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Saving for Summer Fun

With polar vortex behind us, it’s time to start thinking about warmth, weekend trips, and all your favorite summer activities....

With polar vortex behind us, it’s time to start thinking about warmth, weekend trips, and all your favorite summer activities. But all this fun makes us want to work a little less, which can ultimately take its toll on your wallet. Here are some tips on creating and maintaining summer savings:

1. Create a special account

Research your plans and create a realistic budget for what you want to do. If you’re planning taking some trips, research the average cost of living per day in terms of transportation lodging, food, etc, and add it to your goal amount. Or, if you’re more of the staycation type of soul, throw out some general ideas for activities, like 3 golf outings a month, 4 baseball games, or whatever you’re into.

Once you have some ideas, open a separate savings account which will help you budget daily expenses as well, and removes the temptation of using the money on something else. You might also want to consider setting up automatic deposits to said special account. By setting up automatic deposits in increments that are significant enough to add up steadily but small enough to not be a burden, you can start saving—and stay on track—without even really thinking about it.

2. Look for rewards
When I went on vacation last year, I was able to use rewards from one of my credit cards for the car rental, SkyMiles for the flight itself, and found some awesome hotel deals through one of my professional organizations that offered deals to members. I found deals that weren’t necessarily even related to travel, but for local concert venues, golf courses, amusement parks, and even just upcoming local festivals.

Before you start booking, peruse some of your resources, and see what kinds of deals are offered. If you’re lucky, you might wind up not paying for hardly anything at all and get some great ideas about how to spend your time.
 
3. Fill up your tank on Wednesdays

Okay, take this one with a grain of salt. Gas is a big expense for many households, and while you may be able to get around using a car by using public transportation, biking or walking most places, many of us aren’t. Saving on gas means more money to spend elsewhere, and it’s said that Wednesday is the perfect day of the week to buy gas because the weekend hike is either over or hasn’t come up yet. Depending on your mobile device’s operating system, there are some great apps out there for comparing gas prices within certain areas.
 
When it’s summertime, living should be easy. Get started by saving money! What are some of your favorite ways to rack up summer savings?

Photo courtesy of MorgueFile: http://mrg.bz/sCWtmQ

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DISCLOSURE: Investment advisory services are offered through Gretchen Stangier, Inc. DBA Stangier Wealth Management (“Stangier Wealth Management”), an investment advisor registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Stangier Wealth Management only offers investment advisory services where it is appropriately registered or exempt from registration and only after clients have entered into an investment advisory agreement confirming the terms of engagement and have been provided copies of the firm’s ADV Part 2A brochure and Part 3 documents.

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