2025 Holiday Gift Guide and Ways to Save This Season

Summary

All the Hacks: Money, Points & Life

Episode: 2025 Holiday Gift Guide and Ways to Save This Season

Host: Chris Hutchins
Date: November 19, 2025

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Overview

In this jam-packed Holiday Gift Guide episode, Chris Hutchins, joined by his wife Amy and insights from the All the Hacks community, delivers an 80+ gift mega-list for 2025 across tech, kitchen, home, health, games, learning, and more. With each item, Chris stays true to his philosophy of maximizing happiness and value while minimizing cost—sharing genuine recommendations, notable community suggestions, and actionable money-saving tactics to avoid overpaying this season. The episode closes with a discussion on meaningful holiday traditions and creative approaches to family gifting that prioritize connection over consumerism.

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Key Discussion Points & Gift Recommendations

1. Personal Technology ([01:56]–[11:21])

• Mod Retro Chromatic: Modern Game Boy clone, "so well built…bring this on all the trips I take" ([02:20])
• Bambu Labs 3D Printers: A1 Mini (budget), A1 (mid), P1S Combo (all-in-one, "would probably recommend," $549), "excited to have one of these" ([03:37])
• Moft Magnetic Wallet Stand: Minimalist, MagSafe iPhone wallet/stand; Chris’s everyday carry ([04:23])
• Anker MagSafe MagGo Charging Stand: Charges iPhone + AirPods, "I have this on my desk" ([04:48])
• Anker Prime Power Bank: Built-in charger—“power plugs built in…such an important feature for me” ([05:07])
• Travel Adapters: Vintar International Power Adapter ("really simple and easy to use, hot switch"), Magic Super Bagel ("super small…looks really amazing," cable built in) ([05:39], [07:05])
• AirTags / AirPods Pro 3: "Fantastic gift to help make sure you don’t lose your bags" and "noise cancellation is just amazing" ([07:16], [07:47])
• Synology NAS (Network Attached Storage): DS923+ for home backup and cloud sync ([08:52])
• DJI Osmo Pocket 3: "Tiny, amazing 4K camera…so much easier to film with than it is to use an iPhone" ([10:00])
• Insta360 X5: 360° immersive camera—Chris is intrigued but hasn’t purchased yet ([10:45])

“If you know someone that likes gaming or even retro gaming, the Mod Retro Chromatic is an awesome gift.” – Chris ([02:29])

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2. Kitchen, Food & Drink ([14:17]–[29:41])

• Air Fryers: Cosori 9-in-1 TurboBlaze ("surprised at how much we use this") + Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro for countertop oven need, but standalone air fryer preferred ([15:13])
• Ninja Creami: Healthy, high-protein or pure fruit ice cream – "the taste of this ice cream…is so good" ([16:31])
• Countertop Griddle: "French toast, quesadillas, pancakes…smash burgers…we use it all the time" ([17:39])
• Waring Belgian Waffle Maker: “It just makes things so much easier.” ([18:01])
• Ooni Pizza Oven: "Great gift for an entire family" ([18:38])
• Instant Pot: Community member favorite – pressure, slow, sauté, and more ([19:29])
• Ratio Coffee Maker (pour-over): "Makes great pour-over coffee in one go…beautiful countertop device" ([19:58])
• Breville Bambino Espresso Machine / Ninja 12-cup Brewer: Member suggestions for different coffee enthusiasts ([20:58])
• Coffee Subscriptions: Trade Coffee, Atlas Coffee Club as gifts ([21:14])
• Vitamix Blender: "Most recommended products in our community…just works so well" ([21:49])
• Immersion Blender: For soups and sauces, blend in pot ([22:12])
• Thermomix: "Craziest thing…combines food processor, pressure cooker, rice cooker, sous vide, etc.—$1500 but incredible" ([22:31])
• Ninja Personal/BlendJet Portable Blender: Battery powered, on-the-go blending ([25:05])
• Cordless Hand Mixer: "Cordless hand mixer, great gift for mom" ([25:45])
• Cookware: Wide-ranging suggestions—nonstick, stainless, carbon steel, "recommended most: Our Place" ([27:19])
• Coravin Wine Preserver: Argon gas system lets you enjoy wine by the glass ([28:27])
• Zalto Wine Glasses: High-end glassware, makes wine taste/feel special ([29:03])
• Ember Mug: "Keeps your coffee warm…company replaced it when it broke" ([29:41])
• Stocking Stuffers: Dash Rapid Egg Cooker, Cuisinart Smash Burger kit, Chef’s Press, indoor herb garden kits, hot sauce challenge sets, Cocktail Codex book, coupe glasses ([32:26])
• Cooking Info Subscriptions: NYT Cooking, Cooks Illustrated magazines ([34:12])
• Lentiful: High-protein, flavorful instant lentils; “we eat them all the time” ([35:42])

“A burger on the grill is just holds nothing to a smash burger cooked on a griddle.” – Chris ([32:26])

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3. Home and Everyday Living ([36:44]–[44:37])

• Eight Sleep Smart Mattress/Pad: "Most recommended gift…love our Eight Sleep…sleep is so important" ([36:44])
• Purple Harmony Pillow: Top pillow pick from members ([37:11])
• Dyson Cordless Vacuum: “Love this vacuum…best thing we’ve added” ([37:41])
• Toto Washlet: Japanese bidet seat – "incredible, heated seat, water, dryer" ([38:16])
• Aura Digital Photo Frames: “Every family in our immediate family…has an Aura frame…software is what really makes it amazing.” ([39:00])
• Storyworth: Send questions to loved ones, compile into a book ([40:22])
• Barefoot Dreams Blanket: Super soft throw (with cheaper dupe option) ([40:45])
• Govee TV Lights & Nanoleaf Tiles: Smart, accent mood lighting ([41:29])
• Dyson Air Straight: Hair dryer and straightener ([42:29])
• Norelco Philips OneBlade360: Member-recommended shaving gadget Chris wants to try ([42:47])
• Flextail Gear Mini Air Pump: Tiny, battery-powered for travel, pool toys, vacuum bags ([43:17])

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4. Clothing & Accessories ([44:37]–[49:52])

• Vuori Clothing: "Number one recommendation for me…wear almost every day" – joggers, shirts, shorts ([44:38])
• Bonobos Shirts: Dress/casual shirts with playful patterns ([45:02])
• Quince Cashmere: Quarter zip sweater ("comfortable, warm"), cashmere beanies ([45:21])
• Patagonia NanoPuff Jackets: Lightweight, warm, packable ([45:45])
• Arcade AI: Custom AI-designed jewelry, home goods ([46:32])
• Gorjana/Maya Brenner Initials Necklace: For mothers—personalized jewelry ([47:11])
• Quince Gold Jewelry: Classic, simple pieces ([47:27])
• Elzama Infinity Loop Scarf: With hidden zipper pocket ([47:45])
• Bombas Socks / Goodr Sunglasses: Stocking stuffer favorites ([48:44])

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5. Travel, Bags & Shoes ([51:21]–[55:29])

• Luggage: Away, Monos, Solgaard – all recommended but no standout winner ([51:34])
• Weekender Bags: Cotopaxi 35L (Amy’s pick), Tortuga for backpacks ([52:11])
• 5050 Gear Diaper Bags: Functional, not "diaper bag" style ([52:54])
• Kuyana Medium Travel Case: Gift with monogram ([53:26])
• Cotopaxi Nido Accessory Bag: "Go to toiletry kit" ([53:37])
• Eddie Bauer Stowaway Packable Backpack / North Face Crossbody: For day trips or travel ([54:13])
• Nike Pegasus 41s & Vaporfly 3s: Running shoes for different needs ([54:56])
• Birkenstock Arizona Essentials: Waterproof family favorite ([55:12])
• On Running Cloudsurfer: Amy’s daily sneakers ([55:17])

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6. Health & Fitness ([55:29]–[66:36])

• Shokz OpenRun Pro Headphones: Open-ear for safe outdoor running ([55:35])
• Athleta Pacesetter Run Belt: "So much better" than old running belts ([56:15])
• Owala Freesip Water Bottle: Both spout and straw option ([56:38])
• Adjustable Dumbbells & Bench: Bowflex, Flybird Bench – plus dumbbell-to-barbell converter ([57:03])
• Mirrors for Home Gym: Simple, effective, "surprisingly easy upgrade" ([58:07])
• Dumbbells: Non-adjustable for quick swaps; "nice to just have different sets" ([58:23])
• Lab Tests & Health Panels: Ideas for functional gifts—Ulta Lab, Dexa scan, PerNuvo (MRI), etc. ([60:45])
• Pulse Oximeter: “Such an easy, vital sign to test at home” ([63:47])
• Electrolyte Packets (Element): Perfect stocking stuffer ([64:44])
• Nice Hand Soap (Aesop or Element Brooklyn): "Just elevated the entire experience" ([65:14])
• Inflatable SUP Boards: Great for families near water ([65:47])
• Home Sauna & Cold Plunge: Major luxury/high-end category ([66:07])
• Goruck Rucksack: Add weight to daily walks ([66:35])

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7. Games & Learning – For All Ages ([66:36]–[73:19])

• Escape Room-Inspired Games: Theory11’s Box One/Two, Coyote (Tim Ferriss x Exploding Kittens), Coup, Monopoly Deal ([66:44])
• Puzzles & Clue Boxes: Clue Box, Puzzle Potato for problem/puzzle lovers ([67:47])
• LEGO Kits for Adults: “Such a fun project…felt like such a kid again building Legos” ([68:44])
• Kids’ Toys: UKI learner skateboard, Melissa & Doug wooden sets, Tony box/Yoto box (audio story players), Jellycat stuffed animals ([69:18])
• Lovevery Montessori Play Kits: Subscription, "really love them" ([70:05])
• Board Games for Kids: Monopoly Junior, Battleship, Candyland ([70:22])
• Woom Bikes & Helmets: For teaching kids to ride ([70:57])
• Micro Kickboard Scooters: "They are just barreling down the street" ([71:16])
• Lakeshore Trace & Draw Projector: Build drawing confidence, "such an amazing way" ([71:48])
• LeapFrog Magic Adventures Globe: "Learning about the world with a real globe" ([72:09])
• Masterclass: Lifetime learning, “such a great gift for parents” ([73:07])
• Books: Peter Attia’s Outlive, Nick Maggi’s The Wealth Ladder, Sahil Bloom’s The Five Types of Wealth, Magic Treehouse series (for kids) ([73:38])

“LEGO kits for adults…This is a guy in his 70s. Like this is not Legos for kids.” – Chris ([68:44])

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8. How to Save Money on Holiday Shopping

([73:48]–[85:50])

Chris’s Money-Saving Toolbox:

• Keepa Extension: Amazon price tracking ([73:48])
• Savewise / Cashback Monitor: Compare shopping portals for best rewards ([74:10])
• Capital One Shopping: “Sometimes are just wildly unrivaled…seen 20% off 8 Sleep, 30% off…” ([77:12])
• Rakuten: Easiest portal, team up with Amex or Bilt for points, $50 intro bonus ([77:55])
• CardPointers: Syncs all your Amex/Chase/etc. card-linked offers for max stacking ([78:57])
• Discounted Gift Cards: GCX, plus Chris’s short-term access to “wholesale” gift card rates ([81:34])
• Promo Codes: Try host/podcast codes, RetailMeNot, Honey, and direct website chats ([84:38])

