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Give the gift of savings this year!

If you're still on the hunt for the perfect gift, this episode is filled with ideas that will help save them some money.

Action Task

Your action task for this week is to brainstorm who you can gift a money-saving present to.

Resources

Articles referenced in this episode:

>> 7 Best Finance Books for Beginners

>> Is Amazon Prime Worth It?

Products mentioned in this episode:

Amazon Prime

Plan To Eat

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Below is the transcript from today's show. Or you can download the full transcript as a PDF.

Are you looking to find the perfect gift for someone, but struggling to come up with ideas? What better gift to give than the gift of savings! These money saving gift ideas will help you give your loved ones a gift that keeps on giving.

Welcome to the Go From Broke podcast where you'll learn how to take control of your money so you can stress less and save more. If you're tired of living paycheck to paycheck or constantly wondering where your money is going, you are in the right place. This podcast is all about giving you actionable tips and advice so you can get started improving your finances today.

In today's episode, I'm sharing my top 10 gifts to help you help them save money in the future.

Number one is the Instant Pot.

Yes! I seriously love my Instant Pot.

Part of my strategy to save money on groceries is to plan easy meals. And knowing dinner isn't going to be a complicated affair helps me avoid the temptation of eating out or ordering in.

I also like to make meals large enough that we have leftovers.

And the Instant Pot helps me do both.

I tend to use the slow cooker functionality more than the pressure cooker one. But it's nice to know if I forget to set something to cook in the morning, I can still make it in the evening.

Another huge plus is the ease of cleanup and the efficiency of space. There's a load of functions, I don't even know what they all do, but the Instant Pot can replace a lot of your other kitchen gadgets as well as cook pretty much everything in just the one pot.

For example, my old spaghetti recipe required a pan, two pots, and a big old bowl. But with the Instant Pot, I could just make it all in the one pot.

It saves me time, money, space, and effort. Seriously, I love this thing.

Number two is a programmable thermostat. It's not sexy like the Instant Pot, but being able to adjust the temperature in your house automatically is a must have in my book.

I like to have a nice, cool house, which is fine for our winter bills. But summers in the desert can get pretty expensive. But I don't need the upstairs cool when I spend all day downstairs.

So we can save some money by adjusting the temperature up there. Thankfully, we have programmable thermostats because if I had to remember to do it on my own, I never would. And I know I'd forget to adjust it in time to make it comfortable again at bedtime.

But with our programmable thermostat, we can set the temperature to be whatever we want based on where we are and what time of the day it is.

Number three is a multi-cup coffee maker.

Full disclosure. I don't drink coffee. It's gross.

But for those of you that do this might be a good tip. My husband, he drinks a little bit, but our parents devour this stuff whenever they visit. So some form of coffee maker is required.

We tried a Keurig, which was pretty good for just the two of us. I could make tea, he could make coffee.

But the K-cups became cost-prohibitive when we had family visiting and they were drinking multiple cups at a time. Not to mention no one was patient enough to brew multiple K-cups or wait for the other person to brew it. So we ended up getting a simple little 12 cup coffee maker that has more than paid for itself.

If your coffee habit is more of an indulgence than an addiction, a Keurig might work for you. Otherwise, do the math and see if a multi cup coffee maker would make more sense. In either case it's cheaper than going to Starbucks.

Number four is a Soda Stream.

We're not a huge soda drinkers at home, but certain members of my family have a multiple cans a day habit. I gifted them a Soda Stream several years back to help them avoid spending a small fortune buying multiple 12 packs of Coke every week. And in addition to the cash savings, there was also the initial novelty effect of creating your own flavors.

It was a lot of fun actually.

I'm not sure that it lasted more than a couple of weeks. But it was an added perk all the same.

So if you're a big soda drinker, or you know someone who is, this might make an excellent money saving gift

Number five is rechargeable batteries.

About the time my son started getting electronic toys, we discovered the value of rechargeable batteries.

It's amazing how quickly batteries run down when there's no off button.

Fortunately, we're not subjected to those types of toys much anymore, but we're still using our rechargeable batteries almost 12 years later.

