A Fun but Frugal Summer

Summertime is fast approaching which means we are about to enter a few months where everything is just, well, better. Everyone’s moods are lifted, the sun shines, there’s no school for the kids, there’s no school traffic to contend with for their parents — everybody is happy. What’s more, the summer time offers up the perfect chance for families and friends to enjoy time together — but that’s not to say that this time together comes cheap. The sun and the days out to the park might be free, but the ice cream and drinks you buy whilst there aren’t. The petrol you spend to go on family days out doesn’t come cheap and the prices you pay for tickets to get into some places, such as theme parks, generally cost a bomb. And this is all even before the obligatory summer holiday has even been mentioned! However, there are ways to have a fun yet frugal summer, and a few of them can be found below.

You’ve seen How to Spring Clean Your Finances, and now it’s time to keep them ticking over nicely throughout the WHOLE of the summer, not just for the first few weeks of it — a surprisingly hard task, considering it is only a few months of the year, due to the fact that it is so easy to get caught up in all the fun of the summertime. To do so it is advisable to set yourself monthly budgets throughout June, July and August; to stick to the budget, or if you find yourself getting dangerously close to it come the end of any given month, you can try any number of the activities found here. These activities include: taking up hiking, visiting your local nature reserve (find the one nearest to you at WildLifeTrusts.org), having barbecues, having picnics, going to the zoo and going to the beach. All of these activities are relatively cheap, some are even free, so you should be able to spread your fun out over the whole of the month, and the whole of the summer, without having to spread your finances too much.

However, when you have children it can be hard to keep them occupied throughout the whole of their summer holiday off school, especially when you are operating on a budget. It is because of this fact that you should considering undertaking a task that will keep them stimulated and focused over a longer period of time, such as building them a tree- or playhouse. In doing so, even if just on the evenings and weekends, you are keeping their attention span satisfied if you ask them to watch or help you, thus eradicating the need to take them out and spend money on stimulating them elsewhere, such as at a theme park or water park. In building a tree house you are also giving yourself something to do as well as the fact that it is a great way to exercise; you just need to make sure you have a tree in your garden to build it upon!

In ensuring that you control your cash reasonably well throughout the summer period it will mean that you are securing your finances for the future months of the year — your future self, particularly around Christmas time, will thank you dearly! Also, in being frugal during your time at home during the summer you are allowing yourself to be a bit more generous with your money on any summer holidays that you may go on.