It’s Day 2 of 5 Days of Preparing for Summer Vacation! This challenge was created to help you and your family have a fun, purposeful summer!
Yesterday we created our personal goals for the summer as well as a summer bucket list! What did you come up with for your family’s list?
A few of the things my family added to ours are horsemanship camp for Maddie, going to a professional baseball game, fishing, swimming lessons, a family vacation, a trip to the zoo, a picnic, and going to our favorite park.
Several of the activities that the kids put on our summer bucket list are cheap or even free but there are some that are not (swimming lessons, horsemanship camp, and the baseball game to name just a few!).
Today’s challenge is to rework your own personal budget to include those items that are an additional cost so you will not be going into debt (which will also make them much more enjoyable)!
From my family’s list, I know that horsemanship camp is around $300. One of the highlights of Maddie’s summer is attending horsemanship camp if we can fit it into our summer schedule. There have been a few years it hasn’t worked but this year we are making it a priority for her to be able to go. As she gets older, more and more activities are added and you never know when it will be the last time. Horses are her passion so it’s a dream come true for her to be able to go.
To help her learn the value of money, in the past we’ve had her pay half of the expense of the camp. We will be doing this again this year. It’s not a punishment, it’s learning that nothing is free and if you want something you will have to work for it. Plus I’m a believer in experiences rather than getting “stuff.” She has been saving birthday and Christmas money as well as doing chores to earn her half and I think she already has more than she needs.
When you look at your list you will need to account for each expense in your budget. Hopefully if you are wanting to go on a big summer vacation you’ve been preparing in advance as it will most likely be a hefty expense. If you don’t, you will need to find a way to account for those expenses. You can use money in savings, take money that was going into a flexible account such as Christmas money and put it into your vacation account or find a way to earn some extra income (garage sales, picking up a few hours of work, selling items on Facebook/Craigslist, tweaking your grocery or gas budget, using coupons, or just cutting back in general). I usually do a No Spend Challenge a few times in the summer to use up what we have to save some money as well. It works great!
For today, sit down and estimate how much extra money you will need for your activities on your bucket list. Then look at your budget and decide how you are going to pay for them. After you have your bucket list included in the budget, you are done!
Do you budget for summer activities throughout the year? Do you do anything special to help account for those expenses?
Have you enjoyed what you read here today? Do you have friends or other women you know that could benefit from this resource? If so, please do me a favor! I have included the links below to share with other intentional women! They’ll be glad you did!
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