44: Smart Summer Budgeting: Have a Blast without Breaking the Bank

Hello everyone, my name is Carolyn. Welcome to the Saving for Your First Home podcast. I am the CEO of the Financial Moment. We offer money coaching for those who are ready and willing to make financial changes in their lives. For the most of us, there comes a point in time where we think to ourselves it would be really nice to own property, but it sometimes can feel like a pipe dream and not very easily obtainable. So I created this podcast to give you all the information and tools you need to take the steps forward toward home ownership. Take it from me my husband and I started our lives together, working part-time jobs with a young child. Fast forward, through many hiccups and failures, we stepped our feet into our very first home. For us it was a pile of dirt, but eventually our family home was built on that dirt. Now we are in the midst of growing our investment property portfolio. I created the savings for your first home podcast to give you easy, actionable tools for you to do the same. If you have that same gut feeling that I did and want to create a life for yourself and your growing family, but don't know where to start, you are in the right place. Let's do this. Welcome back to the Saving for Your First Home podcast. Now, when this episode releases, we will be officially in summer, And for us Canadians, we have waited nine months for this to come. So we make the most of our summers, but a lot of the time, things can get a little bit out of hand when it comes to our spending. So I thought I do a really quick episode about creating a summer budget. Now, this is important to do because if you have large financial goals, you don't want three or four months to offset all the hard work that you've been putting in. So how do you exactly create a summer budget? It's kind of hard, because summer is all about spontaneity, it's about hanging out with friends and family, it's about the barbecues, about travel, the kids' activities so many things right. So how on earth do you kind of come up with a budget for the summer period? So I'm going to give you a step-by-step breakdown of how you should develop a summer budget. So the first thing that I want you to do is head to your calendar. So for the most part, i know that a lot of you have planned out what you're going to do over the summer. Now, that could be a trip somewhere, that could be parties, that could be birthdays or celebrations, and what I'd like you to do is just review your calendar and write down all the activities that you already have booked. Now, if you're planning a trip or a vacation away from home, then if you haven't listened to episode 42, how to Maximize Your Vacation Fun Without Sacrificing Your Savings then head back and listen to that episode And it has a lot of great suggestions on how you can still have a lot of fun but keep more money in your pocket. Now, if you're a long-time listener, you know that I am kind of a fly on the seat of Frank Pants kind of person. I hate everything to be mapped out and exactly planned. You know, kind of strange for someone who is a money coach and talks about planning and budgeting all the time. But you can be spontaneous and still have enough, having enough money to do the things that you want to do, and that's the whole goal, right. So once you have all your activities kind of mapped out, you're going to see what type of requirements are needed for that activity. So, for example, if you're going to host a barbecue, then it's obvious you're going to need food, you're going to need drinks, cutlery, plates, all the stuff that goes with having the barbecue, maybe even decorations if it's an occasion. So this is where the planning comes out. Figure out how many people you're going to have, how much food you're going to need, how much drinks you're going to have, all these things, and you can actually chart it out and figure out an amount that is reasonable to have this particular event, and you know what That could be, even the deciding factor whether you do or you don't. But you don't have to minimize the fun. What you can do, if it is adding up a little bit, then have a potluck. Everybody brings something and you still get together with the same people. Everybody doesn't usually mind when it's a barbecue and you've just minimized your cost and you end up with the same outcome On your list. You may have activities that you need to plan for your children, so it doesn't mean that you have to minimize again the things that they want to do, but perhaps you pick and choose. So you do a lottery system. You put all their ideas into a bucket, everybody picks some and that's what you go with, and some things are a little bit more costly, but then you have some things that are not as costly, like going to the beach or having a picnic or going to an animal farm. Right, there's lots of ways where you can kind of save money on particular weekends and then splurge a little bit, like you're going to a Blue Jay game or a baseball game. So, now that you've taken care of your friends and family and you've taken care of your children, what about you? You gotta have some fun too. What I suggest is that you write down some ways or things or activities that you truly enjoy. Maybe it's just time reading a book or going to a farmer's market and picking up some fresh produce and cooking your favorite meal. Maybe it's exploring nature and going for a hike or watching movie in an outdoor theater. You know, there are so many ways that you can factor in some downtime and some relaxation without spending a lot of money, like going to the spa. And then, just to touch on travel again, you don't actually have to plan this big massification outside of the country. There are many ways to get away and still live within your budget. I know a lot of people like camping and I'm not going to knock it, it's not particularly for me, but I know a lot of people love camping And so maybe even renting some outdoor gear, as opposed to buying all the equipment that you need or borrowing it from some avid campers perhaps that's a good way to experience it and see if you actually truly do like it. Now, the route that I sometimes take is that perhaps you head out of the city, stay at a bed and breakfast or something smaller, where you know there's still a little bit of amenities, but you're getting out into the nature and enjoying yourself as well, and for me that's likely the happy medium. And I don't want you to forget about food and dining, because the summer is such an easy time to get carried away with the takeout and the dining out, because nobody wants to stay at home, everybody wants to be out and about. This is where meal prep really comes in handy. So perhaps on a Monday, tuesday, wednesday, even Thursday, you focus in really hard and plan your meals and cook them. This way it gives you some freedom and flexibility where you don't have to be forced to come home and cook. All right. So we have all of our activities and plans laid out in our calendar and then we've labeled it with a price tag for each one of these things. So just to remind you of what a budget entails we start with our income, we deduct our expenses and, at the end of the day, we wanna make sure that we are cash flow positive. So if you want more detail on how to create a budget, then head right back to episode number six. That episode really goes into detail about different types of budgets and what will suit you best. But for the summertime we can be a little bit more relaxed. But what I'd like to see is that there is an amount in your budget allocated for the activities and things that you've planned out for. So if you are going through and your income and your normal expenses are equaling zero meaning that your income is just covering all of your expenses you know what's gonna happen, right? If you're anything like I was, staying on top of your budget is not an easy task. Paycheck to paycheck would go by, and you're no further ahead. For my listeners, i am giving you this free guide that is going to take you to the next level. It's got 10 easy tips to follow to help you stay on track with your budget. Just head to thefinancialmomentcom backslashbudget-tips, enter your information and you can download this guide right now All of those activities that you've planned end up on a credit card or end up in some form of debt because there really isn't any extra money to allocate to these things. And take it from me. For years, i used to operate like this I had my income coming in and I would be paying out my expenses, but I never really planned for the things that kind of just came up. So, for example, my friends would just you know out of the blue say, hey, why don't we go for lunch on Sunday? Now you would think that a simple lunch out with friends is not going to cost you too much. However, if you are down to the line when it comes to your income and expenses, it's still going to throw you into debt because you're going to throw that on a credit card. It's not something that you have to just withdraw from your bank account, and this cycle continues. This is not a one-time event. This happens over and over and over again, and this is where we can end up into a lot of debt and you don't even know where it came from. So if you are struggling with this type of thing, where you are feeling that you're paycheck to paycheck, you don't have anything extra. You know that a lot of things are going to be coming up over the summer. Then reach out. I'm here to help you. This is my purpose in life really is to get people understanding how to prepare for the unexpected, how to plan for future goals and to ensure that your money is working for you. So head out there and have a great summer and share this with a friend. You really don't know the impact you could have on someone. Thank you for listening. We are committed to helping you place your very first steps into your new home. See you next time.