Stressed about summer spending? I’m sharing my tried-and-true summer saving tips to help prevent your finances from dwindling.
Summer is one of my favorite seasons, but let’s be honest—it can get expensive fast! Between vacations, extra activities with the kids, dining al fresco, and the temptation of every farmer’s market treat, those sunny days can take a toll on your wallet.
When we prepared for our home renovation in Summer 2023, we really tried try not to spend unnecessary dollars; luckily, a lot of those budgeting tweaks have continued on! This year while we are on a big trip right now, we’re watching our budget before and after. The rest of this year we plan on traveling on points to save money thanks to the wonderful world of travel rewards.
In today’s post, I’m sharing my favorite summer saving tips to help you enjoy the season without overspending. Here are some of my summer saving tips!
My Best Summer Saving Tips
1. Make a plan for every dollar.
I consider myself a doctorate level budgeter! I love using YNAB to manage our money. (Here’s a blog post I did about it.) My brother-in-law and I have regular chats about YNAB and budgeting. And if you want to geek out to the max level, listen to the Budget Nerds Podcast (it’s put on by YNAB employees who make me LOL at how nerdy we all are).
Using a budgeting software makes me feel super organized, and I give every single dollar at job.
2. Prorate summer expenses throughout the year.
In the summer we always have our summer pool payment, a beach trip that I can’t use travel rewards for, and summer camps for the kids. Prorating summer expenses has really helped me even out my months. I prorate everything from our once-a-year auto and liability insurance to birthday and Christmas season categories. Divide any annual costs by 12 months and then put aside that much each month so you’ll never have surprise expenses.
3. Learn to travel for free.
Summer is the season of travel! I have shared our credit card strategy for travel rewards and have an email course if you want to learn to get started. When we visited the Inn at Willow Grove, I paid for it on our Capital One Venture X card and then used points that I had sitting there to erase almost the whole stay! If you could turn a $350 hotel stay into a $50 one, that is the best of luxury living and saving money all in one.
4. Trade services.
A great way to save money is to trade services with a friend or neighbor. If you’re traveling a lot, trading pet sitting with neighbors can save hundreds of dollars for you both. My parents traded cat sitting with our neighbor Susan for decades. There are so many creative ways to trade your skills with others – we all should be doing this more! (Share if you do any trades in the comments.)
And if trade isn’t an option, maybe there are ways to side hustle your habits so you’re at least paying less for things you’ll already use.
5. Grow some food.
Tis the season for plentiful produce. Admittedly we haven’t had a strong garden going for a few years now, but my in-laws have an AMAZING garden and pass on some of their abundance of veggies to us! But you can start small – a basil plant that provides for pesto will save you from buying it in the store : )
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