Welcome to the Wander Worldschool Podcast. It's trivia time! What Southern Hemisphere city is surrounded by an unbroken green ring of public lands? I'm Suzy, a travel-loving money nerd, mom of two, and our family lives between Spain, Colorado, and Japan. Here on Wander Worldschool, we discuss the stories, logistics, and finances of traveling families, and the many ways to learn along the way.

Today's end-of-the-month episode includes a recap of our first month in Japan, my favorite takeaways from this month's episodes, and our top listener locations, including the answer to this episode's opening trivia question. For our deep dive this month, we are tackling holiday money and logistics planning. If you just groaned, don't worry—I'm not telling you to skip the pumpkins for snowmen and Christmas trees quite yet.

But let's be honest: there are just about a hundred days left until the end-of-the-year holidays. Taking even a little bit of time to plan now will help you enjoy the magical season coming up.

And thank you for signing up for the Wander Weekly newsletter. Shout out to Jason, Jennifer, Amandine, Laura, Terry—my awesome travel buddy from college—Tisha, Rachel, and Hannah.

Last week's Wander Weekly covered our muddy field trip here in Japan, the La La Land Da Nang Family Travel Hub in Vietnam, opportunities to learn Spanish in Malaga and Madrid with Adventures in Spanish, and our community roundup in global happenings. There is still time to join us in Osaka next month. You can join Kristen in Tokyo right after that, and you can also join us at the Better Together Hub in Phu Quoc, Vietnam, in December. Go sign up for the Wander Weekly in the show notes right now.

Before we jump in, how has your month been treating you?

I'll be honest, September was a roller coaster. Spending time in Spain and Colorado means we are not accustomed to so much rain and humidity, and it culminated in our first typhoon in the middle of a five-day holiday break from the Boundless program.

Thankfully, we had other families to hunker down with, and I am very much looking forward to drier fall weather soon, I hope. My oldest son is loving his classes, and he proudly counted to ten for me in Japanese. My youngest son takes a little longer to adjust to transitions, but he's really looking forward to his birthday celebration soon. Does anyone else have kiddos who respond completely differently to travel and transitions?

It can be exhausting to hold space while also adjusting yourself. One of the reasons that I love slow travel is that I have ridden this roller coaster before, and I know that ease will come soon once we settle in a little bit more. I also had an amazing massage and acupuncture session today for only 31 US dollars, so I'm feeling a lot more zen today.

Since we will be talking a lot about future planning on today's episode, if you're looking even beyond the holidays to next summer and you don't want to miss the solar eclipse of the century, join us in Morocco at the end of July to early August 2027. Our location in Morocco will have almost five minutes of totality, and it is a lot less expensive than Luxor, Egypt, where rooms are running into the thousands of dollars per night.

We are booked at a water park hotel in Smir Park in northeast Morocco for a week for about 1,000 US dollars. Just think: enjoying the beach, scoping out the perfect eclipse viewing spot, and cooling off daily at the water park, all in anticipation of the big day on August 2nd, 2027, when the solar eclipse rolls through. I plan to incorporate eclipse-themed activities and lots of outdoor playtime. If this sounds interesting to you, drop your info in the interest form in the show notes.

Are you based out of Charlotte, North Carolina; Vancouver, British Columbia; or Adelaide, South Australia? I love looking at the listener locations from this month. Adelaide is the city from the opening trivia! To this day, Adelaide is the only city in the world entirely encapsulated by a ring of parkland, meaning that you can step in any direction from the city centre and hit green space within minutes.

If you're a listener from Adelaide, will you chime in with how awesome it is to have access to this green space?

On Apple Podcasts, Chad added to his five-star review this wonderful comment, and I wanted to share it. He says, "If you're interested in anything worldschool, Suzy has you covered. All your questions answered by families actually doing it."

Crafting these episodes does take a lot of time and energy, both from me and from the other guests that I get to feature. But these amazing messages from our growing community mean so much to me. Will you pause right now and leave a five-star review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your shows? I'll even give you some music to do this to.

