Summertime is the time of year to take vacations and get active outdoors which may lead to less summertime savings and spending more money for some people. A lot of fun summer activities come with a cost. It might be the reason you’re not on track this year to save as much as planned. Perhaps summertime is also the reason you’re existing savings has taken a hit when you realized you’ve been overspending and needed to use your emergency savings to make up the difference. Yes, summer is a great time of year, but the fun can be planned wisely so you can stay on track with your savings goals. Watch out for these summertime spending traps and you’ll head into the fall in better financial shape.
Eating Out – While spending more time outdoors, running around town and visiting friends, you may find yourself eating out more. It’s easy to load up the kids and head out for some fun and then find you need to stop for lunch somewhere when everyone is hungry. This can be fun, but it adds up. As an alternative, plan your activities with sack lunches such as PB&J’s and a cooler full of drinks. Find a nice park to eat lunch or eat when you get to your destination.
Special Events – Special events are common such as concerts, museums, movies and plays. Yep, these summertime activities are a lot fun, especially for kids, but they cost money. Planning ahead will help you save money and avoid overspending on such events. I recommend creating a summertime events budget. Set a dollar amount that allows you to do 1 – 2 big events per month or a smaller event each week. Set the kids expectations on what you’ll be able to do and try to identify the events in advance to save more money.
Family Visits – People who have families that live out of town may be expecting a summer visit. You can plan for normal expenses to increase if family is staying at your house. Not only will you pay more money for groceries, you’ll probably spend more on entertainment and eating out (they don’t want to sit in your house the whole time). So, try to work with family members on when they’ll visit and budget accordingly. Increase expenses such as food, entertainment, gas and more as much as 10% during the visit. You may have to cut back in other areas to manage this extra spending. Also, don’t fall into the temptation of eating out all the time. There are plenty of easy to make dinners that feed lot’s of people such as spaghetti.
Children Expenses – The kids are out of school in the summertime and with you more if you’re a stay – at – home parent. Expect new temptations such as toys while shopping for groceries, candy at the mall, etc. It’s fun to treat your children, but not if it’s with plastic money you don’t have. Set aside a little extra fun money for the kids if they’re behavior has been especially good and set early expectations with young children before going into stores: ”there will be no toys at the store today because we already spent our fun money this week.” This can be a good financial lesson for the kids (money doesn’t grow on trees). Kids will get the picture after a few times and stop throwing fits in the store when you won’t buy them their favorite toy.
Trips to the Mall – If you live in the South like me you want to be in the air conditioning or at the pool. A lot of people can understandably get tired of being at home on the weekends. Therefore, trips to the malls and stores become more frequent. Unfortunately, most people are enticed to spend at these stores and usually do. If you’re going to the mall for entertainment purposes make sure everyone is in agreement on what money will be spent before setting a foot in the door. For example, the family might agree that there will only be money spent on one snack versus falling prey to the 30% off at Gap sale. I caution trips to the mall for entertainment purposes. Chances are very good you’ll find a reason to spend money.
Have any of these reasons resulted in less summertime saving for you or your family? If so, it’s not too late to avoid them. There are plenty of hot summer days remaining, so take action now to avoid over spending your budget.
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