“I’ve saved thousands of dollars to date on offers…probably would have missed out on almost all of them if it weren’t for CardPointers.” – Chris ([79:57])

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9. Creating Meaningful Traditions & Non-Gift Memories

([85:50]–[end])

• Family Pajamas: Matching Christmas sleepwear for photos (from Hanna Andersson using discounted gift cards) ([86:00])
• Unique Family Games: DIY beer-pong-style game with silly prizes ([86:10])
• Ornament Exchange: One per family member for a meaningful mishmash tree ([86:24])
• Cookie Decorating Party & Toy Drive: Making baking and giving a community event ([86:40])
• Moments of Gratitude: Daily or holiday ritual of expressing thanks ([86:48])
• Limit Gifting for Siblings: "If we’re not spending time together, none of our siblings give each other gifts." ([87:16])

"If we are spending time together, we just designate one gift from one family to the other…put a lot more thought into one bigger ticket thing for everyone." – Chris ([87:23])

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Notable Quotes

• “If you know someone that likes gaming or even retro gaming, the Mod Retro Chromatic is an awesome gift.” ([02:29] – Chris)
• “All of these clothing items…are fantastic gifts because I use them all the time. Like everything I’m mentioning, I wear regularly.” ([45:51] – Chris)
• “If you’re going to go on a walk around the neighborhood, why not throw on some weight and get a little more exercise out of the experience?” ([66:35] – Chris)
• “Hopefully you found some interesting gifts you wouldn’t have found otherwise. But…the holidays…are about a lot more than gifts.” ([85:50] – Chris)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Personal Tech: [01:56]–[11:21]
• Kitchen/Food & Drink: [14:17]–[29:41]
• Home & Everyday Living: [36:44]–[44:37]
• Clothing & Accessories: [44:37]–[49:52]
• Bags & Shoes: [51:21]–[55:29]
• Health & Fitness: [55:29]–[66:36]
• Games & Learning: [66:36]–[73:19]
• Ways to Save: [73:48]–[85:50]
• Family Traditions: [85:50]–[end]

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Tone & Language

Chris’s delivery is practical, energetic, and affable—equal parts life hacker, family man, and deal-finder. He freely admits his own product obsessions, pivots between his and Amy’s favorites, and brings in real crowd-sourced wisdom from listeners. His language is direct and full of actionable details: links, prices, user experiences, and comparison points abound. The episode remains fun, conversational, and grounded in real-life family moments, always circling back to maximizing joy and connection—whether through smart shopping or simple shared moments.

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For the Listener

Whether you’re building your own wishlist, hunting for unique gifts, or seeking to save big, this episode provides a comprehensive, expertly organized playbook—complete with actionable hacks, community insights, and a heartwarming approach to the season’s deeper values. For links, deals, and the full written gift guide, visit AllTheHacks.com/gifts.

“In the spirit of that, if you have any suggestions for interesting gift ideas that I didn’t mention, please send them over. I’m always looking to expand this list.” – Chris ([87:43])

Transcript

[Chris Hutchins]

My goal today is to give you a ton of inspiration and ideas for gifts this holiday season and then walk you through a handful of ways I get anywhere from 5 to 25% off almost all my online shopping. I'm Chris Hutchins, I'm a researcher and optimizer, and today I'm sharing my 2025 gift guide, which includes over 80 different gift ideas over a bunch of different categories from tech to kitchen clothes, home health games, kids and learning. And after running through all those gifts, I'm going to walk through how I use G cards, shopping portals, price tracking.

[Amy Hutchins]

Coupon codes, card linked offers, and more.

[Chris Hutchins]

To make sure I always get the best deal.

[Amy Hutchins]

I'm going to close out by sharing a few of our family traditions for the holidays, and if you want to.

[Chris Hutchins]

Jump around, you'll find timestamps in the show notes to make it easier. Also, please note that none of the items in this gift guide have paid me to be a part of this list. However, some of them are sponsors of the show. And that makes sense because as I've said plenty of times, most of the.

[Amy Hutchins]

Sponsors on this show are brands that.

[Chris Hutchins]

I reached out to after loving their products, so it only makes sense that they're sponsors. And while I often read out the.

[Amy Hutchins]

URLs for all the different products and services I mentioned on the show, there's.

[Chris Hutchins]

Just way too many to do that today. I might call out a few links with discounts, but I'm going to focus my energy on talking about the products and all the different gift ideas and then putting the links to every single one of them, including any [e-mail] gifts.

[Amy Hutchins]

I'll also put that link in the show notes.

[Chris Hutchins]

And since a handful of these links are from sponsors or are my Amazon affiliate links, I would obviously greatly appreciate.

[Amy Hutchins]

If you want to use them to.

[Chris Hutchins]

Support me and the show. That is, unless you find a better deal somewhere else, in which case, absolutely go there instead. If you enjoy this episode, please share with a friend or leave a comment or review. And if you want to keep upgrading your money points and life, click follow or subscribe. Now.

[Amy Hutchins]

The first category I want to get into here is personal technology, and the first product I want to talk about is the Mod Retro Chromatic. I try to always start this off with one physical product, though most of the the visuals that you'll see if you're watching on YouTube or Spotify are.

[Chris Hutchins]

Going to be screen sharing.

[Amy Hutchins]

And obviously if you just want to see what I'm screen sharing, you could.

[Chris Hutchins]

Just Click any of the links or.

[Amy Hutchins]

Go to the gift guide at the URL I talked about.

[Chris Hutchins]

So this is effectively a Game Boy, right? It is a new version, an incredibly well built in every possible way.

[Amy Hutchins]

Game Boy, Game Boy color from our childhood. It is incredible. I bring this on all the trips I take and it's just so well built. The backstory behind this company, super interesting. So definitely, if you know someone that likes gaming or even retro gaming, the mod retrochromatic is an awesome gift that I bought myself, but would have been so glad to receive. Okay, the next is a gift I don't have, but I'm really interested in. And that is a 3D printer. I've been looking around trying to figure out which one is the best one for me and for someone who's not a serious 3D printer. And I've come to the conclusion that if I'm going to buy a 3D printer, it's going to be a Bambu Labs one.

[Chris Hutchins]

And there are three options that I'm.

[Amy Hutchins]

Kind of thinking about. So the A1 Mini is a really.

[Chris Hutchins]

Small entry level, starts at $200 3D.

[Amy Hutchins]

Printer, but has a little bit of.

[Chris Hutchins]

A small footplate for printing on. The A1 is a little bit more full size.

[Amy Hutchins]

And then the P1S is a fully enclosed version, maybe a little quieter, maybe looks a little bit less kind of DIY in that it's all in one confined space. And if I do any of these, I would probably recommend getting the combo.

[Chris Hutchins]

Version, which comes with the ability to.

[Amy Hutchins]

Hook up multiple different colors of filament so that you can create anything multicolor really simply and really easily. I think at the end of the day, if I had to pick one, it would probably be the P1s combo. It comes in about $549, but if you're looking for something a little less expensive and you want to get something that's easy to start with, the A1 mini starts at 200 bucks. The combo version is 329 and you can print all kinds of stuff here. I'm really excited to have one of these in our house. And this is definitely a gift that I'm excited about getting myself. The next is something I use every single day, and that is the Moft Magnetic wallet stand. It's an iPhone wallet. It mag safe connects to the back of your iPhone. It's also a stand that works vertically and horizontally. I love this thing. It is on my iPhone all the time. It is my wallet, my only wallet I carry. So this is a great product. Next on the list is the Anker MagSafe compatible maggo charging stand. I have this on my desk. It charges an iPhone, it charges your AirPods next to it. I'm not partial to this specific one though. I do really like Anker, or maybe it's Anker but products. But a wireless charging stand that you can put on your desk is awesome. It forces me to charge my phone easily during the day, which means I don't end the day with a phone with 10% battery. So some form of wireless charging stand is a really great gift and I'm glad I have one on my bedside.

[Chris Hutchins]

And on my desk at work.

[Amy Hutchins]

The next thing is a charger and I know there are tons of battery chargers out there.

[Chris Hutchins]

I really like the Anker power banks.

[Amy Hutchins]

Because they not only are batteries but the specific one I like this Prime Power bank which is similar similar to the version I mentioned. Last year's gift guide is amazing because it's both a battery and it is its own charger. So you don't need a separate cord.

[Chris Hutchins]

You can plug it straight into the wall. I rely on this as my primary.

[Amy Hutchins]

Power source and adapter for my phone and my computer when I'm traveling, but then it's also a charger when I'm on the road and need to charge something. And there are more powerful, larger capacity.

[Chris Hutchins]

Batteries out there, but I don't know.

[Amy Hutchins]

Of any that have the power plugs built in and I think that's such an important feature for me at I know other people care about other features more, but for me this is really important. It just keeps it charged because I'm always plugging it in now. One of the unique things I did this year is I reached out to our member community and asked them for gift suggestions and so I'm going to call out when these suggestions are coming from our community because I think they're fantastic suggestions, but they aren't things I've actually verified myself. Nonetheless, I definitely think they're worth mentioning and when it comes to charging some type of travel adapter, I think it's really valuable and we got a ton of recommendations for this particular one. It's a Vintar International Power adapter, has a ton of great ratings, it's really simple and easy to use and has USB C and regular USB and power adapters so you can hot switch out any different plugs. So this is the universal travel adapter from Ventar, but the other one that I got recommended by a handful of other people that I don't know which One of these I want to try out next because they both look really interesting is the Magic Super Bagel. And this sounds crazy. It looks effectively like a bagel and it has a built in cord in it. So instead of most travel chargers where you would plug the brick into the foreign outlet in another country and then you would just kind of plug everything into it, this actually has, I think it's a 3 foot or 3 meter cable connected to it so that you get a little bit of a power extender. It's shaped like a bagel so you can actually plug in all these awkwardly.

[Chris Hutchins]

Sized things into it at once.

[Amy Hutchins]

So you get I think five or six plugs and then in the middle of the bagel, the center is an adapter that lets you adapt the plug for different countries outlets. So I've heard a couple people say they would never travel without this thing. It's super small, it looks really amazing. So I think the Magic Super Bagel is something that I'm going to add to our travel kit before the next international trip. The next two things, these are not unique things that I think nobody's ever heard of, but if you're shopping for someone who doesn't have airtags, I think they're a fantastic gift to help make sure you don't lose your bags when you're traveling. You can even throw them in shoes of children and wristbands for kids if you're at a theme park. All kinds of uses. Love airtags. We use them in all of our bags every time we have to check a bag. Also this year I'm going to suggest the AirPods Pro 3 because I got a chance to try them out and the noise cancellation is just amazing. Now I've never been a pro AirPods user, but this is the first time that I think I might want to make the switch. So in a way this gift guide was a little bit of me putting together a list of things I was excited about. But next is a gift I definitely do have. And this is a bit of a nerdy thing. So maybe you're not going to actually buy it for someone. Maybe it's just something you really want. But this year we added a network attached storage to our kind of home tech stack. And what this is is it's a device that has multiple hard drive slots that you can plug into your router and basically gives you massive amounts of storage which if you set up in a specific way, those hard drives can be used in a that you would never lose data if one of Them failed. This kind of raid setup where you know, you don't get the full storage amount of every drive, but you get redundancy. And so this thing's been amazing. And the software with Synology, which is who makes it, can sync with all.

