how to stay grounded during financial chaos szn 🎄
+ more ways to support Palestine
9-minute slow read. There is a recording of this newsletter above for accessibility. Please let me know if you have any other access needs.
Good morning to the 674 hotties who subscribe to this newsletter!
Can you believe it’s already November? It feels like it was just yesterday when we collectively made ambitious New Year’s Resolutions. As of today, Mariah Carey has defrosted from her proverbial block of ice, ready to haunt us with “All I Want For Christmas Is You” on repeat for the next eight weeks.
Soon, you’ll be invited to too many heinous holiday parties. You’ll question the morality of your Thanksgiving celebration while spending a fortune on a whole turkey at the grocery store.
You’ll travel to see your family. If you have a complicated relationship with your family, you’ll either drink or shop compulsively to dissociate from the tough feelings that come up.
Your inbox will be flooded with messages of fake urgency and scarcity from marketers trying to meet year-end sales goals. You’ll be tempted more than ever to dip into your savings or go into credit card debt to buy things on sale.
Your emotions will be at an all-time high, and there are corporations and systems that will profit off of your emotional dysregulation.
Pair those emotions with these harrowing facts:
35% of Americans took on holiday debt in 2022, with an average balance of $1,549 according to a survey by LendingTree
72.6% of people who use Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services like Klarna or AfterPay to finance their purchases make less than $75,000 per year, according to the Federal Reserve
Out of those who have used BNPL, one-third have made a late payment or incurred a late fee, according to Motley Fool, and those late payments negatively impact your credit score.
55% of Americans can’t afford a $1,000 emergency without using a credit card or a loan, according to NerdWallet
My friends, all of this is a recipe for financial chaos.
I have three simple tips to help you stay grounded during the holidays and keep a little more cash in your pocket. Regular financial advice might tell you how to get more for less money. Instead, I ask you to examine your relationship with consumerism, to stop glorifying the idea of accumulating more stuff, to detach the idea of giving love from giving gifts this holiday season.
Mutual aid for Palestine
Before we get those tips, I want to thank every community member who responded to my last newsletter with resources and feedback about the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Palestine. Thank you for approaching me with kindness, additional resources, and a genuine desire to engage in conversation.
Through these conversations, I learned that many of the popular funds to support Palestine are not run by Palestinians. iF Charity is based in the UK, while the Palestine Child Relief fund is run by Americans. I am not saying that these are untrustworthy funds, but I do believe the people who will benefit from mutual aid should have complete agency of how the funds are disbursed, especially when the root of these issues is colonialism.
With those criteria in mind, here are two Palestinian-led funds to support:
As always, please continue to call your senators and representatives to demand a ceasefire in Gaza. I recommend using the 5Calls app to make the process easier.
One last thing before we get to ~financial tips~
Without further ado, here are my three tips to stay grounded during the holiday season:
1. Cancel your Amazon Prime subscription
According to CBNC, the average American spends $91.75 shopping on Scamazon each month. That’s about $1,100 each year.
You might feel like you’re saving a few bucks here and there on products you’d normally buy. The hidden cost of that convenience is the exploited labor of workers.
Remember that the US Department of Labor has found that Amazon exposed their workers to unsafe working conditions and ergonomic hazards at multiple warehouses across the country. Remember that, time and time again, Amazon has broken the law with union-busting efforts.
In my humble opinion, it’s a win-win. You lighten the workload of Amazon workers and you save more money in the process. Plus, you’ll get back all the hours you spend mindlessly shopping on Scamazon for things you don’t actually need.
2. Take one hour out of this week to unsubscribe from promotional mailing lists and text messages
I used to work in marketing back in the day, and here’s what I learned: During the holidays, the goal of marketing is to literally make the products they sell unforgettable. Marketers have to constantly remind you about the benefits of their products, why you can’t live without their product, how you’re gonna feel after you buy their product, why you have to buy the product right. now. or else terrible things will happen.
Even if you don’t buy a product after opening that first promotional email, marketers consider it a win that they have lodged the idea of their product in your mind. Once you’re familiar with a product, you’re more likely to buy it.
Before text and email campaigns ramp up for Black Friday, take an hour this week to clear your inbox. Unsubscribe from promotional mailing lists and text messages to steer clear of buying things you don’t actually need.
3. Replace material gifts with acts of service
Take this tip with a grain of salt because, personally, giving and receiving gifts have never been my love languages. I have always been a Grinch. I’ve always believed that gifts should be given spontaneously, when something you see genuinely reminds you of someone special in your life, not when a random holiday prompts you to do so.
I totally understand that, for some, giving and receiving material gifts are the focal point of the holidays. You might genuinely enjoy the thoughtfulness and research that goes into buying someone a special gift, and I love that for you.
Either way, I invite you to question why your capacity for love is measured by your ability to buy a product for somebody else, and why this feeling heightens during the holiday season.
I’ve always rolled my eyes at holiday shopping guides that are titled “The 10 best gifts for the busy new mom in your life.” The gift guide is usually filled with chic overpriced diaper bags and a 3-step skincare routine that will “make mom feel like herself again in just 10 minutes.” Babe, that busy new parent probably doesn’t need all that extra shit! But new parents will always need help with childcare.
Instead of spending hours shopping for a gift you can’t afford for your seasonally-depressed bestie, ask if they need help with any administrative tasks around the house, like cleaning or sorting their mail, or if they’d like to spend more quality time together by going on weekly walks or scheduling regular phone calls to check in.
I hope these tips help you stay grounded this holiday season, hotties. Thank you for being here! Til next time ~
These tips were super helpful! Loving the line about why we feel the need to measure our capacity for love through buying!