The Anti-Black Friday Gift Guide

In 2022 87 point 2 million US consumers shopped online for Black Friday, and they spent a record $9.12 billion plus a record 196 point 7 million Americans shopped in store and online during cyber week that week directly after Thanksgiving holiday. Consumers in 2022 spent an average of $325.44 each on holiday related purchases. Over the span of this week. 70% of that spending was focused on gifts especially toys, games and electronics. But with 60% of consumers saying they regretted buying something due to a Black Friday sale, and 1.3 9 billion holiday season returns. Plus 80% of everything we buy that week not to mention all the plastic gets wrapped up in being thrown away mostly in the landfills. Is this buying frenzy really all it's cracked up to be? Explore new ways to spread holiday cheer without diving headfirst into consumerism in our anti Black Friday episode. This this is greening up my act holiday edition Yes, it is to the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. So we wanted to dive into not buying into Black Friday. So that is what this episode is about. So we're gonna give you our consumer is exactly. We've really nailed consumerism as being the worst enemy of living a sustainable lifestyle. Like fast fashion. If you go listen, last season, we had an episode on fast fashion and how most clothing just gets thrown away. buying anything quick and easy means it's quick and easy to throw it away. So the compulsory gift giving season around the winter holidays, especially this week after Thanksgiving makes this way worse in the United States. Yeah, that's like actually a shocking number of returns. Yeah, and I've heard horrible things about returns. We need to do an episode on return we do actually because I'm Yeah, I don't know enough about it. But it's like enough that I try not to return my shit. Yeah, it doesn't get resold tell you that much. Right. Yeah, usually usually gets thrown away. Amazon warehouse is a thing where they sell stuff that's been opened. But yeah, I mean, it's complicated. Yeah, but a lot of it just gets tossed. Yeah. I don't know about you. Gift giving is one of my love languages. I love it, too. Yeah. Especially when it's like the right gift. Yes. It's like, I don't like compulsory gift buying. I don't like I don't like making a list and like okay, what do you want for Christmas? I like I saw this. It was perfect for you. Here you go. Yes. I much prefer giving gifts to receiving them battle says Yeah. Which makes me sound like a saint but really like giving gifts. Yeah. I love the like glow on someone's face when you found them exactly the right thing. Yes. What's a favorite? Your favorite gift you've ever given? Oh my gosh. Well, what's yours? Well, I think about it. Yeah. I mean, if you can't think of one that's fine. No, I have one of mine. Which is why put you on the spot. One of my favorite is Joe found a poster for like, like a used record store of one of his favorite artists. And he looked it up and it was worth like 100 bucks. And he was really excited because he bought it for like three or something. And so you know, he was a little bit nervous about it getting ruined or whatever. So I looked it up and I found out that if you frame them it will be more worth more money so it wasn't like ruining it and so I went and got it professionally framed at like oh frame shop. And this you know, this shop was like, full of just wood and leather and all this stuff. But yeah, he loved it and it's still hanging on our wall. I love it. That's awesome. I you know what I'm thinking about most of the gifts I've given that I've loved if and like experiences. Yeah, those are good surprise. Birthdays are so well. Anyway. Yeah, so we like gifts we love gift right now love gift guides, like I even love. You know, don't throw rocks at me, but I love Oprah's like favorite things every year. I'm like, Oh, this is neat. And it's all like $400 cashmere. Yeah, no slippers or whatever. But I love gift guides. And I love to make gift guides, especially if I'm like really into local stuff. I love to like share my knowledge of like things that should be shared and you know, so this year for greening up my act I thought we'd come up with sustainable gifts or ways to express your love that you can do over the holidays without generating more trash, spending more money or buying into the utter madness of Black Friday consumerism. Yes, well have. So instead of getting into a fight with someone at Walmart over the last airfryer do these things and spend your Black Friday being grateful for everything you already have? Or watching football or hanging out with your family or something? Yes. So there you go. Have few resources first cuit had 115 Black Friday statistics every retailer needs to know and 93 That's where I got a lot of those. There's a lot more statistics that are really interesting in there. phys.org PHS, most Black Friday purchases students end up as waste country living at 100 DIY Christmas gifts to spread Christmas Joy, some of which look really dumb. But they're there. The kitchen McCain had a whipped grapefruit mint sugar scrub recipe, which is kind of what I base mine off of. And then the stripe had a list of the best DIY Christmas ideas. There's a little bit it's shorter than the country living one and less cookie cutters are involved. I would say nice. Okay, let's see, maybe yeah, it's less like my child may do a thing out of toilet paper rolls, you know. But