[Chris Hutchins]

These different cloud services. So I can throw a bunch of stuff on this and then know that.

[Amy Hutchins]

It'S constantly, as soon as I drop a file into it, it's getting backed up to the cloud. So this is also great because let's say I have a really big file, like the video I'm recording right now on this podcast, like a bunch of pictures I took from a trip. Instead of having to upload them all to Google Drive or Dropbox or aws.

[Chris Hutchins]

Whatever your storage solution is, I can.

[Amy Hutchins]

Throw them on this hard drive and then that hard drive will upload them to the cloud and keep them in sync both ways. By the way, if you add something to Google Drive, it'll download it. And so now I have a mirror image of everything I have in the cloud locally. That saves me the need to be uploading from my computer all the time. I love redundancy. I love knowing that there's a copy of all my important stuff at home and in the cloud. I really like the Synology products. We have the DS923 plus, but you can kind of go with whatever meets the requirements you have. But a network attached storage is something I'm really happy that we have. Next two are when it comes to capturing content. So instead of how to back it up, last year we got an Osmo Pocket 3. And the really cool thing about this little camera, aside from being a tiny, amazing 4K camera, is that for whatever.

[Chris Hutchins]

Reason, when we use it, it just.

[Amy Hutchins]

Doesn'T feel like you're on your phone. Right when I'm running around holding my phone, it takes away from the moment. Sometimes, like the kids think, oh, you're.

[Chris Hutchins]

I'm, I'm in frame.

[Amy Hutchins]

I'm on my camera whenever I'm using the Osmo Pocket 3 because it's so small. It's kind of like the size of, I guess like a candy bar, if you will. And the gimbal on it can rotate 360 degrees and gives you some stabilization. It just creates really great videos anywhere we're going. And it's just so much easier to film with than it is to use an iPhone. And I like having this kind of single purpose thing. And it levels up with all kinds of options. It hooks up to the wireless mics that DJI makes So we've used it to record podcasts. It's a really versatile camera, I really like it, but the camera I don't have that I'm pretty interested in are.

[Chris Hutchins]

These new 360 degree cameras.

[Amy Hutchins]

So Insta360 has the X5 and they capture fully immersive 3D video such that you can see any direction and they're really cool. I don't know how I would use it, but as a nerd who loves technology, I just kind of want one and so I'm looking at it. We originally bought the Osmo Pocket 3 because we wanted to film the trip we took to Iceland and I wanted a way I could hand the camera to other people without giving them my phone. The Insta360 doesn't have a use case, which is probably why I haven't bought it, but I'm really, really intrigued by it. So that is the personal tech section and I think there's a ton of great options there for just about anyone.

[Chris Hutchins]

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[Amy Hutchins]

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[Chris Hutchins]

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[Amy Hutchins]

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[Chris Hutchins]

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[Amy Hutchins]

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[Chris Hutchins]

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[Amy Hutchins]

Next, I want to talk about kitchen, food and drink, which is a place we spend a ton of time on, which is a place I also love tech gadgets for. And I'll just run through some ideas and some of them might sound like they are specific ideas. But keep in mind, I haven't done the exhaustive level research of trying every single product in a category. So the first one is an air fryer. And I don't feel like I'm telling anyone some crazy thing that they've never heard of that air fryers are cool. But a year or two ago my parents got me this Cosori 9 in 1 Turbo Blaze Air fryer. Again, all the links to these things are in the show notes. They're in the gift [e-mail] gifts so you don't have to write them all down. But we use this air fryer all the time for reheating things, cooking pizza, cooking salmon, cooking chicken nuggets for the kids. Like I'm surprised at how much we use this. And we used to have another kind of oven with an air fryer built in. I'll say I'm surprised at how much.

[Chris Hutchins]

Better a standalone air fryer is over.

[Amy Hutchins]

An oven that claims to also be an air fryer. So this one might not be the best one ever. My parents told me they did do a ton of research to pick it, but really been happy with it. The oven I was talking about, which was actually really highly recommended by a lot of our members and it's an oven I've owned, was the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro. It's a great countertop oven. Really liked having it. My only complaint is that it gets a little bit hot on the outside, but I did not find that its ability to air fry even comes close to an air fryer. So if you need a countertop oven, I really like the Breville Smart Oven. I really like the June oven, which I've talked about in the past, but you can't get it anymore. And so if I were having to replace our June oven with something, it would probably be this Breville oven, but I would not consider it a replacement.

[Chris Hutchins]

For an air fryer.

[Amy Hutchins]

Okay. Another product that we added to the mix in the last couple of years is the Ninja Creami. And I know that Costco has a great deal on the Ninja Creamy, but you can get it in lots of different places and effectively it's an ice cream maker. And so if you don't like ice cream or you eat a lot of ice cream or frozen drinks or sorbets, then this is not a good product for you. But the thing that really leveled this up, which I talked about in the past, is that you can make some really good protein, low calorie ice cream with it. And so we just mix in protein.

[Chris Hutchins]

Powder, fair life milk, a little sugar.

[Amy Hutchins]

Free pudding mix, freeze it. And I'm telling you, the taste of this ice cream that comes out of the Ninja Creamy is so good. And the number of grams of sugar and other things in it is so low, super high protein. I think it was like 15 to 20, 30 grams. I can't remember the exact number, but it was quite a bit of protein depending on how much ice cream you ate. And it was awesome. So this was our like evening sweet treat regularly. Kids love it. And also when it comes to making other things, frozen treats, you could just throw in a bunch of bananas, freeze it, and now you have banana sorbet. It tastes like banana ice cream, but the only ingredient in it is bananas. And we've done that with strawberries and other fruit. So really great at making frozen treats and easy to make them a lot healthier than filling them with a lot of sugar. The next thing is one that we have. We use it all the time. But I'm not even going to suggest this brand necessarily. And it's a countertop griddle. And for things like French toast, quesadillas, pancakes. I just find that cooking on a single burner on the stovetop is just too much work because you just can't put enough on there. And so we have this countertop griddle. This one is fantastic because you can.

[Chris Hutchins]

Set the exact heat.

[Amy Hutchins]

It's not high, medium, low. We only have it because a family member bought a bunch of wolf appliances in a house and they got a bunch of accessories free and they gave us this. But if someone, you know, doesn't have a countertop griddle and they like to cook, especially Smash Burgers is another one that we made a ton of on this this year. Highly recommend this thing. We use it all the time, but it doesn't have to be this brand. And similarly, we have a dual Belgian waffle maker from Waring, which I haven't found a good alternative yet because I just haven't had to. And we use this all the time. I both hate that we have all these single purpose appliances. And I'll come back to that in a minute. But it just makes things so much easier. Like, it's really hard to make waffles without a waffle maker. And we make Belgian waffles, especially with the kind of Kodiak protein mix for pancakes and waffles. But Belgian waffles are just so good. We make them all the time. Like probably once a week, maybe at least two or three times a month. So really like this thing and then a couple more. One is an ooni pizza oven. We love making pizza in our house. We actually have a standalone pizza oven outdoors. But if we didn't and if we ever moved to a place without a pizza oven, the ooni pizza oven is awesome. We've given this as gifts multiple times in the past and people have gotten a ton of use out of it. So especially if you have like a family member where you're doing the kind of thing where everyone just gets one gift for one other family. This is a great gift for an entire family because everybody loves pizza, or at least almost everybody loves pizza. And the quality of pizza you get. Making pizza your own at a pizza oven is just so good. And then a ton of members suggested that I put an instant pot on the list. I think most people listening at the food section that like this idea of different food appliances. Have probably heard of an instant pot, pressure cooker, slow cooker, saute. But if you haven't something worth looking at, if someone has one, maybe a recipe book for it because it can do so much more than I think most people use it for. Next time I talk about coffee because last year we added the ratio coffee maker to our mix and it's basically a pour over coffee machine. And it is incredible. We make coffee every morning. I don't drink coffee every day, but my wife Amy does and I love making coffee with ratio. It's a beautiful countertop device. It makes great pour over coffee in one go. We grind the beans, throw them in a filter, you get a little, you know, a whole pour over setup. You can make one cup or you can make eight cups. And we just love this thing. I think we have the ratio eight, they have a smaller version. If you aren't going to be making coffee for that many people. I know there are other pour over coffee machines. They might be great. I only know from experience that this one works great and is beautiful on the countertop and really love it. For anyone out there who likes coffee, we did get two suggestions from members that are in the coffee realm. One is the Breville Bambino espresso machine. It's a single small espresso machine that's around $300. And then the other was for people who like coffee but don't really care about it being as perfect as you'd get from a ratio or a pour over. And that's the Ninja 12 cup programmable coffee brewer. So had a couple recommendations that this is great for someone who just wants coffee, doesn't want to put a lot of work into it and wants it to be able to program and set up and run on its own in the morning. So I'm not going to endorse this one because in our house I think we really enjoy making a really high end cup of coff coffee. But if that's not you high recommendation from our audience for this product. And if you do like the high end side of coffee and you want to give someone a cool gift, Trade Coffee and Atlas Coffee Club are two kind of subscription programs where you can deliver coffee from some of the best coffee producers in the world or in the country in different small batch coffee shops to someone as a gift. It could be a subscription, it could be a one time gift. But if you're interested in giving someone kind of the experimentation with coffee, different beans from different places, Trade Coffee and Atlas Coffee Club are really cool gifts. Now, I had the whole appliance section earlier. Now I'm going to narrow this down to just one type of appliance, which is blenders. Because we had so many suggestions for blenders and one of them became one.

[Chris Hutchins]

Of the most interesting products on this list for me personally this year and.