I suggest buying just enough to always have a pair charged up and ready. Then you can just rotate them as needed.

But they seriously get good use. We use them in all of our electronics, from the keyboard for my Mac to the controllers for all the different gaming systems and the TVs. We use these rechargeable batteries everywhere. They're awesome.

Number six is a meal planning tool. Nothing, nothing has helped me slash our grocery budget, quite like meal planning.

I started with Plan to Eat. It's an app, that's awesome. And I love how easy it is to plan things with the calendar view.

And while I was still use the app, I have found that a non-digital approach actually works better for the rest of my family.

We use a magnetic menu that sticks to the fridge and lets the whole family see what's planned.

So it helps everybody know what's coming up that week so that they're not asking me what's for dinner every five seconds.

It also helps to consolidate the grocery list in one place. We had shopping list pads on the counter and on the fridge. And I had a digital list on my phone. So having it all together in one place has made things much easier.

Number seven is coupon books or those school spirit cards.

My stepdad swears by coupon books. Not only do they save him money on places he already goes to, but he's able to discover all sorts of new places to explore. And at a discount!

We also tend to buy whatever discount coupon books or school spirit cards our neighbors are selling.

If you've listened much by now, you know that drive-thrus and eating out are a bit of a boogeyman for me. But we've been trying to cut back and using the school spirit cards has actually helped us save a ton of money over the years.

For example, we had one that had a Chick-fil-A deal that was for a free sandwich with the purchase of any combo meal. And I was able to feed the whole family for under 10 bucks at Chick-fil-A.

It was crazy.

So for an upfront cost of $20 to get the spirit card, we'd actually save close to $4 every time we ate at Chick-fil-A. Which at the time was almost weekly.

So if you do the math, we probably saved over a hundred dollars, just at Chick-fil-A using that school spirit card.

Number eight is gift cards.

Gift cards have been given a bad reputation as an impersonal gift. But I love getting them. So I'm not shy about giving them.

I'd much rather give and get something I know will be used. And knowing it'll saved money only makes it better.

Plus, don't forget, you can get discounted gift cards at Raise.com. So even if you're giving them to someone else to save money, you can save a bit too.

Number nine is finance books.

I'm personally a little hesitant to gift a book on personal finance, since not everyone is obsessed with the subject as I am. Okay. So almost no one is.

But there are a few that are easier reads and can really help anyone who needs to reevaluate their relationship with money.

My top picks would be The Richest Man in Babylon and The Millionaire Next Door. They both give helpful insights into how to think about your money and your relationship with it.

But I also have an article on the website with my top finance books for beginners. The link will be in the show notes.

Finally number 10, an Amazon Prime membership.

Now I know a lot of people preach to get rid of Amazon Prime as an unnecessary expense. Or as a way to limit temptation.

But free shipping aside, Prime has a ton of other benefits that can make it a money saving gift.

I actually have a post on this one too, on the blog that I'll link in the show notes, but there are so many bonuses that you can get as a Prime member.

The one I appreciate the most is probably Prime Video. While my husband primarily watches Netflix, I find myself flipping over to Prime shows whenever I'm in charge of the remote. As rare as that may be.

We've also been able to cancel our music streaming service and just use Prime's free service. It doesn't have the largest library, but it's been enough for us.

Prime members also get access to free and discounted eBooks each month.

And the latest feature I've been trying out is the Prime Try It Before You Buy It, where you can literally load up a cart full of qualified clothing items and try them on at home and then just send back what you don't want. No charge whatsoever. It's amazing.

If you're going to use the extra services, Prime can be a real money saver in the long run for you or whoever you gift it to.

Okay, so those are my top 10 gifts that will save money in the long run.

As for your action task this week, I want you to brainstorm who on your gift list you can give a money saving gift to. Or maybe add a couple to your own wishlist so that you can save some cash yourself as we head into the new year.

If you're enjoying the podcast, I'd love if you could share it with a friend. And don't forget to hit subscribe so you never miss an episode.

As always, take action and make it a great day.