that's the problem with DIY and isn't like that. Maybe we'll we'll start with DIY ideas. Yeah, these can get chintzy real fast. So if you're not prone towards DIY stuff, maybe this isn't the season to do it, it's okay. But there are some really great gifts, you can make a home that won't generate more packaging or waste, but can still speak the love you want to give. And also, they're great ways to use up all of the reasonable things that you've been saving up like our jar collection, for instance, yes, a lot of these DIY ideas can use up that jar collection. So the one I did last year, just for this day, just for the holidays. But last year, I was really one of the worst things about going through a lot of stress for me is that I don't have the bandwidth to think about gifts and that's hard for me and you know, just like buying off people's Amazon wishlist is one of my worst nightmares, but last year, I just could not. So I made golden milk mix. So golden. I know you mentioned this on the podcast, actually, I may have Yeah. It's a turmeric based kind of drink that a lot of like iron Vedic practitioners drink. It has a lot of anti inflammatory properties. And it's a caffeine free way to like it's a really good warming drink for the winter. So it's a hippie dippie mix everyone has a cold milk recipe, but it's it's good for you, you know? Yeah, nearly. I mean, it sounds delicious. I've never tried it but I would say it's spicy. So my recipe for it. What I did was I bought all the spices from the bulk Dipper I actually emptied out the turmeric bulk at my local Whole Foods nice all of their, there's like gotta replace this. Thanks guys. But I just bought a bunch of it in bulk and then made a mix in a container and then just put it into the spice jars that I had. And I use the four ounce spice jars. I just bought a bunch off Amazon actually sorry. But you know, four ounces. goes fast when he makes spice mix, but I my recipe was three parts turmeric, one part cinnamon, one part of a spice like pepper, black pepper is usually what they recommend. But I use red chili because I'm from New Mexico. But the capsaicin activates the turmeric. So you need to have that spice in there. Oh, yeah, that's interesting. Well, one half part nutmeg, one half part cloves, one half part ginger, a pinch or two of salt. So like for instance, if you have six ounces of turmeric, you can do two ounces of cinnamon, etc. You can make it as big or as small as you like, I had the mix for a while and just it's it's dry goods. It doesn't you know? Yeah, yeah, it, it can go bad. You have to be careful about spices going bad. But usually if you use them within a year, it's fine. So wait, so you're saying this was your lazy? Well, because it was just a missing gift for everyone? No, but it's still impressive. I mean, well, I mean, it was I went to Whole Foods one day and bought all the spices and then had the mix. And then every day, if you're going to see a friend, I just filled the jar, give herself some credit. Okay, but it wasn't like, you know, where I was like, You know what Maria needs this year is you know, it was everyone's getting spice mix. Yeah, well, everyone's getting a gift card you can do Yeah, it's true. Yes, this sounds lovely. But then I also made like instructions on how to use it. So that was what I wrote in my card, you know, and that's if you only use this recipe to make golden milk you add a teaspoon of that mixture to whatever milk. Coconut milk is really good. I use whole milk too. I like cow's milk, almond milk. You know, not we're gonna not talk about almond milk but whatever milk you like, and then honey or maple syrup. I mean, honey is the classic thing to use. But if you're vegan, you can use maple syrup or stevia, whatever sweetener you like to taste. And then you just heat it up in a saucepan or the microwave or I use my milk frother and you'll enjoy. Yeah, May. It's really I mean, I'm going to have some tonight. Yeah, cuz I have a milk steamer. So yeah, this perfect. I assume the milk first and then add in the honey and stuff because it'll mess up your steamer. But you can do a similar thing with hot cocoa mix my best friend from home. Hi, Jen. She did this a few years ago, she you can use those larger jars, like the salsa jars that my roommate collects. You mix cocoa, powdered milk, marshmallows, peppermint bark, chocolate chips, whatever you want. Whatever you would put in a hot cocoa mix. You can layer it properly in the jar. And then you just, you know, write the recipe. Like pour this mix into two cups and add hot water or milk and you have hot chocolate. Nice. Easy. I think I definitely know family members that have done something like that before. Yeah. It's it's nice. I mean, I my problem with those is when they're pretty like that. I'm like, oh, they'll never use it. Because yeah, pretty high, though. You just make a really pretty candle. You just Yeah. And burn it. Just do it. Yeah. So I just have to make a point of like, Alright, I'm making a hot cocoa tonight. You know, Year's Eve or something or yeah, you can also make homemade jam. A lot of people do this. Especially if you've been farming all summer. All those tomatoes. Make it tomato jam. That's a great idea. Or my dad freezes all the strawberries that he gets and he makes jam out of it. Oh, yeah, that's great, too. Yeah, all those berries. You know. I had a friend who gave raspberry jam. Like two years ago. It was great. I just had ate it on toast everyday for