Summer is the time of year most people look forward to because it often means warm weather, poolside fun, and a much needed break for the hardworking. However, when you’re on a journey to improve your personal finances, summer can be a huge temptation to backslide and possibly splurge a little more than you usually do.
While I don’t think there’s anything wrong with taking a brief break from your financial goals in order to stop and enjoy life and recharge your motivation, doing that for three months can really set you back.
I’ve been on my financial journey for a about 1.5 years now and while that’s not a long time, I’ve already felt pretty burnt out at times and unmotivated. But giving up or forgetting why I’m working so hard to become debt free during this summer can cause me to keep working toward my goal for longer than I originally planned.
Thankfully, there are some pretty helpful ways to help ensure you’re managing your money correctly and continuing to work toward your goals while still enjoying all the fun and relaxation that the summer can bring.
Start Using a Cash Budget
If you are afraid you may start overspending on dining out with friends, shopping, or other activities as the weather warms up, start using an all-cash budget for just a few months. Now, you probably can’t use cash to pay for everything if you have some scheduled automatic withdrawals coming out of your account each month, but once you deduct those from your income, take a majority of your money out of the bank and put it in separate labeled envelopes by category.
Most important, designate an envelope to dining out, fuel, entertainment, household goods etc. With a cash budget, you can still designate money to fun and entertainment, but there’s practically no way you can overspend since you only have a certain amount of cash on you. Cash budgeting helps you spend more consciously and control the money that’s leaving your wallet better.
Keep your Side Hustle, But Change your Hours
While it’s obvious that you should keep your side hustle over the next few months if you’re making a decent amount of income from it. But no one probably wants to be stuck in the house (or wherever you work) putting extra hours of work in on a nice day while everyone else is out enjoying themselves.
This is why it’s best to switch up your hours if you can. Since I’m a morning person, I’m going to get into the habit of getting up a bit earlier on some days during the week to work on my side hustle because I love that feeling of having the rest of the day ahead of me to spend as I please. Even if you only plan to get up early for half the week and sleep in the rest of the week, you’ll be able to knock some work out of the way so you can focus on enjoying your day with friends and family.
If you are more of a night person, you may want to carve out a few hours each night to get some work done while everyone is sleeping.
Go to Free Festivals and Visit Family
Summer festivals are one of the best parts of the season. Plus, most festivals are free so you don’t have to go out of your way financially to attend them. If you have a limited fun budget, find all the free festivals in your area this summer and mark them down on your calendar so you can attend them. You have nothing to lose so why not?
If you’re interested in traveling on a budget this summer, see if you can visit any of your family members who live out of town. Taking a trip to visit family can be a fun way to reconnect and catch up with loved ones while indulging in some cheap travel. If you stay with your family, you can save money on lodging which is a huge travel expense. You can also figure out some of the best deals on everything else since the locals usually know how to avoid pricey tourist traps.
Start Earning Even More Money to Meet your Entertainment Wants
Whether you’re side hustling or not already, there are some pretty low-effort ways to earn more money so you can indulge more during the upcoming summer season. You may not be planning to be so frugal these next few months and that’s okay. Maybe you want to go to some concerts, take a nice vacation, or just not penny pinch when friends ask you to go out and try a new experience with them.
You can certainly earn more money without dedicating too much additional time. There are plenty of ways to earn extra money on the fly and you should get started now. Start taking surveys online, ramping up your Swagbucks usage to get more gift cards, babysitting on your off nights, and hosting some garage sales to bring in more money for the summer.
Continue to Pay Yourself First
No matter what exciting things will be on your agenda these next few months, continue to pay yourself first. Savings, investment contributions, and debt payments should be one of the first payments you make each month so you can get those priorities out of the way. If you stick with this mindset, you’ll continue to move forward with your goals and motivate yourself with all the progress you make.
Will you be changing your budget or work schedule at all to accommodate some of your plans for the summer?
Using cash can really help, especially for those who tend to lose track of their spending easily. The added bonus of using cash is watching your change jar fill up once you return home.
I agree about cash. I have a fun tin for trips etc. I budget a certain amount each pay to go in there and if there is any extra lying about, 2 dollars here or there it goes in too. It is fun watching it grow and worth the work to not put anything on my credit card. Did that once for a vacation and it took 3 years and I don’t even want to know how much interest to pay it off.
That’s a really cool way to save for a vacation. It can be so pricey so it’s best to start setting money aside early which ever way you can.
We’ll need to be careful with our spending since we are now working on our small home and also plan to go to our vacation. Working with cash mainly is good, since I tend to not spend recklessly, compared to the money I have in my bank accounts (which ‘feels’ just like a number)
That’s good. I like using a mix of cash and my debit card because when I have cash lying around, sometimes I feel tempted to spend it more than with my card. With cash, I need to put it away and designate a clear responsibility for it.