WEBVTT 00:00:00.321 --> 00:00:05.892 Hi, stacey Hyde and I'm back with another episode of Better Financial Health in 15 minutes or less. 00:00:05.892 --> 00:00:13.413 And what I'd like to talk about today is the great summer budget busters and how you can beat them. 00:00:13.413 --> 00:00:20.211 Because did you know that the average American spends over $2,000 every summer? 00:00:20.211 --> 00:00:24.948 That's not like a big trip, that's just like extra stuff, summer activities. 00:00:24.948 --> 00:00:37.231 So what I want to talk about today is how you can enjoy your summer and maybe steer clear of some of these budget busters or, even better, plan for them. 00:00:38.259 --> 00:00:40.162 So common culprits travel. 00:00:40.162 --> 00:01:10.100 Of course we know that airfare, hotels, eating out that sort of thing, kids are out of school, you've got camps, maybe babysitters going to the ice cream store all those types of things can go up also your utility bill, because you know where I live in Memphis it gets hot, so you know we run our AC all the time Social events, barbecues, weddings, general get togethers. 00:01:10.100 --> 00:01:19.703 Maybe you join your local like the Germantown Athletic Club in the summer, so you've got a membership for that. 00:01:19.703 --> 00:01:39.743 If you can go back and look at what you spent last year right now, as we're just getting started in summer, so you can sort of see what you spent and make sure you're prepared for that that's one way to kind of start planning ahead, see what you did before and then set up a seasonal budget. 00:01:39.743 --> 00:01:48.025 Budgeting is not just for Christmas or retirement, it's planning for these things and have a fun fund. 00:01:48.025 --> 00:01:51.049 That's kind of hard to say fast three times. 00:01:51.049 --> 00:01:58.179 What I mean by that is you know we always talk about an emergency fund, but let's have a fun fund. 00:01:58.179 --> 00:02:05.474 So put some money in there for concert tickets, a weekend getaway, whatever it is. 00:02:05.474 --> 00:02:11.127 Maybe it's something special you wanted to do with your kids or your parents. 00:02:11.127 --> 00:02:20.570 You know you can use an app for this or you can just kind of plan it out and use the old Dave Ramsey envelope system with cash. 00:02:21.460 --> 00:02:23.788 So there's some alternatives you can do. 00:02:23.788 --> 00:02:25.826 You can look for free things. 00:02:25.826 --> 00:02:28.908 You know free outdoor concerts. 00:02:28.908 --> 00:02:33.463 The Overton Park Shell has a lot of free concerts that you can go to. 00:02:33.463 --> 00:02:36.722 There's festivals, there's things like that that you can do. 00:02:37.223 --> 00:02:50.430 And instead of hosting a big event at your house, maybe do a potluck where everybody brings it, because providing burgers and hot dogs and all the sides and all the fruit and all that can get really expensive quickly. 00:02:50.430 --> 00:02:54.526 But if everybody kind of kicks in, it's not so expensive. 00:02:54.526 --> 00:02:59.096 For example, we have a friend who makes wonderful paella. 00:02:59.096 --> 00:03:01.664 Well, that's a really expensive item. 00:03:01.664 --> 00:03:08.330 Well, we're having a paella party and everybody's going to kick in at the cost of all the seafood. 00:03:08.330 --> 00:03:23.365 She's going to contribute her labor and then everybody else is bringing some desserts, some sides, their cocktail of choice, and it'll just be a fun event that is not very expensive for anybody but everybody's getting some fabulous food. 00:03:23.365 --> 00:03:25.229 So that's one way to do it. 00:03:25.670 --> 00:03:28.461 The other thing is you can house swap. 00:03:28.461 --> 00:03:35.526 If you've got a friend who lives in another area and you want to visit there, maybe y'all can swap your houses or do something along those lines. 00:03:35.526 --> 00:03:41.400 Or you can keep an eye out for little weekend getaways. 00:03:41.400 --> 00:03:54.752 So instead of flying and doing a big event, you just maybe stay closer to home or even have a staycation where you become a tourist in your own town or your own area. 00:03:54.752 --> 00:03:56.015 That can be a lot of fun. 00:03:58.060 --> 00:04:01.974 And I want to kind of talk about the difference between spending money and getting value. 00:04:01.974 --> 00:04:10.125 There's all kinds of ways that you can maximize your value and it really depends on what you enjoy. 00:04:10.125 --> 00:04:18.892 You don't need to necessarily have the big beach vacation, because going to the beach right now is pretty expensive and there's a ton of people there. 00:04:18.892 --> 00:04:30.482 So maybe what you really want to do is maybe go to a lake and sit there, because really all you want to do is be able to see water and read a book or something like that. 00:04:30.482 --> 00:04:34.394 But if the beach is your thing, that's fine, just make sure you plan for it. 00:04:34.394 --> 00:05:05.192 So here's hoping that your summer is super fun and also financially healthy and really do enjoy that fun fund, because I promise you your summer memories will be much better remembered if you also don't have a big credit card balance to get over come next May that you're still trying to pay off this year's vacation. 00:05:05.192 --> 00:05:11.084 So it really is just planning ahead and setting aside money to do what you want to do. 00:05:11.084 --> 00:05:28.913 And here's a challenge take a hundred dollars and challenge, uh, maybe, another family or friend to see who can do the most on a hundred dollars in a weekend, and I think you could have a lot of fun with that, like, okay, we spent. 00:05:28.913 --> 00:05:37.322 You know you set your ground rules, what's included, what's not included and see who gets to do the most things for that. 00:05:37.870 --> 00:05:49.942 One other tip for those in the Memphis area a zoo membership can be a great value for a family, because going to the zoo one time and paying for everybody to go can be pretty expensive. 00:05:49.942 --> 00:05:59.374 You basically pay for your zoo membership in two visits and I can remember when my kids were little we went all the time and we'd go for like an hour or two. 00:05:59.374 --> 00:06:05.740 They didn't have to go for a long time because we had a membership and we'd get the kids out of there before they had a meltdown. 00:06:05.740 --> 00:06:08.531 So that was fun to go in the early morning. 00:06:08.531 --> 00:06:12.120 It was also fun to go kind of late in the day if we hadn't done much during the day. 00:06:12.120 --> 00:06:18.322 So there are some memberships that can really help you stretch your vacation dollars as well. 00:06:18.322 --> 00:06:20.115 Thanks for tuning in. 00:06:20.115 --> 00:06:24.439 This has been another episode of Better Financial Health in 15 Minutes or Less.