Okay, we're back. Thank you to Maxwell Lee from episode 33 for the amazing song bite.

For our monthly episode recaps, I must say it was an amazing group of traveling families this past month. In episode 68, Nadim Arshad from Bliss Hubs recounts traveling as a larger family of seven and adapting their travel tempo after their teenage son struggled with isolation. I love that Bliss Hubs in Koh Lanta, Thailand, offers brilliantly low-cost, high-quality island life while supporting the community through simple yet effective cooperative models.

This includes things like having parents organically share their passions, from beach soccer to shark conservation, and it is high on my list for when we get to Thailand.

In episode 69, Kristen Thatcher talks about her family's five years of global travel, detailing their strategies for overcoming early nomadic slumps, saving $50,000 through house sitting, and translating experiential learning into an accredited Ontario high school diploma. My favorite highlight from our chat was exploring the benefits of transoceanic worldschool cruising, where extended sea days and built-in youth spaces foster incredible routine, socialization, and independence, especially for teens. Kristen also supports families on similar educational journeys with the Learn with Every Avenue directory that connects worldschoolers with educators. In episode 70 with Irene Genelin, we learned about transitioning from farming to full-time travel and the logistics of traveling villages, conflict resolution, and child-led education.

I am in awe of their passion for unicycling. We chatted about how to pack a unicycle right into a suitcase and turn this sport into a compact, luggage-friendly solution for traditional bike travel. Who else is planning to learn unicycling alongside me now?

It is time for our deep dive, which is all things holiday logistics and financial planning. If you're listening to this the day it releases, there are officially 72 days until Hanukkah, 93 days until Christmas, and 105 days until Three Kings' Day. Whether your household celebrates Christmas, Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, or you just like taking time off to be together at the end of December, the countdown is officially on. Now, I want to start today with a little bit of a reality check. Most holiday stress, and definitely most holiday financial regret, doesn't happen because you had bad intentions. Nobody sits down on purpose and says, "You know what sounds fun? Overdrafting my checking account, maxing out a credit card, and feeling totally frazzled by December 23rd."

It happens because of the last-minute scramble. The pressure quietly builds all fall.

Then Thanksgiving or St. Nicholas Day hits. Suddenly you're in a rush. Everything costs twice as much, and decisions get made out of pure exhaustion. Reactive spending is always the most expensive spending. So here's my challenge for you today: grab yourself just 30 minutes after this episode finishes. Sit down with your calendar, grab a blank note on your phone, and map this out. Taking control today, right now, here in September, gives you the power of choice, access to the best prices, and best of all, zero financial hangover when January rolls around. On today's episode, we will cover how planning for the next holiday begins with reflecting on the last one, using your planned location to set your holiday planning boundaries, ways to slash holiday travel costs, travel-friendly gifts if you're traveling, and purposeful giving if you're staying put. And lastly, we'll end with frugal ideas to create holiday magic wherever you are.

Also, I want to hear from you. Our end-of-the-year episode will include audio clips from the community about your favorite holiday travel memories. Last year's holiday episode, number 32, is worth a relisten, and then please send in your audio clip using the link in the show notes. I'd love to feature you on this year's end-of-the-year episode.

Let's kick things off with part one. I'm going to call this the holiday post-mortem, or as I like to think of it, letting your family's real memories guide your budget. Before you touch a spreadsheet, before you look at sales, interview your household over dinner tonight or while you're running errands.

Ask your partner and ask your kids three specific questions: First, what do you actually remember from last holiday season? Second, what was the most fun thing we did, and/or what was the best gift you received? And third, what really makes the holidays feel like the holidays for you? Every time that families do this exercise, they run into what I call the big reveal.

Kids rarely mention the thirty dollars of plastic filler toys from their stockings. They don't remember the frantic road tour where everyone was grumpy and dressed up in stiff clothing. What do they actually say? They remember baking cookies while blasting holiday music, or a movie night with hot chocolate on the floor, or a random, completely unplanned snowball fight in the backyard.