[Amy Hutchins]

Something that I am fascinated by. And as a optimizer who loves kitchenette gadgets, I'm surprised I haven't really spent any time thinking about in my life. So I'll start this off with this year we finally got a Vitamix because our Breville blender died. And the Vitamix is awesome. It is so basic compared to one of the devices I'll mention next in that it doesn't have a million functions, it has on off speed and a high speed version, but it just works so well. So if you're looking for a blender that just works amazingly well for all kinds of things, highly recommend the Vitamix. We have the 5200. It's not a cheap blender, but having had another blender die, I feel really confident that the Vitamix, from everything I've read, this was one of the most recommended products in our community. Really excited to have a Vitamix in our home. If you like to cook a lot and you're making things like stews and soups, we actually use an immersion blender a lot of the time. So if you're not familiar, it's almost like a blender that you can put into a pot that's cooking something. So imagine you wanted to stew tomatoes, but then get it really fine without any chunks. You could use an immersion blender and stick it into the soup, or stick it into the stew or the sauce and kind of really blend it up without having to pour it out of the pan on the stove, blend it and put it back in. Now this next product is the product that I'm just blown away by. And this is a Thermomix. Now for anyone who knows what this product is, you're probably thinking, how did you not know this? I had never heard of this and it is one of the craziest things I've ever seen. So imagine a countertop food processor mixed with an instant pot, mixed with the ability to be your sous vide, to be your rice cooker, to be your slow cooker, but also has the built in ability to weigh everything, chop it, saute it, and has a whole recipe platform. This sounds crazy. You need to go Google this thing if you haven't heard of it, but the general idea here is you have this thing that almost looks like a food processor. A big, wide blender that can heat up like an instant pot, but can have blades in it and chop things up. So, for example, I was watching a video of someone making risotto, and so it's like, first put in some oil, and it said put in this much oil, and it weighs it. So you put in the exact right amount and then said throw in a shallot, and it would chop the shallot up, and then it would heat it all up and it would cook the shallot. Now that I'm thinking about, I think you chop the shallot before you put the oil in, and then it's add the rice, and it's weighing the rice to make sure you put the right amount in, add liquid, weighs each step, tells you what to do, and then cooks it. Evidently, almost every commercial kitchen in Europe has one of these in the kitchen. It's not cheap. It's like fifteen hundred dollars. But if you want to splurge and you want to replace half the appliances in your kitchen with one single thing, it looks like a Vitamix on steroids combined with every other appliance. Not the waffle maker, but pretty much everything else has a steam basket if you want to steam things on top. I really want one of these. 1500 is a lot to replace a bunch of appliances we already have. But, man, if somehow this just got mistakenly shipped to my house and there was no way to return it, I would be really excited to have it. The last two suggestions from members on the blender side were the ninja kind of single blender. It's like a little personal blender that, you know, is just for making, you know, smoothies or to go things. And then the other was the blendjet, which I'd never heard of or thought of. And I honestly don't have a use case in mind for it, but it is effectively a single blender for just one cup of something. But it's battery powered, so you can take it with you and blend later. I don't exactly know why I would need this. I like, I could probably blend the smoothie and take the smoothie with me, but if you're someone who's like, oh, my gosh, this is amazing. There is a USB rechargeable blendjet portable blender, which looks really cool. I just don't know how I would use it. The last thing that I'll kind of call in blenders, and I don't have the perfect recommendation here because the one.

[Chris Hutchins]

We bought is no longer around but a wireless hand mixer.

[Amy Hutchins]

We gave my mom one of these. She liked it so much that we ended up buying one for ourselves. We bought the Evolution X cordless hand mixer. But it's one of those things that when you need it to pull it out and plug it in, can just feel like a pain because you don't always need it for that long. And having a cordless hand mixer was really, really cool. So bought that. Loved it. Cordless hand mixer. Great gift for mom if you think that that's something they would like. And then last, I don't even know how to make a recommendation for cookware, but we got seven or eight different recommendations from members. I have some of my own recommendations. They ranged everywhere from this is the best nonstick pan to you can never use nonstick pans. People suggested Mizzen Crystal. Our place Yosukata for a carbon steel wok pan. Le Creusets. We've used any day cookware for some microwave cooking, which sounds crazy. And if you want to know the backstory, go back and listen to the episode I did with chef David Chang from Momofuku. We talked all about microwave cooking. But I think one other thing that I learned recently is I've always been really intimidated by stainless steel. But recently there's been a ton of conversation about whether nonstick coatings are safe. And I shared a video from a friend of mine, Joshua Weissman, who is a chef and has a YouTube channel about how to cook with stainless steel. Because it's always been really intimidating to me because it feels like everything sticks. Now that I've kind of gotten a hang of it a little bit, I've made some eggs. I'm getting used to it. I feel like I could almost make the transition, but it's still a little tough. So I'm not going to make a.

[Chris Hutchins]

Suggestion for a specific pan, but there.

[Amy Hutchins]

Are so many great options now. I think the highest recommended one for members was our place. I don't know much about the company, but a set of new pans is something that most people probably need sooner than they think. I know we had all these pans where nonstick coating was scraped and if nonstick coating is bad, I don't know. But if scraped nonstick coating, where the insides of whatever's under the non stick coating is also getting exposed to your food, that seems kind of bad. And I know many people get pans once, maybe at their wedding for their registry and don't replace them for 20 years. So I think a new set of pans might be a great gift for someone who hasn't replaced any of them recently. Last in the other cooking section, I'm going to start with something that I think has been on this gift guide every year I've done it, and that's because I've used it all the time. And that is the Coravin wine preserver. And if you're someone who always sits down and drinks an entire bottle of wine, this is not for you. But if you enjoy a glass of wine and don't want the pressure of opening an entire bottle, you can attach a Coravin. It's basically like a wine cork remover, except instead of removing the cork, it.

[Chris Hutchins]

Sticks a needle into the cork, lets.

[Amy Hutchins]

You pour a glass of wine, replacing it with argon gas that's connected to the device and preserves the wine. So you can pour one glass out and you don't have to drink the rest of the bottle right away. We use this all the time. We use it to pour two glasses of wine one night and then the next time we can open the bottle. And if you're someone who likes wine and you do some research, it seems like there's at least some consensus that these Zolto wine glasses are among the best wine glasses out there. So if you're trying to find a gift for a wine enthusiast and they don't already have these, someone gave us two of these wine glasses as a housewarming gift once, and it's something I.

[Chris Hutchins]

Would never buy myself because they're almost $70 each.

[Amy Hutchins]

But man, every time my wife Amy and I sit down to have a glass of wine, when it's just the two of us and we use these glasses, it's obviously mind tricks, but it just makes us feel like the wine tastes better. So shout out to Aneesh for these gifts because such a good gift. Never would have bought it myself. When it comes to glasses, another one that I love to suggest around the holidays is an ember mug. It basically is a coffee mug or they even have travel to go ones now that keeps your coffee warm or whatever drink you put in it warm. My mom loves her Ember mug and one year it actually broke and the company replaced it. So shout out to a good customer service policy.

[Chris Hutchins]

This episode is brought to you by Gelt. When it comes to building wealth, taxes are such a big part of the strategy. And as the year comes to a close, getting prepared now is so important. And because I'm working with ght I finally feel like I have a partner I can trust to handle everything for my personal and business taxes. Think of Gelt as the ultimate modern cpa. Of course they have an in house team of expert CPAs to work with who help you determine the most effective tax strategies to minimize risk and grow your wealth. But they also have an amazing tech platform that gives you personalized guidance to maximize deductions, tax credits and savings. There's an amazing document vault where you.

[Amy Hutchins]

Can upload all your files, tag them.

[Chris Hutchins]

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[Amy Hutchins]

Same, you have to check out Copilot.

[Chris Hutchins]

It's one of my favorite apps and I check it almost every single day because it makes it so easy to manage your money and track your spending, investments and cash flow. And I've tried dozens of apps to do this and even made a whole episode about it. But Copilot is the only one I've been able to keep using, partially because I love their UI but also because their AI powered expense categorization is the best I've used. You can also completely design your spending categories and subcategories and easily set up rules to assign transactions to them in the future. Thanks to Copilot, I have never had a better grasp on our spending, which I'm pretty sure has resulted in thousands and thousands of dollars of savings every year.

[Amy Hutchins]

So for the best app to track.

[Chris Hutchins]

Your spending, investments and subscriptions, go to allthehacks.com copilot on an iPhone or Mac to download Copilot and enter code hacks2 during onboarding for a free two month trial. Again, that's allthehacks.com copilot and the code hacks2 for a free two month trial of my favorite personal finance app.

[Amy Hutchins]