like three months was so good. Did she or he can it? No, she put it in a jar. I don't think she did the whole. I don't know. She may have done the whole canning thing. She's pretty handy. Yeah, I don't think it's that hard to do. I've never really like sterilize the jar and stuff. Yeah. I mean jams a little less than like fresh fruits or vegetables. I think yes, the sugar is a preservative. Right? So you're probably not going to like poison everyone with E. coli or, you know, the things we get from? Probably not. Yeah, so but I mean, if you know what you're doing, it's a great way to or if you have an off the YouTuber, or if you have YouTube. Yeah, YouTube knows what you're doing. Thanks, you too. This one a friend of mine did a few years ago a homemade sugar scrub. So this is for like, you know, exfoliating in the shower. Great Gift for skincare during the dry winter months. All you need is sugar, coconut oil, and whatever essential oils you'd like and aren't afraid of nice. Peppermint is usually a popular one because it smells nice. It's refreshing. The kitchen McCabe recipe that I'll post in the notes has a recipe for grapefruit mint, which is nice. But you could use peppermint and rosemary, anything to make a kind of nice holiday scent, I would be cautious about more caustic oils. So tea tree oil and cinnamon might have burning effects. Just make sure everyone knows not to like leave it on, you gotta rinse it off. Also, this thing get really slick in the shower. Ah, and if you use a glass jar, that's kind of dangerous. So I might tell people, you know, if you're going to use this scrub in the bathtub, you know, sitting down and rinse it off. But make sure that you don't slip in the shower because it's oil in your shower. So oh yeah, good. But really easy recipe, half a cup of coconut oil, half a cup of white sugar, 35 drops of whatever essential oil you can mix and match. You might use less peppermint than others because it can be very strong. And then you just blend it in a standing mixer until it's thick. And if you're using like grapefruit juice or other things, you can store it in the fridge to make it last longer. But it smells great. It's a really silky way to exfoliate. Nice. Love it. Another thing we talked about is holiday cookies. I have a lot of friends who do this for the holidays. Just I did it last year, maybe the last two years. I can't remember and it's very fun, but it was definitely like, oh boy. Yeah, could get kind of stressful. Especially like, if you're handing them out. You know, you have to drag them into the house. But yeah, luckily I didn't have to do that. But I just took them to the one family gathering. But yeah, it was like, oh, man, my kitchen is too small for all these cookies. Oh yeah, that's the thing that happens. I only have one cooling rack and they just start stacking up. But yeah, right. Yep. But it is really it's really fun to do. Yeah, I mean, you can give people the recipe to you know, yeah, I asked everybody what their favorite dessert was. And luckily everybody said cookies because it didn't make a cake. But yeah, I do love cakes. So would have been happy to make one but yeah, it was like okay, cool. Yeah, cookies are easy, but I had like me If five different cookies I made. Yeah, I mean, it can get out of hand. I only I only make gingerbread cookies. That's my. That's smart. Yeah. But then it's like, what about my Gluten Free friend? You know, gluten free friends vegan friends. I'm like, here's a popcorn ball. Right. Another thing you can do is make people on paper towels. I love it. We have a whole episode about this. We do have a whole episode about on paper towels. And so that's kind of a cute, you know, like we were saying a few episodes ago about holiday wrapping paper that you can use like kitchen towels, the gift to rabbit, you know, using unpaper towels might be a way to wrap it up to yes, that's perfect. Yeah, I made some from old sheets and old linen towels. And they were really cute. And I've actually considered giving them as gifts if I had the time to make more, but it's just perfect. I would love that. That is a thing of time. This another DIY option that I have done several times is plant clippings. So yeah, I have a spider plant that's 11 years old that my colleague Cardin gave me when I was working for the choo choo train in northern New Mexico. And she planted it in a pot that I had left in my office when I left and brought it to me in Albuquerque and it's been kicking it it's still going i i give people clippings from this plant for housewarming parties I give them for Christmas one year and my friend Valerie in Albuquerque just sent me a picture of all of this spider plants that the spider plant I gave her five years ago spa and so like, that is so cool. Yeah, it's currently in my office here in Austin that I go into once a week and it is huge. And yeah, I have another it's one of its offspring is living in my house. They're great plants for the clean the air. So they're really good to have around and they're really hard to kill. Nice. That's just key. Yeah. And Porthos plants too. You can just put them in water, just like a clipping and they will grow a new offspring. So that's an easy one to and they're you know, I should do that because I have one. Yeah, that would be like a perfectly and I have a bunch of like pots laying around. Yeah. Or you could give them in really pretty little glasses. Uh huh. And that's uh huh. You know, thrift store. Oh my gosh, I