Summer is finally upon us, and everyone is happy to get outside and enjoy the outdoors. Most people are looking forward to the upcoming weddings, amazing vacations, relaxing beach days, enjoying some baseball games and getting your home renovations completed.
While enjoying all the activities that summer can bring, we need to make sure that we don’t forget about our financial goals. Budgeting can be the last thing we think of in the summer, but we want to ensure that you don’t end up with the fall blues.
Although the below may be obvious, we wanted to provide you with some reminders and tips to stay on track with your financial goals all while continuing to enjoy the summer.
- Plan your Summer – start by printing out a free calendar (or do a digital one) and mark down all the events you have to attend and vacations you have planned. Once you have all the dates marked down, decide what events you are going to attend and start making a budget for each scheduled event Make sure you take into to account accommodations, fuel, excursions once you get there and food. Once you have completed the budget for all events, ensure you go back and calculate the extra savings required and/or consider not attending everything.
- Staycation!! This maybe my new favorite vacation. Our world has become very face paced and sometimes we just need a slow down. A staycation maybe the perfect way to relax, recharge and all while helping your budget. Covid helped me perfect the staycation. As things started to open back up again, my group of friends and I did some fun activities on a budget that I thought I would share:
- Thrift Store Challenge – We set a budget of $25.00 and a time limit of 1.5 hours to go to our favourite Thrift store and put together an outfit for the day. We had to produce receipts to ensure we stayed on budget and then voted to see who had the best outfit. There were many laughs to be had AND we got some wonderful additions to our wardrobe on a budget!!
- Taste the Colour – One person would pick an item, for example candies, sport drinks or wine. (That is the one we started with). You would blind fold your group of people and then they would take a sip or eat a portion of the item and you would have to try and guess that colour you were eating or drinking. It is amazing how not seeing what you are eating/drinking can change the way you taste things.
- You can’t go wrong with a Scavenger hunt or an Amazing Race competition. This a fun way to get together with a group of friends and family to see who can out race who.
- Geocaching is another great option. This is a great way to spend time with your family and get out and explore nature.
- Although not a new idea, we also did themed picnics. Whether you had to wear a certain colour or style of clothes or if the food was from a certain location around the world. It was a great way to get together and enjoy a potluck meal and see who was the most creative.
- Look at reducing your expenses for the summer months. This could include pausing and/or cancelling your Cable or Gym memberships. If you are going to be outside more or away on vacations, this could help with savings and help you stay on budget.
- Something that can get overlooked in the summer months are the events that are happening within your community that are free. Make sure you track down your community calendars and see what events you can attend with little or no costs.
Summer is a wonderful time to get out and do whatever it is that you love. Being as financially prepared for any month is good practice and can help reduce financial stress. Don’t be afraid to reach out to a Licensed Insolvency Trustee and ask for assistance in developing a budget or setting financially goals.