A couple suggestions next are all going to be kind of small enough that they could make little kind of tiny gifts or stocking stuffers or maybe even white elephant gifts. So this one sounds crazy. It's the Dash Rapid Egg cooker. It looks like the link I'm pulling up here on Amazon that I had from before is currently unavailable, but I'm 100% sure you can find this somewhere. This sounds crazy. It's just a little hard boiled egg cooker, but it's so easy and so good. So if you like hard boiled eggs, this is great. It makes them so quickly and perfect every time and it's kind of a fun gift. The kids love the fact that it plays as music every time it's done. So kind of a fun little white elephant gift if you need one. Similarly, for that kind of price point and size, the Cuisinart Smash Burger kit. We started making smash burgers at our house and they're just so good. A burger on the grill is just holds nothing to a smash burger cooked on a griddle. We use the griddle I talked about earlier and a Smash burger kit is really just a press, a spatula and some squares of parchment paper that make it easier to press down the burger without it getting stuck. But someone in our membership suggested a chef's press, which is it sounds like a much more elegant, smart version of this that you can use for cooking all kinds of food, whether it's vegetables, grilled cheese, or in fact a burger. So kind of a cool gift that I never thought about that just gets a little extra weight on top of anything you're cooking. Comes in a lot of different sizes. Another fun kind of kitchen gift that we also gave to my mom. It seems like half the gifts here are things I've given my mom or my dad. A little indoor herb garden kit. So she loves having fresh herbs in the kitchen. And so this little kit was awesome. And then in the future you can get these little pods that come with it and the pods make great stocking stuffers or maybe going alongside them on the reverse. A kitchen related gift that I got from my parents one year was a hot sauce challenge which became a fun family activity that we just had a really good time around. So hot ones makes one. There are a bunch of other ones you can get, but it's a really fun gift. Also a good white elephant gift, probably a good party gift just to bring it to the party and bring a Bag of tortilla chips, which I've seen happen before for people to kind of test different hot sauces. So that's a cool one. I really love cocktails and I think the cocktail book I come back to the most, and it's also a beautiful countertop book, is called Cocktail Codex. It's just fantastic. It's from the group that does Death and Company, which is a cocktail bar. Really like this book. If you know someone that likes making cocktails, I think if they don't have this book, they'd love it. And we also recently got these kind of coupe glasses. There are plenty of different versions you can get. But I find that so many cocktails do really well in a coupe glass because you mix them with ice, but you don't actually have ice in the cocktail. And the quantity of liquid you want to serve is small enough that a cocktail just looks strange in almost any other glass. So a good set of coupe glasses and a cocktail book I think could make a really cool gift for someone. Similarly, if people like to cook, I'd suggest two subscriptions. NYT Cooking, which is where we get a ton of our recipes, and Cooks Illustrated, which is an awesome magazine, I guess they send. It's like a recipe magazine, kitchen product review thing that they send every month or every other month. And I don't know, I've just really loved having that subscription because the recipes they make are really, really well researched and fantastic. It's kind of in many cases the opposite of like 10 minute meals on weeknights. But if you like crafting the best of something, Cooks Illustrated is my place to go. And then one last kind of fun thing that could be a stocking stuffer, it could just be a lunch when the holidays are crazy and you don't have time, or it could be a fun white elephant gift. And that's lentiful. And I want to share this because we've been talking about getting enough protein, both with my wife and my parents and her parents, because it's just so hard. And lentils are such a great source of protein, but making them yourselves, they don't always taste the best. And lentiful is this simple, almost like a cup of noodles style lunch or snack. But it's not cup of noodles, it's lentils. And the flavors are awesome and it's super high protein and we eat them all the time. And so shout out to lentiful because the founder of this company is an all the hacks listener. And that's how I first learned about it, because he was an avid podcast listener and I think he heard me talk about protein. He's like, do you want to try these lentils? I make them. You can get them at the grocery store as well. I think Whole Foods has them and many other places. But love lentifuls. We eat them all the time, so that's food. Let's talk about home. There is not a product on this list that had more recommendations from members than an eight Sleep. It was the most recommended gift on the entire gift guide. This year we have an eight Sleep. We love our eight Sleep. When we travel and we don't have an eight Sleep, we notice it. It is not a cheap gift, but sleep is so important and if you have any trouble sleeping and temperature is in any way a source of sleeping frustration or relationship frustration, I can't recommend the eight sleep more highly. I love having it. I'm so glad we have it. So there's a discount for eight Sleep in the show notes on the gift guide and it makes a great gift. It is not cheap, but I really love it. And speaking of beds, I haven't thought about pillows in a while and so I don't have an exhaustive pillow recommendation. But the one recommendation from members that kind of service to the top was the Purple Harmony pillow from Purple, the mattress company. And one thing to keep in mind, eight Sleep, I think does sell a mattress and a mattress cover. And so you don't actually need their mattress. You could take whatever mattress you have now and add the COVID on top of it. And so we didn't have to replace our mattress to switch to 8 sleep now. Also around the home is a product we got last year, which I am a huge fan of, and that is the Dyson vacuum. I don't know how we slept on this product forever, but finally we got one. It is so easy to have a vacuum that's cordless, that's one. But this little green light, if anyone hasn't used this that lets you see where all the crap on your floor is, is absolutely amazing. If you have dogs, if you have kids that spill, if you're just messy in the kitchen, there's always stuff everywhere. And the Dyson vacuum makes it so easy to pick it all up. But the other great thing is with the attachments, it's also a dust buster. So we use it to clean out the car. We use it to clean out all kinds of stuff. I love this product. So shout out to my parents getting it for us for, I think, our birthday. You know what a cool birthday Gift. We got a vacuum, but I love this vacuum. My wife loves this vacuum and we both put it on the gift guide this year. Another thing we both love coming in a kind of very different direction is the Toto Washlet. So if you haven't ever used a Japanese bidet toilet seat, this might sound crazy, but if you haven't used a Japanese toilet seat, you have to try it out. It's incredible. You get heated seats, you get a whole bidet for keeping things clean. Water is heated, a dryer built in. You can go all the way up to very expensive versions that open as you walk up to them, that play music, that do all kinds of stuff. But we love the Toto Washlet. We have it in two of our four bathrooms. Our kids are terrified of getting sprayed, so we don't have them in the kids bathrooms, but every other bathroom in the house has them. You can get them at Costco and it's a great deal. So love having this product in our house. If you haven't traveled to Japan, then you might not know what these are. And if you've been to Japan, they're in almost every single bathroom and for good reason. Two other great kind of around the home gifts especially, especially for parents, Aura frames. It's a wireless photo frame that you plug in and it has digital pictures. But the software is what really makes it amazing. And so almost, no, not almost every single family in our immediate family, sisters, brothers, parents, grandparents, everyone's got an aura frame. And it's really easy to send photos to everyone in the family's aura frame. So we've got a discount. I think it's 35 off with the code Athlete. That's a great product for anyone in your family. And then Storyworth, I've given this to my family. It is the ability to let your loved ones and for us it was our parents create a book of the stories of their life. And so they get these emails every week and they can respond to them now they can just call a phone number and just leave a voicemail and then it'll get transcribed and at the.

[Chris Hutchins]

End of the year it turns it all into a book.

[Amy Hutchins]

So if you haven't checked out story worth, definitely do that. There's a link in the show notes to a discount and it's made a great gift. I've given it myself. Next on this list is a suggestion from my wife which is a Barefoot Dreams blanket. It's just a soft, beautiful blanket, super cozy. Love to snuggle up on the couch in these blankets. I didn't even know they existed, but I enjoy their presence. But for anyone who wants to save a little, she also suggested this duplicate version, which is a super soft leopard cheetah print throw on Amazon for a third of the price. And so if that's interesting, you can find a link to that in the show notes and then a few suggestions from listeners that I have not really thought about. So one, there were two different versions of these TV lights. So Govee is one of the companies that makes these and they kind of sync with your TV and they give light behind the TV to match the kind of scenes. I've never thought about this, but if you're an AV enthusiast, that could be kind of cool. And then the other similar but not for the TV are these nanoleaf smart tiles which you can put on the wall. They're like accent wall tiles that are like home LED lights. And so kind of interesting. I don't know how I would use them. I've seen them before. But definitely an interesting product that for someone in your life might make sense. We're kind of bouncing all over the place in this home section. But the Dyson Air Straight, which is a dryer and a hair straightener, was recommended by multiple members. So much so that if my wife weren't listening to this, I would probably secretly get it for her because it seems like a really cool gift that she'd appreciate. But she helped me put this guide together, so she already knows this recommendation, so it definitely wouldn't be a surprise. But ton of recommendations for this product. The next is one that I am interested in trying. And this is the Norelco Philips OneBlade360. Now, I don't love shaving, I don't have any future where I plan to have facial hair, so I just wish that I could just get rid of it all. And I've actually come up with what I think is a hack for shaving, which is I use an electric razor and get everything almost gone, but it's not perfect. And then I use just a regular kind of Gillette Fusion something. But I don't even use shaving cream or water because by the time I've used the electric razor, it's such a little amount that I don't get any razor burn or any issues, just dry shaving off the rest. But someone in our membership suggested this OneBlade360, which I think could potentially be a solution that gets as closely shaven as a blade, but fast and easy, like something electric. So this is One where I actually want to try it. So I'm probably going to pick one of these up and see how it goes and hopefully it's as great as everyone suggests. The last thing around home. And this is maybe a good stocking stuffer and it's a product I never knew existed which is so cool. It is a flextail gear tiny portable ultra mini AirPods pump, battery operated and when I say tiny this thing fits in your hand. But somehow and maybe I guess inflation devices don't need that much power but somehow this thing can inflate. Multiple pool toys can vacuum suck. Some of those kind of compression bags that you might use when packing could probably. I think it said it can inflate one mattress all in a charge. So it's a tiny little travel pump that can inflate things. I don't know when I need this but I guess if you use a lot of those air sucking travel bags then it would be a great use case. But I was just blown away. This is such a cool thing. If you are someone who's regularly inflating toys or pool mattresses or maybe you use it for camping, I could see this being a really cool little stocking stuffer gift under $30. Okay, so that's the home section. Let's move on to clothes. When it comes to clothing, if I'm looking right now I'm wearing half of it. It's hard to not have the number one recommendation for me be Viori cl. I wear them almost every day, both tops and bottoms. I love the Sunday performance joggers. I love the strato tech tees. I'm wearing a stratotech tee while I record this. I have these Ponto performance shorts. I love the Meta pants for going out. Like I could just list so many things. The dream knit collection is super soft and my wife is the same so she's always wearing the performance joggers. She loves the essential wide leg pant.

[Chris Hutchins]

She loves the long sleeve Halo crew.

[Amy Hutchins]

And I just can't say enough about Vuori. We wear it all the time. I think they're the longest running sponsor. We reached out to them early on because it was a product I loved and I was like if I could.

[Chris Hutchins]

Have any brand, why wouldn't it be.

[Amy Hutchins]

The brand that I'm always wearing every day? So Vuori, thank you for being a sponsor and I'm just so glad that I get to talk about you now. Vuori doesn't know I put them in this gift guide but it's such a Great product. And for listeners, you can get 20% off your first purchase and free shipping on orders over $75 and free returns. So they're at all the hacks.comvori It's a strange spelling. It's V U O R I and I'm just such a fan. Vuori, I think is a great gift for anyone. Because who doesn't want comfortable, soft clothes that you can work out in but you don't have to? They're fantastic. Okay, enough, enough. Fiori. Like I could talk about it forever. If you ever meet me in person, you'll see that I'm almost always wearing it. Unless I have to dress up a lot, in which case I'm almost always wearing a bonobos dress shirt. They have tons of different patterns. I think the Riviera short sleeve shirt I have, I don't know, five or ten of. It's kind of fun because they always have different seasonal prints so you can kind of get something, whether it's people skiing or ducks or dogs, like whatever matches someone's theme. So I love wearing these bonobo shirts once you know your size. With bonobos, you could just always order the same thing and know it'll fit. And then one other clothing thing that I wear all the time if I'm dressing up is I wear this quince Mongolian cashmere quarter zip sweater. It's so comfortable, it's warm, it's easy to wear out because you can just throw it over a T shirt. But it's still dressed up and big fan. So quints. I'll put promo codes and discounts for all these brands in the gift guide, but I've really enjoyed this. And then my wife loves the cashmere ribbed beanie. She wears it all the time, especially when it starts to get cold, which she doesn't get that often in the Bay Area. But in the morning walking the dog or in the evening, she loves their beanie when it does get cold though. Another product we really love are these Patagonia nanopuff jackets. They are the inside layer when we're on the mountain skiing. They are super light to pack with. So if you need to pack something that can be warm, but you want to just kind of cram it in a tiny corner of a bag. Awesome. I think these make a great gift. All of these clothing items, you know, I think are fantastic gifts because I use them all the time. Like everything I'm mentioning, I wear regularly. When it comes to accessories, I'm going to lean on my wife's recommendations. Here for the most part. She last year recommended some cool earrings from this company called Arcade AI and now they do so much more. So it's really cool. So you basically can create custom jewelry by giving them AI prompts and then designers will go take that idea and make it. So they do bedding, table linens, pillow covers. But you can also get really interesting earrings or bracelets or that kind of stuff. And so you kind of suggest all kinds of ideas. I think she had these really cool Space Invaders Arcade earrings. I don't see them on the site right now. Somehow I searched for arcade earring and I see a bunch of aliens. But I'm going to try for space and see if I can find them. I have not but really cool concept that you can kind of dream up something and a creator can make it. One thing she does wear every day and I think it's a great gift. If you're looking for something for a mother is a necklace with the initials of their children. And so my wife wears hers all the time. She has this Gorjana Alphabet necklace. There's a more expensive higher end version from Maya Brenner that's similar where you can put different initials on it. But her suggestion and I can tell you she wears it all the time, had she not gotten it for herself, she would have loved it as a gift. She also Suggested just simple 14 karat gold necklaces. Quince has a handful of them that I'll put links that she gave me in the show notes that are just kind of like beautiful simple classic necklaces. And then one more on the accessory side gift suggestion from our listeners was this Elzama infinity loop scarf with a hidden zipper pocket. And so I guess if you want some place to stash something when you're traveling or out and about, it's kind of a cool scarf that this woman suggested. She said she wears it all the time. This is a great suggestion, especially for women though it works for anyone but often don't have pockets to carry their things. She said it's great because looks fashionable, keeps you warm and you can stash your wallet or your phone in it and not feel like you're carrying around a bag or worrying about getting pickpocketed or something while traveling. On the stocking stuffer accessory side, I always love a good pair of Bombas socks. So I think socks are kind of overplayed as like the gift for every parent. So I'm not going to say you should definitely get Bombas socks for everyone, but I think they make some cool socks. I like them. If you need a little stocking stuffer or a pair of Gooder sunglasses, I have so many pairs of Gooder sunglasses. They're really affordable. They now have so many different styles and colors and shapes and everything and they're super affordable. They're polarized, they're awesome. I'm a huge fan. Highly recommend them. I'll put a link for $5 off. They're only 25 to 35. I'm really seeing them all over the place now and so maybe everyone knows about them but but I'm a big fan. They make a great stocking stuffer. This episode is brought to you by.