Use their answers as your permission slip to cut the rest. If nobody in your house even remembers the elaborate stocking stuffers or the expensive branded gift baskets, cut that from your line items. Take that money off the table completely, or direct it toward things that actually generate real joy. Once you know what matters emotionally, part two is all about setting your physical anchor. Ask yourself right now: Where will you be waking up the morning of your major family holiday? Are you staying put in your own home? Are you traveling to visit extended family? Are you heading out on an adventure to explore somewhere entirely new? Or do you still have no idea, which is fine too. We welcome our spontaneous families here, as well! You have to establish these logistical boundaries early, though, because your location dictates what is physically possible.

If you're traveling light—let's say you're living out of carry-ons or hopping trains—bulky playsets and heavy decorations are not going to work. If you're staying put, you have a little bit more flexibility. You can plan on cooking a large feast or hosting a dinner party. You can have packages delivered right to your porch or shop local. But staying home carries its own sneaky risk: you might end up defaulting into autopilot spending just because you have that physical space to store more stuff. Let your actual environment set expectations for the kids right now. If you know that your family will be in a small rental apartment living out of backpacks, talk about it today. That way, nobody is expecting a seven-foot pine tree piled high with ten giant boxes when that's just not feasibly possible.

Now, what if you are traveling? Let's talk about part three: slashing your holiday travel costs. If you've ever looked up holiday flights or hotels in late November, you know that the price surge is brutal, but you can avoid it with a few deliberate moves. First, flip your biggest line item: accommodations. Instead of paying peak holiday hotel rates, look into home exchange platforms like HomeExchange.

You can swap your home directly with another family or use points within the network. The immediate financial win: you get a full kitchen and a space to make your own. That eliminates one of the other most insidious holiday budget busters: having to eat out three meals a day with tired kids. Another incredible option is pet sitting or house sitting through networks like TrustedHousesitters.

If you want a change of scenery and you're flexible on where you go, you can stay in a gorgeous home for zero lodging costs, simply by caring for someone's dog, cat, chickens, or horses—all of which we've done in the past—while they're visiting their own family or on their own vacation.

Holiday sits are a great time to do your first pet sit because there are often more opportunities than there are sitters available. Our first ever house sit was over Thanksgiving many years ago. We stayed in a giant house with two easy-going cats, and this helped us start to build up our many positive reviews on TrustedHousesitters. And as a bonus, the family may already be planning to decorate for the holidays, so you'll have that cozy at-home holiday experience, just somewhere new.

And don't overlook your own home. If you're leaving your house empty for a week or two, explore whether you can rent it out on a short-term platform like Airbnb or arrange a reciprocal swap. There are Facebook groups that do that within the worldschooling community, or on People Like Us.

People are looking for places to stay over the holidays, especially if they need a little bit more space than a hotel can provide. Monetizing your empty home can completely offset the cost of your own trip. Tune in to episode 45 and also check out my e-book to help you set that up today. Next up, we're going to talk timing and routing when it comes to travel planning. My first recommendation: fly on the actual holiday.

Flights on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, or New Year's Eve are consistently cheaper. Especially if your kids are young and don't really even know what day it is, they're not going to know that they're missing actual Christmas, per se. Not only that, but the airports are calmer, there are shorter lines, and the staff are in a great mood—especially if you wish them a happy holiday. This year, we originally booked our flights from Tokyo to Madrid with points on Iberia, flying on December 25th because it was less expensive than other dates.

And then we got lucky: they canceled that flight and moved us for no additional cost to a more expensive flight later. Ultimately, these points will save us over $6,000 on four long-haul flights right around the holidays. Also, watch your return dates. Flying home on January 2nd or 3rd is peak surge pricing. If you can extend your stay into January, you can often save hundreds of dollars per ticket.

Flexible schooling can help with this, and even if you return to a traditional school setting after the holidays, ask now about missing a few days to potentially save thousands. Finally, do a points and miles audit this week. Log into your credit card accounts—your Chase, your Amex, your Capital One—and check your flexible points. September is when you want to pool those rewards and transfer them to airline or hotel partners before award availability disappears.