love it. Or I have like a bunch of little beer sample glasses that I like, never use and you just put it in that and give it to your friend and then they get a glass and they get a plant clipping and they can plant it when they want or not. Patos Can you just grow in water forever, too? So Oh, yeah. And they're useful for laundry if you've listened to St. Nancy. Oh, no, that's IV. Yes. pathos. I think it was pathos IV. She said, really? I thought that was I think it was like English IV. Okay. Well forget about it. Maybe don't feel pathos and let before you go into your good. Yeah, but ya know, you can use some kind of IV so yeah. So really anything you're crafty at you can DIY and give it as a gift. If you make homemade paper, or you want to try it if you cross stitch if you knit. If you want to make dried orange garlands, basically anything if you've already got the supplies and you enjoy doing it, this is an easy one. It makes people happy to that you put the thought into it. And you could be like you really needed this. popcorn garland? You know? I have the excuse. Oh, Charlie made it for you, Charlie. Yes. If you have a three year old child use them. slave labor? No, that's like labor child labor. Yes. I'm trying to mute myself. You might hear her in the background, but we're just gonna ignore her crying. She's with her dad. She's fine. She's fine. He's taking care of it. You're not just avoiding your child to make your podcast. Amazing. I am giving granola rating to all of these. So for DIY stuff, I said four out of five. So that's crunchy on our scale of one to five. Granola is one being soggy, which is gross and five being breaker two's off, which is the best. Four out of five. I said it depends on how much waste you generate. So if you're using stuff you already have, that's awesome. But you may also go out of your way, like spending too much money on this DIY stuff. I know knitting especially can cost so much money. So and also if you're using a lot more time, this might not be the most sustainable option for you. Right Time is a big deal. And energy, energy for sure. So far to fight for that. Another thing I like to do is the gift of activities or experiences. Yes. So instead of giving people things you give them the gift of an experience, and one of the things I do every year is I throw Grinch fest. It's my holiday party. You You mentioned this in the Holiday Card episode and I love it so much. So it's an annual tradition that was started by my friend when I was in college Glyn Hi Glen love you in it. I use his mother's gingerbread recipe too and it is the best I share it all the time. People love them. But I make gingerbread cookies. I make mulled wine which is just wine with you can get mulling spices but I just use like whole cloves, cinnamon sticks, orange peel, put it in like cheesecloth, and just like, heat it up in a pan. And then I put it in one of those coffee warming, like coffee servers to keep it warm. Okay, and then it's got a little sugar in it too, usually or a little brandy, and I heat it up, and then strain it. So it doesn't have the little pieces in it, but and then I just put it in the coffee thing. So I make mulled wine, mold cider for people who don't drink alcohol, and have people over. Have we watched the Grinch and we raise money for a charity. I love it. Yeah. And yeah, I pick the charity of yours. Sometimes I let people vote. But usually, I pick the and we have the gingerbread cookies. And then the other thing I've started doing is I go to Goodwill. And buy mugs like $1 I'll spend like 2025 bucks on mugs. And then I have everyone take one home at the end of the night. Oh, that's nice. So then I don't have any dogs throw anything away. Oh, yeah, that's really smart. And then everybody can have like a crazy mug. Yeah, I'm sure you're dealing crazy. Yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, they're fun. I feel kind of bad. Well, and then if people don't like them, I can just donate them back to Goodwill. Yeah, yeah. So that was one really interesting thing. This is a little bit off topic, but not really. This woman that I follow. I've mentioned her on another episode I think was the minimalism one. But her name is showbiz. Lee, she's on YouTube. Yeah. And she talks about using thrift stores as basically treating them like rental stores. So you think of it like oh, your $20 price is the price of a rental for, you know, a week of having these mugs. And you basically like rent them unless they're deterring would be Yeah, exactly. And she does that for any holiday where or anything specific that she wants, if she's hosting or whatever. And she'll just think of it like a rental cost. I was like, oh, that's brilliant. That's really smart. Yeah. And it's holiday parties. You could totally do that. Yeah. Buy new. It's way cheaper. Yeah, that's really smart. I know. I thought that was so cool. Oh, that's awesome. Other activities, I said, like set up a coffee date with your friend or like lunch, or one thing, I think is really good for the holidays, is do an errand date with a friend. Oh my goodness, like during that holiday shopping together. It could be a lot of I mean, like your grocery shopping, you know, if you've got to like, make the Thanksgiving meal, bring a friend along and go shopping. Take a little bit of the stress out of it. Because you'll have someone to laugh about, you know, yeah, coffee together. You can even if you're not shopping for gifts, you go with your friend