[Chris Hutchins]

Superhuman, which is absolutely one of my top apps. It's in the dock on my phone, it's my first pin tabbed on my computer. I've used it for years and it's hands down the best way to do email if you like to save time. That's because Superhuman is the best at.

[Amy Hutchins]

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[Chris Hutchins]

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[Amy Hutchins]

Thank you so much for being here today.

[Chris Hutchins]

You can find all the links, promo codes and discounts from our [e-mail] deals. These are brands I love and use, so please consider supporting those who support us.

[Amy Hutchins]

Finally, when it comes to bags. Got a lot of recommendations here, so I'll split it into kind of luggage weekend or smaller. When it comes to luggage, I used to suggest away bags. We have a bunch of away bags. I like them. I'll put a link for a discount in the show notes. But then we ended up needing a bag and we needed it on short notice and we picked up a Monos bag, which is an away competitor. Great bag also, so I don't really have a strong recommendation. A member said they really liked Soul Guard, which is another bag company. And so I can't really tell you which one of these bags is better than the other. But if you don't have a good hard sided wheeled carry on, especially one that fits in the overhead, or you're using one of those old ones that's tattered and falling apart, I think just a solid good luggage replacement could be a great gift. When it comes to weekender bags, my wife is really obsessed with this new Cotopaxi 35 liter weekender bag. She uses it almost anytime we're heading somewhere for the weekend. And I think she got one because she saw my sister had one and so it's kind of spread around our family. On the flip side, when I'm traveling, I love Tortugas backpacks and so I much prefer a backpack to a shoulder bag. They have pretty much every size. They've got small all the way up to large all the way down to day packs. I basically only travel with a Tortuga bag unless I need to fit something in a larger bag. When it comes to smaller bags that you might need, shout out to another listener. 5050 gear is a company that they basically built really functional diaper bags that don't look like diaper bags. Especially if you're a dad thinking like, I just, I need to carry around all this crap for my kids and I just want a normal looking backpack. Check out 5050 gear if you need just kind of like a small elegant toiletry or makeup bag as a gift. My wife said I have to mention the Kuyana Medium travel case because not only is it this beautiful travel case, you can usually get it monogrammed. And I know she got this, I.

[Chris Hutchins]

Think for all of her sisters where.

[Amy Hutchins]

She put their initials on it as a birthday gift one year. So really like that for me. My new kind of toiletry kit bag is the Cotopaxi Neato accessory bag. Nido love this bag. It's replaced my other Dopp kits and it's become the go to, I take it everywhere. Huge fan of this. But we did get two other recommendations from members in this kind of bag section. One is the Eddie Bauer Stowaway packable backpack. It's one of these backpacks, it's like a day pack, but you can just compact it down to almost the size of a wallet. It really cool. And then another suggestion for the North Face crossbody bag. So if you're traveling and you just want, like a simple crossbody bag. Strong suggestion for the North Face one. To wrap up all the clothing stuff, I'm gonna run through a couple shoe suggestions. Really any pair of Nike running shoes I love. There are so many options if you're trying to get into running. I've really enjoyed running in the Pegasus 41s, but by now there's probably a Pegasus 42 or something like that. And when I was really trying to see how quickly I could shave off time in my running pace, I got a pair of Nike vaporfly Threes. And they were awesome. But I was reminded that they're the kind of shoes you want to run a race in, but they're not going to be your daily drivers. So they're kind of in the closet for races. But the Pegasus 41s are kind of my regular running shoe, my wife's regular shoe, when it's not running and just around the house doing just about anything. She loves Birkenstock's Arizona Essentials. They're these waterproof white Birkenstocks, more plastic than traditional leather Birkenstocks. Our daughters have a pair like great shoes. And then she really loves the on running cloudsurfer series. I think I'm just partial to Nike running shoes, but maybe I should give them a try. But she really loves these on running cloudsurfer shoes, so there's a few suggestions for shoes. Speaking of running, the next section in this gift guide is health and Fitness. And there's a bunch of stuff in here that kind of of spans a bunch of categories. One is a repeat from last year, which is the Shocks Open Run Pro headphones. These are Bluetooth headphones, but they don't.

[Chris Hutchins]

Go in your ear.

[Amy Hutchins]