I hate to admit it, but we are sitting on over 500,000 points, and I really just need time to sit down and use them for our upcoming travel to Vietnam in December and Europe next summer. Send me a text if you are in the same situation! Let's hop into part four: the travel-friendly gift guide. If you're traveling over the holidays, the golden rule of gifting is simple: compact, durable, highly functional, and packs flat. Let's break this down by age group.

For little kids under six, I recommend skipping bulky toys and going with something like a reusable silicone drawing mat or Water Wow pads. Also, you can grab an audio player like the Yoto Mini. These are compact, durable, and come with headphone jacks. Kids can pop in audiobooks, podcasts, or holiday stories during long-haul flights and quiet bedtimes in unfamiliar rooms. We just handed down my son's Yoto to my nephew since each of my kids has a Kindle now.

But I really wish it was something that we had gotten much earlier for each of my kids. So if you don't have one yet, check that out. For the middle-grade crew and tweens ages 7 to 12, I recommend a Kindle Paperwhite or Colorsoft. This is a travel superpower; these were our kids' gifts last Christmas, and they come in handy pretty much every day of our travel.

You can load them with dozens of library books, audiobooks, and graphic novels without adding a single ounce of luggage weight. My secret is that I have four library cards in Libby, so I can almost always get that book or audiobook that I want. Other ideas are packable card games like Exploding Kittens, Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza, Sushi Go!, Uno No Mercy, or a pocket magnetic chess set. These slip right into a backpack pocket and turn airport delays into instant game nights.

And let's also talk about things that are real and useful: real outdoor gear can be very helpful. Maybe a headlamp, a pocket monocular, or a packable, water-resistant daypack that kids can carry themselves. Or just move to Japan during the rainy season and end up buying everyone rain boots and new umbrellas! For teens, I recommend a couple of different gift ideas. You can focus on high-yield utility tech, like a high-capacity portable power bank to keep all their devices going, or a simple Bluetooth transmitter like an AirFly. This plugs right into the airline seatback screen so that they can listen with their own wireless earbuds instead of those scratchy airline headphones. Or an ultra-light packable puffy jacket that crushes down into a tiny stuff sack. And for adults, whether this is yourself, your partner, or other people in your life, you might want to look into digital subscriptions that lighten your mental load. Think Audible, Kindle Unlimited, or language-learning apps for an upcoming trip. Maybe it's time to start Preply language lessons? Use my link in the show notes for big savings on your first lesson. Or you might want to look at high-utility packing upgrades: things like compression packing cubes, quality merino wool socks and clothing, and reliable universal travel adapters that fast-charge multiple devices at once.

I plan to upgrade Mark's and my secondary monitor situation this holiday season, so Merry Christmas, Mark, when you listen to this! Now, what if you're staying put this year? This brings us to part five: curating gifts with purpose. A lot of families swear by the classic four-gift framework. This is something kids want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read. It's an incredible tool because it establishes clear, predictable guardrails against consumer creep. But look, I know the common advice right now is to always choose experiences over physical things. Conceptually, I agree. But let's be honest: there is genuine magic when a child wakes up and opens a physical gift that they deeply care about. The secret is not cutting physical gifts down to zero; it is moving toward fewer yet higher-quality, bang-for-your-buck gifts for your kids.

When you hone in on the one or two things that your kid is genuinely obsessed with, you don't need a massive pile of cheap plastic to make holiday morning feel special. One or two deeply desired gifts create way more joy than ten random items that you bought just to pad the bottom of the Christmas tree. So how do you figure out what they actually want without blowing the surprise? Try the secret agent listening method.

Start paying attention right now. When your kid mentions a book series, a hobby, or a specific toy they love, don't just say "cool"—write it down immediately in that dedicated note on your phone.

And if you need to ask them directly, shift the focus. Ask them something like, "Hey, Grandma asked what kind of things you're into lately. What should I tell her?"