and make decisions and be like, does this look like my mother? You know, things like that? Yeah, that's really cool. Yeah. Also, calling people is such a rare like FaceTiming with people is such a rare gift these days that I feel like that can be a really good way to give a gift to your chosen family that doesn't burden them with more stuff, or like returns. Just like let's set up an hour and talk my family tries to talk on like, Skype. On Christmas mornings, we can kind of watch the kids open presents. And it's like, it gets that holiday call out of the way and gives us an opportunity to see each other and kind of enjoy each other's company. Yeah, that's really nice. All together. Yeah, I like it. Yeah, another experience gift that I think is good. For people our age is, especially for a woman like me, I don't have children, but like, offer to babysit. Oh my lord, give your parent friends like a movie date. Like buy them movie tickets, or like, concert tickets or just like get them a reservation at a restaurant and be like, you go out I'll take the kids or my lord, you can take the kids to a movie and give them three, you know, to the zoo do something you know, just be that Aunt or that uncle or no idea how much that would be amazing. Yeah, it's a gift that keeps on giving. You know, I babysitting like little kids go to sleep like 7pm like have fun Have dinner and I'll just watch TV. Yeah, truly. I will after you like wrestle the bed. But you know, I'll let you do that and then I'll watch the kid while you but it's it is something people don't think about like again, like we were saying in one of the recent episodes that it takes a village right. And we don't have a village anymore. So be the village. Yeah, I've done that for my sister and my brother before just been like, Okay, we're gonna watch them. They have twins. And so Oh, yeah. Alliance. And you guys have fun and we were just like, oh, how do we watch twins? Yeah, kids, but it was totally fine. Yeah, I mean, I watched my nieces and nephews, my niece and Effuse my siblings. And it could be a lot of fun. We just like, built forts and re watch a movie and eat popcorn. You know, like, yeah, exactly. Kids love the novelty of it. Parents love an hour away to be. Definitely, I give the girl a rating for this also a four out of five. Again, it depends on how much money or gas you spend and how much waste you produce. So it can be really good, I think. Yeah, I love it my next on our list is digital gift ideas. I love to give people digital subscriptions because this means there's no waste. Usually, it's something they can actually use. It can add up in cost. Like if you give somebody a year long subscription is something that could be a couple $100 Yeah, but you could also do like quarterly or six months. There's a lot of places have like a three month option. Yeah. And that, you know, that could be 40 $40. I mean, even if you just do one month. Yeah, I know my my sister in law. The other one uses Amazon fitness. Yeah, all the time. And so we for her birthday. We just got her like three months or something of it. Yeah, that's awesome. She was like, This is so great. Yeah, I got my sister last year, a year long subscription to Spotify. So we could make each other playlists. Oh, nice. And Spotify has like listened together option. Uh huh. So we haven't done that. But we should. And you can also do like Netflix, Hulu, apple plus Disney plus, if you're Yeah, I think flicks for a year. I feel like you're the best person ever. I know. Especially these days. I know it keeps going up. Yeah, I mean, especially since they're all cutting down on like sharing accounts. Yeah. That's a really good idea. I think yeah, pretty much anybody would appreciate that. Yeah, I had a friend who did like the Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, family account, but the thing with that is you all have to be in the same room. Like when you share it like you have to be in the same household. So yeah, like you can't really share your family plan very well anymore. So okay. Yeah. If you really know someone, you can buy this them a subscription to their local CSA. So that's Community Supported Agriculture. That'd be a cool gift. That would be really cool. Like three months of groceries delivered, right? Like that can get expensive. Yes. And you have to be careful doesn't go to waste, like Yeah, right. That's true. My parents usually buy a box of like grapefruit for me every year and I love it. But I can't eat that much fruit. I just box. It just don't. Yeah. So it just doesn't make sense for me. Right. The one thing I was thinking that'd be really cool is a read well, subscription. If you know someone who could use it, that would be a great gift. Yeah. Because even if they end up like if you pay for it, and they end up not using, it's not like anything's going to waste, right? I mean, it's sad, but it would be fine. Yeah. The only thing is you're adding on more work for them to do like, because they have to, you know, you have to accept it every week and be like, yeah, yeah, take my plastic. Oh, I see. Okay. But I mean that that's passive. If you get a text message and you opt in, or if not, they just won't come to your house. So yeah, yeah, you'd probably have to know the person to make sure that they actually would want that. But yeah, so someone who listens to this podcast and lives in the right part of town. could totally do it. Totally. So digital gift ideas. I gave five out of five