Do you have your summer savings goals in place? If not, you might want to consider doing this. Having clear goals for savings will help you anticipate expenses, take advantage of bargains and keep your budget on track and give you one less thing to worry about in the summer, your money.
Garage Sales
Last year we didn’t do to well hitting the garage sales, and our budget paid for it. We actually had to pay retail for things such as kids clothing and school supplies. Ouch. Other things we did without, such as a new supply of books or toys. This year we vow to do better.
We are developing a plan to determine how often we want to hit yard sales and how much time that we want to spend at them. This will help us find the bargains without becoming overwhelmed or burned out.
We are also considering having a yard sale, but haven’t made this a firm goal. If it is one of the things that you want to do this summer, now is the time to start getting organized.
Food and Entertaining
Will you be doing a lot of outdoor entertaining this summer? If so, getting bargains on the food and other supplies will be a good thing. Shop the pre-summer sales, find out how to get your food inexpensively (for example, if you plan on cooking a lot of steak and burgers, see if you can buy the meat in bulk and freeze it).
We have two summer birthday parties to plan, so they are on our summer savings list this year. We are deciding to limit the parties to cake and ice cream this year so we can spend more on the games and prizes for the parties.
Vacations
Plan out your vacation budget now and see what you can do to save. Maybe you want to opt for a staycation or a series of day trips. Or perhaps you want to book a cheap flight now.
Other ways to save on vacation include doing a rental share with another family or swapping homes.