That gives you an authentic, honest shortlist without your kid assuming you're promising to buy every single item on that wish list. Once you have that list, you can go into the holiday shopping season with a plan and a purpose.

Remember, a Black Friday sale only saves you money if you were already planning to buy that exact item. If you don't have a firm list by mid-November, those 50%-off banners will manipulate you into spending money you never intended to spend. Start building your list now in September. Set price alerts using tools like CamelCamelCamel for Amazon, or Honey. Track the real prices, explore secondary markets like Facebook Marketplace or eBay early, and make your purchases calmly on your own terms. Before we wrap up, let's cover a few bonus frugal strategies in part six to keep your overall holiday budget on track. First, the one shared family gift idea: instead of buying dozens of separate items for everyone in the house, pool your resources for one big shared asset. Maybe this is a trip, an annual National Parks Pass, a quality four-person camping tent, or a gaming console that the family can play together. This is something that can create shared family memories all year long and significantly cut down on the overall clutter.

Second, I want you to consider redesigning the extended family gift exchange. One reason I love traveling is that we don't necessarily have to send or give gifts to every person we know. Buying individual gifts for all of our nieces, nephews, cousins, and everyone else can drain thousands of dollars across the family. So I recommend that you be the brave person who speaks up this year and says, "Hey, what if the adults do a single Secret Santa or White Elephant with a $50 cap?"

Trust me, people would much prefer to do this instead of buying individual gifts. Everyone is secretly hoping that someone will suggest it, so go ahead and be the one to do it! Third, I want you to look at your free local event calendar. In October, check your local library, your parks department, and your historic downtown websites. Inevitably, there will be many neighborhood light walks, library craft mornings, and historic choir concerts that are often completely free. Build your seasonal traditions around local culture instead of expensive, commercial, hundred-dollar-ticket productions.

And if there is a big-ticket event that you want to do this holiday season, make sure you get your tickets early and talk about it ahead of time so you get more out of it for your family and can save in other ways. Finally, build your holiday sinking fund today. That means starting to save now for the things you're going to spend money on in December. Estimate your total holiday spend. This is where tracking your expenses can be helpful: look back to last year. What did you spend?

What was worth it? What was not? Look at all the expenses, too—not just the gifts, but also the experiences, the travel, and the meals together. Count the number of paychecks between now and mid-December, divide that total number by your paychecks, and set up an automatic transfer today into a separate savings account.

When December arrives, you're spending money that has already been set aside—completely hands-off, with zero stress on your day-to-day checking account. Even better, put a reminder in your calendar for January to email yourself your post-mortem from this holiday season to help you plan for the next one, and start your holiday expense saving even sooner than September for holidays in 2027! Here's the bottom line: the holidays do not have to be a choice between magical memories and financial sanity. Intentionality beats budget bloat every single time. So here's your homework for today: set a timer for 30 minutes. Spend 10 minutes asking your family those three reflection questions, and 20 minutes opening up a shared note to lock in your initial list and plans for the end of the year. Then go back to enjoying your beautiful fall, knowing that the holidays are not going to sneak up on you this time. Protect your peace, protect your wallet, and go build the season your family actually wants to experience.

Okay, friends, what did this conversation bring up for you? Are you already stressing about your holiday budgets? Are you excited to make a plan, but you need some support? If so, let's chat about it. Set up a free 30-minute call with the link in the show notes. And don't forget to use the links in the show notes to support the show: Preply language lessons, HomeExchange, TrustedHousesitters, Chase travel cards, Boundless Life signups, Wise for international money transfers, and Monarch Money for tracking budgets and travel expenses.

Next month, I chat with more incredible traveling families and worldschool creators. We're going to Mexico, we're going to India, and we're talking about traveling families reintegrating back into their home communities, as well as the Together Explorers traveling school.

And this will be my last reminder to join us in Osaka next month! If you or someone you know is traveling to Japan soon, make sure you send them the pop-up information. Until next time, sign up for the Wander Weekly newsletter, stay curious, and keep exploring.