You can avoid overspending on the holidays. Here’s how.
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 24 November 2025
⏱️ 25 minutes
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Summary
It’s the most wonderful time of the year and, if you’re not careful, it could be the most expensive. The day after Thanksgiving has historically been the official start of the holiday shopping season, but we’ve been seeing Black Friday deals advertised earlier each year.
Moreover, Americans are increasingly concerned about the rising costs of food, housing and health care. Throw in the longest government shutdown in U.S. history and recession-level layoffs in the private sector and money might be tight for many households this holiday season.
Personal finance columnist Michelle Singletary joins host Colby Itkowitz and explains how you can avoid overspending on gifts and holiday celebrations. Singletary gives us permission to scale back for the holidays and prioritize togetherness over consumerism.
Today’s show was produced by Charla Freeland. It was edited by Reena Flores and Ted Muldoon and mixed by Sean Carter.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Can I tell you a funny Black Friday story? |
| 0:04.4 | This was years ago. |
| 0:05.9 | My dad and my brother, there was like an electronic store in our town called Circuit City. |
| 0:12.6 | I don't know if that was a chain. |
| 0:13.6 | Oh, yeah. |
| 0:14.6 | That was a chain. |
| 0:15.6 | I'm old enough to remember Circuit City. |
| 0:16.6 | Remember Circuit City? |
| 0:17.6 | Before Circuit City went out of business. |
| 0:18.8 | So Circuit City was having some crazy, like, first 20 people in the door get a laptop for $200, which was like a great deal. My brother and my dad camp out all night, like get in line at like 10 p.m. And so everyone's like in line and they're orderly. But the minute those doors open, it's crazy. Mad rush, right? So now there's no order. So my then 15-year-old brother goes up to the manager and says, you have violated the fire code. And if you don't give the people that were actually the first 20 in line these laptops, I'm calling the fire |
| 0:55.3 | department. Wow. And they did it. And they did. Oh, I love your brother. He got his, he and my dad |
| 1:01.4 | each got their $200 laptops. I love it. I love it. After staying up all night. Michelle Singletary |
| 1:09.3 | is the personal finance columnist for the Washington Post. and any of her loyal readers can tell you that she has no patience for overspending around the holidays. |
| 1:18.3 | And that includes on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving when stores lore in holiday shoppers, like my dad and brother, with sales and promotions. |
| 1:27.2 | This season, Michelle says concerns about the rising costs of food, housing, and health care, |
| 1:33.3 | have consumers rethinking how much they spend. |
| 1:36.3 | So I asked Michelle for some tips about how we can approach these holidays |
| 1:40.3 | at a time when it seems like so many people are cash strapped. |
| 1:49.6 | From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Reports. |
| 1:53.2 | I'm Kolby Ekowitz. It's Monday, November 24th. |
| 1:57.5 | Today, financial advice from Budget Queen Michelle Singletary. |
| 2:04.4 | We talk about everything from hosting a cost-effective holiday gathering to inexpensive yet meaningful gift ideas. |
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