granolas breaker tees off nice, because I think that's a great, especially something like Goodwill. But, yeah. Okay, now we're gonna shift gears because I know we're saying we don't want to promote consumerism. But yeah, there's some stuff for more sustainable living that can make good gifts, when sometimes it's just nice to give a thing. Yes, yes, an object is nice. So if you feel the need, yeah, you feel like you have to. But yeah, there are better options. Yeah. And all of these that I'm going to list our products we've endorsed in the past few seasons doing this show. So they're things that we believe in that if you have a friend who is kind of harried and you want to make their life easier, these things can be great gifts. Yeah, and we research the shit out of these things. Yeah, we try not to. We definitely are not endorsing anything that we're like. Oh, definitely go buy compostable trash bags. Yeah. Not that a trash bag is a good gift, but Right. But also we're going to link to some of these through Amazon with our affiliate link. So if you use is that we do get a little money for it. I don't think I think we get like three sensors. I mean, it's like nothing but it does mean a lot. Yeah, it means a lot to us because we don't make money off of this. So that's another gift you could give us is go buy these things with these links. The first one that I think we got a lot of commentary on and the reason that we did the Amazon affiliates program is the wool dryer balls. Yes, go listen to our episode on that. Those are really easy. They save you from having to remember to buy a dryer sheets. And they last like three years or mine are like five years old. Like six Yeah, so they're worth it. I fully and firmly believe in the keeper menstrual cup. Yes. The rubber one not the silicone one. Although whatever is clever. The rubber one is compostable though. I bought this. I mentioned this during that episode. I bought it for all my female friends and relatives one year. Yeah. It's not the sexiest gift, but it's a thoughtful one. Yeah. Do you know if any of them use it? I know my twin sister still does. Yeah, very cool. Yeah, that's awesome. So a Toshiba day, this might be a little pricey. But if you've got a friend who just has been thinking about it, and it was like ashamed or doesn't want to jump the gun, just go for it. It's a great $70 gift, I think. Yeah. And you could also install it for them if you want to give them the experience of your joyful presence in their bathroom. You know, if somebody offered to install something for me, I'd be like hell yeah. Yeah. I mean, acts of service is a is another love language. You don't have to I am sorry, I'm bringing up love languages. I know that's like, faux psychology, but it resonates. Yeah, it's fine. I really don't know what mine is. I read through them. Like I have read through them at least five times. I'm like, I don't frickin know. I like all these things. I'll take one of each. Like, is there something weird with me that I can like figure out? No, I mean, it's all just ways it is but yeah. in us. Yeah. Okay. Dr. Bronner's soap. Yeah, this is when I use it everywhere now, ever since we did that episode on shame on laundry detergent, or just like, yep, DIY, all purpose cleaner was yes. Yeah, well, PURPOSE CLEANER as well. I mean, I use it to wash the dog. I use it to do my laundry. I use it for everything. And they just came out with refillable refills that are made. They come in cardboard rather than the plastic bottle. Yes. Yes. And my sister introduced me to the giant 128 ounce on now the thing I think we need to point out because my sister is like, I don't like shipping water all over the planet. And she's like, Yeah, hard soap or powder would be better. But doctor was just really easy to use, but you do dilute it. So it's not just water. Yeah. water to it. Yeah, compared to a lot of stuff. It's pretty low water. But has she tried the hard soap? She hasn't yet because she was saying she'd have to like, put it in a blender. Shave it down. Yeah. I, after you mentioned that. I want to try it and see if it works. I'm sure. So so well, you know. Yeah. But again, I just don't have the energy or the time. So yeah, that's the thing. That's whatever makes your life easier. Not harder. Yep. So you can buy the vitamin B bottle this and then give him a list of all the ways you use it. You know, or even buy them like a reusable spray bottle. And give them the recipe for making a DIY all purpose cleaner. I mean, again, you will have to know your friend I mean by so it was kind of weird sometimes, like, especially all purpose. So rather than like pretty freely. So yeah, but no, but I think I mean, I would love it. I'd be like hell yeah. Yeah, exactly. I'm, I'd be all for it. We had a couple. Okay. Also, sea sponges. This was in our reusable sponge episode. They're great. I bought the man I'm seeing a sponge instead of a loofa. And he loves it. The only thing is, it takes forever to rinse out. Because yeah, they do. Very dense. Yeah, but yeah, if they're not vegan sponges are a great alternative to loofahs there. You can throw them in the compost bin. When you're done with them. They last longer. They're soft. They're great for washing dishes or your body. So yeah, or even like a loofa LUFA. Like an actual like witches are harsh. But yeah, it's a plant. Yeah, it's a plant and you can grow them even that would be so cool. If you like grew them and made us gifts from it. Yeah, but I actually