazon purchases, which I’m very happy with ☺️ I was able to find everything on different online retailers, so while I did do a lot of my shopping online, it was all either on manufacturer sites or smaller companies.