But they don't go over your ear. Like a big, big pair of headphones. It's. It's kind of hard to explain if you don't see a picture. They sit over your ear and they play music into your ear. I went for a run the other day and my ears started hurting. And it was early in the morning, it was cold, and I started going on chat GPT and it was like, is it cold? Do you not have some kind of earmuffs? And I was like, nope, didn't do that or a hack. And it was like, oh, do you have headphones in your ears? And I was using AirPods at the time, even though I owned these Shokz openrun pros. And it was like, oh, yeah. Having things in your ears can sometimes cause some pain. When you're running. So I was like, of course I should have used these running headphones that I actually had. What a rookie mistake. So really love the Shokz open run pros, especially if you're running in a noisy environment where you want to be able to hear a car or noise or someone yelling at you to move out of the way, instead of having AirPods where, especially if they're super noise canceling, these are great. Now when it comes to running, if you need a kind of a little running belt, my wife had suggested the Nike running belt last year, but she recently switched to the Athleta running belt. It's the pacesetter run belt and she said it's so much better. And you know, this is just like a thin belt. You can throw your phone or keys or something in. I'm gonna have to rescind the Nike suggestion because mine fell apart and kind of endorse her suggestion of this Athleta pacesetter run belt 2.0 similar replacement. We have so many hydro flasks in our house and then we recently got a Owala free sip water bottle. And it is so much better because you get both functions of a straw and kind of a water bottle. You can drink just as much as you want, not through the straw in one go. It has both mouthpieces. It has kind of a spout and a straw. These water bottles are awesome. We got ones for our kids. They make a great gift for anyone who doesn't have one. When it comes to working out at home, one of the things that we got a ton of value of in the past is a set of adjustable dumbbells. We had a Bowflex set. I think nowadays there are so many different versions that I don't know which one to recommend. But one cool thing that I did recently was I bought a dumbbell to barbell adapter. So we started getting more serious about setting up our home gym. We got an adjustable weight bench. So there are many nicer ones than the cheap Flybird one I got. But I wanted to see if I was going to use it as much. And honestly, this Flybird adjustable weight bench, which of course is linked in the gift guide that you can find and in the show notes, it does a trick. It doesn't feel solid like one at a gym, but it works. And it's super light and easy to move around. But the dumbbell converter allows you to take dumbbells or even adjustable weight dumbbells and turn them into a barbell. So if you Want to do more bench presses, but you don't want to buy a full setup. This lets you turn your regular dumbbells, assuming they can get heavy enough, into a barbell. So I actually have my adjustable weight dumbbells on the ground, not permanently, but like I never take it apart connected to this barbell set. So you can dial in the weights of the barbell by adjusting the dumbbells and then lifting it up. Then one other thing that was kind of an improvement that I could see this being kind of a fun put it together and reveal Christmas morning or something is we set up some mirrors in the gym, which is just our garage. And so I bought some mirrors at Home Depot and mounted them on the wall. And it was just surprisingly easy. It was a couple hundred bucks in a couple hours. And now we have one wall in our garage is lined with, I think they're six foot tall and three foot wide mirrors. And we did three of them next to each other. It was really easy install. So I like that because the adjustable weight dumbbell is now a barbell. We picked up a set of dumbbells at Costco and the ones I'm looking at now are $400 or 499. I think they were on sale for less than that when we bought them. I can't remember how much. And I know there's a ton of these on Amazon, which seems so crazy because I can't imagine it's easy to ship dumbbells or at least cheap to ship them, but really like having non adjustable weight dumbbells. Like I always thought, oh, the adjustable weight's so great. But when you're kind of switching between things, maybe your bicep curls are a different weight, then your tricep extensions, etc. It's really nice to just have different sets. So I like that we now have this free weight set and then the adjustable weight has become the barbell set. So that's kind of home gym setup. The next category in health is actually a bit of a weird one to give someone for a gift, but having done it, I think it works is just different types of health tests, especially for people who maybe wouldn't do them on their own. And so that could be a blood panel. So that could be something like Instalab or Function Health, where you can order a bunch of different blood tests. Superpower also has a set of them and all of them kind of run in the 2 to $500 range, where you can kind of detect all kinds of different things. And they Give you some form of analysis around them. You can go to a company like Ulta Lab Tests and order just one. I found out I had high lp, which is a kind of genetic heart disease risk thing. And so I thought, oh, if it's genetic, came from one of my parents. So I got them an LP little a test. I didn't need to get them a full panel. So I just ordered that one test. And Ulta allows you to just kind of order one test that you can go to LabCorp Quest and get done. So those are kind of on the biomarker side. You can also do a DEXA scan, which kind of tells you everything about your body composition, your visceral fat, your body mass, all your bone mass, that kind of stuff. And so these tests are in the 50 to $100 range, depending where you get them. There's a company called Dexa Fit that has a lot of locations, so that's an interesting test you could get someone scheduling them. A VO2 max test is also really interesting, I think. While it's not the easiest metric to change, I think when I was reading Peter Attia's book Outlive, I think it's one of the markers that's most heavily correlated with longevity, just as a proxy for your physical performance or your physical capability. And then while more expensive looking some of these whole body MRI tests. So Function Health has one. Pernuvo is kind of the big player in the space. I've done a few prenuvo scans. Fortunately, I haven't found anything. But I have had multiple people now, at least three people that I am very close with, have worked with, or our family members who have done an MRI and found out they had a tumor, two of which needed to be surgically removed, and they had no idea these were happening. And so there is a whole controversy around does it make sense to do tests that might show things that you don't need to do anything about? And I'm not here to have that conversation right now today. But if that's something you're interested in or if that's something one of your family members is interested in, I think it's a really interesting test. So I'm not going to say you have to do this. By all means, I respect your decision not to. But for someone who's interested in that kind of testing, there are a few cool options that could make sense for a gift for someone. And I think on the prenuvo side, you can get up 300 to $500 off off through either card, linked offers or discounts. So I'll put that in the gift guide as well then a couple quick things for stocking stuffers on the health side. One is just a pulse oximeter. If you've never checked your blood oxygen levels, it's that thing they put around your finger at the hospital. One time our daughter was kind of really struggling to breathe and had a heavy cough and I talked to a friend who was a doctor and he's like, oh, what's her blood oxygen level? Unfortunately we had one of these and he was like, well, at this level you're probably fine, but if it drops too low here. And it was just something where it's such an easy, vital sign to test at home on a device that costs $20. Just having one around the house seemed like a great thing to have and I'm so glad we do. So that's one and the other one is just I don't think everyone gets enough electrolytes. And so if you need a good stocking stuffer, throw some packs of Element, which is an electrolyte drink that I really enjoy in people's stockings. And I think you can get a free sample pack if you use our link, which is also going to be in the gift guide guide Again, all thehacks.com gifts I'll put in the show notes few other random health related things. A nice soap is really great. Someone came to our house once and we had an Aesop soap in the bathroom and they were like, gosh, that soap's really nice. Like it just elevated the entire experience of our home. And I can tell you, like, yes, it's wildly expensive soap. They used to sell it at Saks. And so I used my Amex Platinum Saks credit. Now that I don't have my sax credit, I'm not sure what we do. One of our listeners suggested another brand brand called Element Brooklyn for some kind of really nice sustainable soaps. But a really nice hand soap is great, especially if you're having people over for the holidays. And then three other kind of random things that I guess fall into health and fitness. So one is stand up paddle boards, inflatable ones. This is a gift my parents got us. If you live anywhere near still calm water and you have kids, it's such a great activity when it's sunny outside. Obviously you can use these in waves and not calm water. But for kids I find it's much easier at least for young ones to just go out in kind of a lake or down in the Bay Area. There's this part of Foster City where there's just a lot of kind of canals and water that you can kind of go float around and we love heading over there on the weekends on a hot day. Next is a sauna or a cold plunge. I have the plunge, cold plunge and I have a sauna from a company called haven haven sauna.com and I just, just love our cold plunge and sauna. I need to do a deeper dive on sauna, especially after Brian Johnson just did a ton of testing around his experience using sauna regularly and I could just tell you that I, I just love having a sauna. Now is the sauna a practical gift for most people to give someone for the holidays? Probably not, but if it's in your budget, I love having a sauna in our home and the data on reduction to all cause mortality, at least for the studies they've done, is really compelling. Last one in Health and fitness is just going to be a rucksack. Goruck makes backpacks that you can use for rucking. There are a ton of different rucking backpacks you can find on Amazon. If you're going to go on a walk around the neighborhood, why not throw on some weight and get a little more exercise out of the experience? We love doing this. We use them all the time. So that is all my health recommendations. Moving on to close this out, we've got games, kids learning books, and then maybe the most important is like how do you save money doing all of this? So when it comes to games, I love games. I could give you a list of a thousand things. I'm going to give you some things that I think make great holiday gift games, but I could probably do a whole episode on board games and the 50 to 60 of them we have and enjoy. But one gift that I think is awesome is theory 11's box 1 and if they are someone already has it, box 2. Best way I could describe this as a single player board game that feels kind of like the same skill set you'd use for an escape room. Absolutely love this gift. I love both of them and highly recommend it. Theory 11 also sells amazingly beautiful playing cards that make good stocking stuffers and a ton of magic tricks. Like if you have someone in your family who's interested in learning magic, definitely take a look at theory 11. So much amazing stuff there. When it comes to fun games to maybe get over the holidays and play with family and friends. Coyote is the new game that Tim Ferriss built with the exploding kittens team. Definitely, definitely A really fun game for family Coup. We've played in almost every family vacation as well as Monopoly deal. So those are three great things that also fit in a stocking if someone really likes games. I've enjoyed getting the Games magazine as a subscription each month. I just enjoy getting it, taking it on planes, having something to do, feeling a little old school, doing games and word puzzles and stuff. Stuff with a paper and pen for the person who likes kind of solving puzzles and problems. I've really liked these Clue Box and Puzzle Potato kind of mini escape boxes. There's so many of them. ID Venture is a game shop that sells a lot of them as is Puzzle Potato. And I started with the Tesla box, which was awesome. And now I'm like, just get me any of these. These are so fun. And I've ordered a few of them that are coming out soon. But Clue Box and Puzzle Potato make make some really awesome little escape room boxes. There are also much more expensive puzzle boxes. The thing I like about these is that instead of being hundreds of dollars, they're under a hundred dollars, which, given that they don't have a ton of replay value, feels like I appreciate. Any puzzle is always fun. We've given some custom puzzles which are cool, where you can kind of print things on them and have them say things that people won't know until they put them together. Get a gift card for an escape room and go do it with your family and friends over the holidays. Love that. And then last, this isn't really a game, but gifting Legos to adults is a really interesting gift idea that I didn't think about till this year, I got my dad the Concord LEGO kit. And over the course of a handful of weeks, because it's a lot of pieces, he built it and had so much fun building it. And this is a guy in his 70s. Like this is not Legos for kids. And then I got, I think for my birthday a LEGO Millennium Falcon. But not just a regular LEGO Millennium Falcon. It also came with this amazing LED kit where you had to wire it all up and you could power it and it was just so much fun. Felt like such a kid again building Legos. Especially with the LED kit, it felt like even more complicated of a project and I really enjoyed it. Now also, you could do those LEGO kits for kids and our kids just aren't old enough to do the complicated ones. But Legos make a great kids gift gift. When it comes to kids gift, there are a few things I'll flag the UKI skateboard I'm just a sucker for teaching my kids to skateboard and there aren't that many ways to do it. But the UKI Kids Learner Skateboard is awesome. When it comes to kind of toys around the house, we love really like nicely designed kids toys, especially like wood ones. So the Melissa and Doug toys we love, we have this sandwich shop play kit and a pizza play set that we love. Also we don't love as much screen time and so. So we've given our kids a Tony box, which is awesome. Think of it like an Alexa Sonos speaker, except they can put these different characters on them and the characters tell stories and our daughters love it. I know there is also a Yodo box which is a very similar thing, but instead of characters you put in cards, I don't know which one's better, but they're very similar and I'm sure both are great. And our kids love having a Tony box and it's great because they get a lot of that storytelling experience without the screen time. When it comes to stuffed animals, you can pretty much get anything from Jelly Cat and it just feels like a quality stuffed animal. We have so many of them. And to people who give us stuffed animals whenever we're like, oh, it's a Jelly Cat. That's a really nice one. If you're looking for a gift for someone who just had children, the lovevery play kits, especially as a subscription, are really, really cool. They have these beautiful Montessori play kits that come every few months that kind of teach kids all kinds of things as they grow. We went through them all for the.

[Chris Hutchins]

First three years of our kids lives.

[Amy Hutchins]

Lives really love them. They also give you a booklet with all the activities to do with them. And then as they grow up and need kind of other things, we've evolved the gifts we have and we recently started playing board games. Our daughters love Monopoly Junior. They love playing Battleship and they really love playing Candyland. I prefer Monopoly over Candyland because it's Candyland just kind of gets boring because it's the same thing, but they love it. So board games for kids, those three our kids love when it comes to getting outside. We've taught our kids to ride bikes on Womb Bikes and really love them. We've managed to find a Womb Bike of every size we need on Facebook Marketplace for a much better deal. And then when it came to helmets, we love the Womb Helmet. Not only because it's a great helmet, but the kids can put it on and take it off on their own. Like it doesn't have a clipping mechanism that they can't figure out, which is awesome. But also it's just a really easy design that kind of makes a perfect fit it great. While sometimes they don't want a bike and they want a scooter and these micro kickboards, these like micro mini scooters, they are just barreling down the street in them and absolutely love them. That's for kids getting outside, for kids inside. My mom got our daughter this trace and draw projector from Lakeshore. That is so amazing. And the way I describe it, if you remember those little things that we had as kids, if you're in my generation, there was like a red thing that you hold up, kind of like binoculars and you put in these discs and you can spin different images. This is like that, except instead of looking at the images, it projects an outline on a piece of paper. And so they throw a disc in and it might say fantasy. And they can see a castle or a unicorn or a fairy or a knight. And then it projects it onto a piece of paper and they can draw those objects. And our daughter loves to draw. And this was like such an amazing way to build her confidence. Now she doesn't use it as much and she's drawing on her own and our younger daughter is using it. It's so great. And it was not a gift we were expecting. So good job, mom. Finding a really cool gift. It says age 5 to 11. I think you could probably start at age 4 based on our experience. Another cool gift they got was this Leapfrog Magic Adventures globe, which is a globe of the world. I think if you're listening to this show, you probably like traveling. And it has this pen that, as they click different places, allows them to see these videos about where they are. And there's some interactive games that are involved. So it's kind of like learning about the world with video, but with a real globe. Really cool gift. The kids really like it. I think they're probably a little young to really do a lot of the quizzes and game shows, but just starting to get them exposed to all this stuff. I think there's 600 different videos playing with kind of BBC travel content, which is really cool. Cool. Speaking of learning. So that's kids learning. The last section of this gift guide is going to be for adult learning. So when it comes to adult learning, a gift that I've given multiple times is masterclass. So there's just really high quality learning content on everything from professional things to cooking to gardening and it's just such.

[Chris Hutchins]

A great gift for parents.

[Amy Hutchins]

You can watch it on the tv, you can watch it on an iPad, you can listen to it, you can watch it now in segments. So you don't need to just watch an entire class. They have these small versions where you.

[Chris Hutchins]

Can take mini classes.