just got one because we needed one to scrub our back. backs. We share. Yeah, we're single back likes. This is what marriage is like. happens when you have children. Yeah, right. And you just become a conjoined human anyway. No, but this one's actually not that rough. I kind of get nice. I should I think it will if you soak them for a while. It's kind of nice, too. Yeah, yeah. This one's great, actually. Yeah, so I'll add it to the list. Cool, sweet. We were talking also about when we're talking about reusable objects and what has an actual impact when you very quickly is silverware. So like a fork instead of a plastic fork. If you go to takeout, and we were talking about this would be a really great gift. Just go to Goodwill, you can pick up like a whole silverware pattern, and give everyone a little like bento box set for their lunches at work. Or like when they dine out just give everyone like a fork knife and spoon and be like here we use this you know? Yeah, and if you're crafty, you can make a little like baggy to carry it like a cute baggie to carry. Yeah. Yeah. And then they have it like in their purse or you know, for camping even. Yeah, just so it's one less thing they have to throw away. Yeah, because surprisingly reusable forks were like the one reusable thing that was super impactful. So yeah, yeah. And spoons. And I think all reasonable silverware. Yeah, like chopsticks, too. I mean, I think about that. When I go to a Chinese takeout and like they give me bamboo chopsticks. And I'm like, You know what, I have so many chopsticks at home that I should just use. Yes, we went to when we were in Vietnam, we went to a chopstick factory basically, outside and it wasn't like you would think of a factory. But people they were definitely telling us that people like lose fingers really easily. Oh, because it's really intense. You just have to shove this bamboo into this high velocity machine. Yeah, it's really fast and people lose fingers a lot. Well, geez. Yep. It's crazy. Okay, so maybe that makes me really want to not use right throw away. Chopsticks. Yeah, it was really cool. Yeah. We also had two books that we have to mention. So you really loved the Buy Nothing get everything plan by Liesl Clark and Rebecca Rockefeller. They are the founders of the Buy Nothing concept, which we talked about in our minimalism episode. So that's a really good one. Nancy birtwhistle, our patron saint of green living from England, she has a former Great British Bake Off winter, winter if you if you follow the name. Yeah. She has a book called Clean and Green 101 hints and tips for a more eco friendly home, which Tiffany adores. So yeah, she actually has three books, get all of them, okay, get all them. So, on this stuff list, I gave it a granola rating of three or four out of five. Because again, it's stuff. But you know, depending on who you give it to could also it could be really good to help them have a more sane, sustainable lifestyle. So it just kind of depends on whether you're generating more waste or taking waste off the table. So yeah, I like it. Okay, and then I had one last list of physical gifts we actually endorse. So if you really want to get physical gifts out here are a few ideas to help keep it sustainable. Shop small by local so by local Saturday is the one consumers holiday that I will participate in. Yeah, I fully believe that keeping money in your local community is a good idea. Small businesses need it way more than Amazon does. So I mean, there are a lot of small businesses on Amazon but there aren't that Amazon takes a massive cut so do ya so go directly to the source. Austin has a lot of Christmas markets oh yeah no a lot of cities do that like Chambers of Commerce will encourage DC does there's yeah for sure. And you can there's like artists markets and you know last year I bought Dungeons and Dragons dice for my siblings that we're looking at and crafted. Yeah, there's some junk out there there really is like those same old earrings and everyone makes it are exactly the same. Yeah, okay, fine, but there's some good art out there some good really usable stuff again, you can find things that resonate with people it doesn't have to be like the candle it stinks man there's some bad candles out there. Oh god I can't handle candle smells hurts my head. Yeah, the walking down the cleaning aisle the other day the grocery store was like oh, yeah, do it no, it's so bad. Those fragrances really good too. Yeah, you can you know go to your local shopping district this can be your errand date with your friend go to a local you know, Second Street here in Austin or there's all kinds of local shops around and and you know, might be a little bit more difficult in smaller towns, but often they still have, you know, big bazaars or like, I know Georgetown, the city of the up north from here has like a sip and stroll night where they all of the businesses are open, like nice, and you can buy a glass of wine and wander the street and buy stuff and it's nice. So I hear Emmett and background. Yeah, there's my dog coming in. He's like, I love tchotchkes he's lying down. Another thing you can do is support your friends. All have friends who sell something I No, I have a friend who's a travel agent, and she does custom itineraries. And that's a great gift card. I can buy people, you know, yeah, a friend of mine, Molly just started a knitting and upcycled clothing shop so she her mittens are adorable, like tailor made in m.com. That's