[Amy Hutchins]

So masterclass, awesome gift. Longtime partner of the show also, mostly because I love the product and we got a link for 15% off that'll be in the gift guide. When it comes to books, we've had so many authors on, I could list a hundred books. So go back, look at the authors we've had on, think about the books they have that might make sense to give a few that I've probably gifted more than others. So outlive. Peter Attia's book on longevity, I think is a great gift for someone, especially a parent, that hasn't really thought a lot about their health. The Wealth Ladder from Nick Maggi is a really just an interesting book about thinking about wealth. And this is mostly financial wealth through every stage of life. And then Sahil Bloom's book, the Five Types of Wealth, really forces you to think outside of just the constraints of money when it comes to wealth, because there's just wealth way beyond financial wealth. And that book is fantastic. Those are a few. There are obviously so many more. I guess I did have one other kid recommendation here. Our kids love the Magic Treehouse books. They're in order. They've really enjoyed reading them. As we make the transition from kind of kids books to chapter books along the lines of learning. The only other thing I'd really suggest is try to do some experiential learning, whether that's a cooking class, a pottery class, take someone for a hot air balloon ride. We recently did go karts up at Sonoma Raceway and it was amazing. So I'm a big fan of experiences and learning through experiences. And so while many of the gifts I suggested in this gift guide were physical things, I would love nothing more than to leave you with an idea of is there an experience I can give everyone, especially as everyone's coming together? You know, I mentioned escape rooms. There's all kinds of stuff you could do if you're gathering as a family during the holiday season. Consider doing some experiences together. I think those memories from those experiences are gonna last so much longer and be so much more interesting than, you know, a single gift could be. That said, I know we have a tradition in many families in this country and around the world of giving gifts. So hopefully a lot of those gift Suggestions were helpful. Let me run briefly through a few of the ways I make sure I save money on all of this stuff. So first, if you're shopping on Amazon, I love the Keepa extension. It just shows you the price trend on Amazon. So you know, am I overpaying or is this a great deal? So definitely install that extension. I used to go to Cash Back Monitor for comparing shopping portals. So for people not familiar, if you're going to buy something online, it's always worth seeing if there's a shopping portal you can go to and then click through their link before shopping because you might earn an extra 1.10percent off 5x points, all kinds of stuff. And different shopping portals have different bonuses. I'll come back to Rakuten, which is if all things are equal, I just prefer the Rakuten shopping portal. But if something is three, four, five times better, I'll probably use that shopping portal. So I used to use Cashback Monitor to compare shopping portals and recently I've been using Savewise and really a big fan of Savewise. They have a ton of other features but when it comes to shopping portals you can say show me the miles. So I'm [e-mail] right now and it's like oh well, Southwest is 2 miles per dollar and Alaska's 2 miles per dollar. Americans 2 miles per dollar. Which by the way, this is fantastic. I wish I had known this. I did a bunch of shopping portal purchasing recently, but I wish I knew this because I just did it at 1 mile per dollar. But British Airways is 5 miles per dollar. So if you're gonna spend a lot, maybe that makes sense. So they even show you the history. If you sign up you can view history and if you join as a pro member they have a ton of features including a ton of extended history to see how these portal bonuses have changed over time. They've got an extension that also helps here and the founder of Savewise is a listener and so I think if you go to all thehacks.com savewise there a deal. If not, by the time this comes out I'll make sure there is. And I'm a big fan of the product they've built so that's save wise. The only shopping portal I'll call out separately before I mention Rakuten is Capital One Shopping and that's because Capital One Shopping is interesting. I wouldn't say they always have the best deals, but they look at where you're going on the Internet and then they send you targeted offers that Sometimes are just wildly unrivaled. I've seen 20% off 8 sleep, 30% off 8 sleep. A crazy offer sometimes. So if there's something you want and it's not urgent, even if it's a.

[Chris Hutchins]

Hotel, stay on Hilton.

[Amy Hutchins]

I would encourage you to have some browser or some profile of your browser with a Capital one shopping portal extension.

[Chris Hutchins]

Installed and go browse the site, look.

[Amy Hutchins]

Around on the site for things and then over the next week see if you get a crazy offer. You know, if it's going to save you an extra $2, maybe it's not worth your time, but if you're looking to make a big purchase, hundreds of dollars, thousands of dollars, I think it's always worth browsing with the Capital One shopping portal extension. Now, like I said, if it's all equal, I prefer earning Rakuten points. I think Rakuten is the easiest shopping portal. They've got a ton of coverage. Tracking works really well. If you've never used Rakuten, I think it's the best entry to shopping portals out there, not only because it's easy to use, but because one there's a free 50 right now. So if you go to all thehacks.com rakuten or click link in the show notes, if you spend $50, they'll give you $50. So that's a great reason to use Rakuten. Even better reason now is that instead of just earning $50, you can earn points either with Amex or Bilt. And I love built points because you can transfer built to Hyatt, you can transfer built to Alaska, you can transfer bill to United, they transfer built to Japan Airlines. And so earning $50 is also earning 5,000 points that you can transfer anywhere. So if it's even close, I'm earning Rakuten cash back because I can transfer that Rakuten cash back to built and then I can earn really flexible points. You don't even need the built card to use the built rewards program. So if you've never used Rakuten, definitely sign up. Use a link from a referral mine or someone else's to get your first 50 free and then set up a relationship between Rakuten and built or Rakuten and Amateur to actually earn points instead of cash back. Two more ways that I like to save. So one is card pointers. And if you're not familiar with card pointers, the thing that card pointers does focused on shopping is they sync with all of your offers on all of your cards. So at any Given point in time, Amex, Chase, bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citi, they have all of these card linked offers that might be anything from $1 off to 30, 40% off. And so I pay for Dropbox and the plan I'm on is 200 a year. One of my Amex cards had a 40% off. It was up to $40 on Dropbox. And so had I paid for that Dropbox subscription on any other card it would have been the full price. But because I paid that one Amex card that had an offer, I got $40 off. And this happens all the time. And so Card Pointers has an extension that as you log into your different bank sites, it syncs all of the offers you have without having to give them all of your financial information. And then their browser extension will tell you anytime you're on the web, hey, hey, hey. Use this card because you've got 5% off here because you've got $20 off $100 purchase. I mentioned Prenuvo earlier there was an amex offer for $500 off a Pernuvo full body MRI. If you were on the Pernuvo site, the Card Pointers extension would have told you that, that on top of that, the mobile app you could just go in and search for a retailer and say, I'm going to buy something at Bass Pro. Do I have any card length offers here? I don't think there is one for Bass Pro, but there is one for Shields right now. And so there's a ton of offers I think on amex for Shields. If you were buying something at Shields, you know, you might want to know that I've saved thousands of dollars to date on offers from Chase and Amex and you can actually see the dollars you've saved. So I can log in and it'll show me how many dollars I've saved. And I probably would have missed out on almost all of them if it weren't for the Card pointers at app. They do have a Pro version that does a lot of the features more efficiently. You can get a lifetime or an annual subscription, but you can also get a seven day free trial. But both of those are 30% off if you go to all the hacks.com cardpointers. I genuinely love this app and so Card Pointers is awesome. I use it all the time. If you are an all the Hacks member, make sure you go log into the member site where you can get card pointers for 50% off. And if you're not a member and wannabe be all the hacks.com join. So the last way that I save money on all of this is through gift cards. And there are so many retailers that make it possible to buy gift cards at a discount that you really want to make sure that if you're making a large purchase, you're not able to buy the gift cards for that merchant for a lot less expensive. Now, last year around this time, there was an app that made it really easy to get really discounted gift cards and really set the expectations in people's minds at a place that just isn't true anymore. So there was a window of time where Amazon was 10, 15% off. Those days are gone. But there are a ton of retailers where you can get 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30% off by buying gift cards, either buying those gift cards on sale or buying those gift cards from gift card resellers. GCX is a website that sells gift cards to the public and they have a whole marketplace to buy discounted gift cards. I will say that the rates on GC X are not as good as you can get other places. And so in the past what I've done is kind of limited windows where I will work with a few gift card brokers who have much better rates than GC X but normally don't deal with the public. And I will lock in prices for a three to four day window and set up a gift card site where I can basically be the channel to the consumer so you can get access to effectively like wholesale gift card prices for a short period of time. And so I'm going to do that again right now when this episode launches, probably through the end of the weekend because I'll send it out in the newsletter on Saturday as well. If you go to all thehacks.com gift cards, I will do my best to find the gift card brands that I think are most relevant to this audience and I'll set up an E commerce site where you can buy them at a discount discount. And so I can't tell you what those discounts are right now. In the past we've done 10% off brands like Uber or Instacart. We've had discounts on Target and Walmart and Amazon. I think it's unlikely Amazon's going to be one of them, but I will find the best deals I can and put them all at all the hacks.com gift cards and you can check that out and hopefully that helps you save. So hopefully if you stack all those methods together, finding the best Shopping portal, getting the best rewards on your credit card. We didn't talk about that, but I've covered it before. Using the best card linked offers, buying discounted gift cards, and then finally looking for promo codes. I feel like that's the one that is less useful nowadays because of all these apps out there like Honey and Retail Me not it's still worth looking, but I think finding discounts and promo codes from people like podcast hosts who have relationships with brands might be better than trying to scour the Internet for the random promo code that still works. And then promo codes. Obviously there are websites like Retail Me not where you can search for promo codes. I'm going to put promo codes to all the products that I can find in the gift guide. And then last sometimes if you have a live chat with a brand, just ask them. Just say, hey, do you guys have any discounts right now? And multiple times I've done that and gotten a promo code or a discount for an order I was about to make. So I really hope that all those tactics help you save a lot of money and I hope all the gift suggestions really help you find some really interesting gifts that you wouldn't have found otherwise. But while this is a gift guide episode, I also think it's important to point out that the holidays, at least for our family, are about a lot more than gifts. So I thought I'd share a few of the non gift traditions we have in our family. One is that Christmas morning we all wear family pajamas. So we get them from Hannah Anderson, which by the way, often has discounted gift cards to make the purchases there a lot cheaper. And we all dress up in the same Christmas pajamas. We take photos together. It's been a family tradition for all of us for a long time. Last year my wife, or maybe two years ago, started a tradition of playing, I would guess I would call it beer pong. But it's not beer pong. You basically take a bunch of red solo cups, cups, write numbers on the bottom of them, throw ping pong balls into them, but they correspond to a matching cup on a table with something under it. That something could be a $5 bill, or it could be a few fried crickets. It could be a piece of candy, could be taking a shot of vinegar. Like it's all kinds of weird fun stuff that's just kind of like a fun family game that we play every year. We also all try to get each other an ornament every year. So our tree is basically a mishmash of ornaments that we've all put picked for everyone. We host a cookie decorating party and invite a bunch of friends and neighbors over. I really want to graduate that cookie party to a gingerbread party for making gingerbread houses, but not quite there yet. And then one that's really, really awesome that we've done for a while is we pick up a bunch of cards for toy drives and we take the girls to Target or some retailer. We pick out a bunch of gifts for other families. Families usually the cards we pick up, you can usually get them at a fire station or a school or lots of different charitable organizations. We'll say like seven year old girl. And we kind of let the girls pick out a gift that they think would be good for them. So we try to do a handful of toy drives where that entire trip is about buying something for someone else. And I think it's really important for the girls to see that there are people that aren't as fortunate as we are and let's do something for them.

[Chris Hutchins]

Them.

[Amy Hutchins]

And similar along those lines, we take a lot of moments of gratitude. I know Thanksgiving and Christmas meals, we all spend some time just going around the table talking about things we're grateful for. It's something we've really tried to infuse into our family. We actually started doing it every night just before bed with the girls. And so that's something I've really enjoyed doing, but especially during the holidays. And then last while this might go counter to my saying, none of these are about gifts. We kind of created a rule for our families. If we're not not spending time together, none of our siblings give each other gifts. We've all agreed, like we just have enough stuff. And if we are spending time together, we just kind of designate one gift from one family to the other. So we'll kind of draw names. And so my wife has two sisters and parents. Like there'll be four unique families. Every family gets one other family and they get that family one gift. Instead of trying to come up with all these gifts, we just focus on one bigger ticket thing for everyone that we put a lot more thought into. And that's kind of my favorite aspect. If we're going to give gifts. I like giving gifts that we put a lot of thought into that aren't things that are just on a list. If you know me well, you know I don't love Christmas lists, but I do love trying to find unique, creative gifts to give people. So in the spirit of that, if you have any suggestions of interesting gift ideas that I didn't mention. Please send them over podcastlthehacks.com I'm always looking to expand this list. That is it for this week. I will see you next week.