ta y Lor mad in M. That's yeah. And she does custom orders and things she's making like hand knitting toys and pillows. And it's all upcycled. She's very into Wilderness Conservation. So I really appreciate her point of view. And, you know, I have a book on Amazon you can buy? Yeah, like, people do all I know, one of my friends boyfriends, makes candles, people do all kinds of things on the side, and you can support them, buy from them. And you'll feel better, and they'll feel better. And that's a gift to them as well. Oh, absolutely. And then the last thing I'd recommend is buy gift cards for local restaurants, cafes, shops, if you don't want to buy items, buy gift cards, because that gives them money up front that they can use, you know, this is this is the time of year. I know we're not supposed to talk about economics, but it is when retailers go into the black from running in the red all year. So it's when they make their money. If you don't, you know you're not going to buy something from them, but you really want to support them buy a gift card and give it to a friend. And that way they the restaurant still gets that money during the time when they can use it. And you're you know, giving your friends something local that they can try out it helps you support the business. So yeah, I did that for Charlie's Teachers Day last year. There's a cafe like walkable from her daycare. And I got them you know, just a June Cafe gift card. And hopefully they used it. I'm sure they did. But yeah, that's a thing. Like, I know teachers get like a lot of Starbucks gift cards. Yeah, yeah, that's what I was like, I want to do that. Yes. Sucks. Boring. Yeah. But it's nice. Yeah, you know. And if you can support a local business, that's a great idea. Yeah. I'm gonna give this another three to four out of five, depending on what you do. Again, it's more consumerism, it can generate more waste, but it is very thoughtful way to do that. Rather than just fighting over the last TV at Best Buy, right? punching people for Yeah, yeah, being a real. There's my dog choking to death on his own tongue. Thanks. That's how he feels about Black Friday shop every day you go Horrorcore cork? But yeah, so those are my ideas. I'd love it. If folks, if you listen to us, and you have a local business that has a global appeal, or you know, that could us, you know, share your business with us. Let's post these links. Let's come up on Instagram. Let's Let's shout you out because it would be great. If, you know, we could help people come together and really make a great holiday season this year. Yeah, I love it. No, that's fantastic. Yeah, we want to support small businesses. Yeah. You If you sell something and you pay taxes for it, you're a small business owner. So yeah, sell yourself short. Yeah. Don't more people are small business owners. And no, they are for sure. 100%. Yeah. So or if you have a local business that you support that you want everyone to know about. Yeah, send us that link to because we can definitely share that as well. Yes, absolutely. So Well, thank you. Yeah. Cool. Happy Thanksgiving. Yes. I loved it. Happy anti Black Friday. Yes. Yeah, I hope you get a minute to, again, I think, you know, consumerist holidays are annoying and harmful to our psyches. And so I hope everyone gets a minute to just kind of step back and I know in with inflation being huge, it's amazing. That's what I was gonna say. I was like, it's amazing that we keep spending as much as we do, because we're all broke. Yeah, we are like, there's no way we're not all broke. Because things cost so much. So we're just managing somehow. Yeah, a bunch of crap. So I know of toys. And it's fun to see kids play with toys and games. But sometimes it's like, let's just take a step back and enjoy each other. Yeah. And especially it's it sounds can Yeah, well, it's not corny, because it's like, the number of games or toys. I've gotten Charlie and lasts like five minutes. And then she's like, next board and she'd rather play with the box. Yeah, totally. Yeah, it makes me feel pretty gross inside to be honest. I'm like, dammit, I did that. Yeah. But then you just cross your fingers. You'll come back to it. Yeah. Maybe in two months. Yeah. All right. If you want to give us a gift this year, like subscribe and download our episodes. Yes, that's that need. Hit that auto download button. Wherever That is remember how you I think he's just if you follow a show, then they will automatically download maybe depends, I think on so I use Google podcasts which is going away by the way it's going to become YouTube podcast. Yes. Yeah. We got to figure out how to put ourselves ourselves on YouTube podcasts actually, because we're on YouTube, YouTube. Right. We'll do that. Yeah, we'll figure we'll find a way. But yeah, I for me, it asks if I want to auto download, so. Okay, that makes sense. So yeah, even if it's annoying to you. Yeah. You don't have to keep them just downloaded. That's gonna go away after a week. Alright, if it's annoying, you have to but if you don't mind then. Awesome. Thank you. Yeah. And what are we talking about next week? Yeah, we're talking about natural do dough around just what you need after Thanksgiving. Oh, 1,000%. When you're sweating all that Turkey juice out who you are. Most people would say it's the opposite of what you need. You need regular deodorant, but we'll get into that we will. It's really interesting. Awesome. All right. I want to talk to you soon. Thanks, Tim.