Weekly Review: Spending
This week’s spending was….not great. The big expense was my husband’s birthday; we went out for dinner and to see a comedian for about $100.00. It was a fun night and a planned expense.
However, I got more than carried away with summer fun spending this week. Patio lunches, Stampede celebrations, more patio lunches, and other summer delights. It’s like I discovered summer was happening and then decided it was only going to last five days. So then it was time to Party Like it’s 1999 (Terrible nineties song reference) and YOLO myself out of spending money for the next week. F word.
How do I like them Coronas? (Terrible Good Will Hunting reference)
Weekly Review: Life Under Construction
Apparently I think I’m reliving the financial equivalent of Summer Nights.
On the flip side of things – this week was fun. This was probably because I spent money like it was water. This is my first summer practicing financial accountability with my new budget and I think I kind of came into summer unprepared. During winter, I hibernate and pretend there isn’t an outside to worry about. Winter is for white bears and people with a sadistic enjoyment for risking frostbite.
Summer is my time to make up for the other eight months of my hermit-like existence, apparently. Moving forward from here, I need to figure out a way to enjoy summer without breaking my budget. Here are my thoughts:
- Dragonboating: I was part of a competitive dragonboat team a few years ago and I really enjoyed it. For some reason, I got busy with other things and didn’t return to it the following year. This is a fun and affordable option because it gets me out onto the water a couple times a week to paddle for the bargain price of a $100 for the entire summer. I’m part of a team so I get to meet new people and do something I enjoy two or three times a week. There are competitions that I would participate in over the season, but I can pick and choose those so I can plan out the expenses. The exercise would be good too!
- Entertain at home: This is not a new concept but I got out of the habit of doing this and have started going to restaurants and pubs to spend time with friends. We bought a house last summer and have a nice patio and backyard to spend time in – I will plan a bbq!
- Camping: My husband and I were invited to go camping with some friends over the upcoming long weekend. I’m going to talk to my friends and see if we can still join them and what the costs are to camp for a couple of days. If that doesn’t work, I’m going to make plans to go camping sometime in August to get away with the family for a couple of days. While we’re not in a place to go on fancier vacations – camping will be a nice way to enjoy summer.
I’ll still have to figure out a way to fund these things but that’s way more feasible than carrying on the way I did this week. I’ll keep you posted on how these things work out over the next weeks.
We’ve been trying to take advantage of all the free parks and beaches near us. It’s been a really fun summer so far without a ton of spending. If you live near a city there are often a number of free events too. There’s a huge arts festival in the Boston Commons lasting 10 days right now that we definitely want to check out.
Parks and free festivals are a great way of getting out and enjoying summer without the hefty price tag. I think I’ll research what’s happening this summer – thanks for the tip.
People always say that camping is cheap….but it depends who you go with! We’ve dropped some serious cash on camping trips before….because people want to camp in high cost areas or have filet mignon over the fire or something. Ha!
Yes, you are definitely right about camping being expensive under the right (wrong?) circumstances. I have to get more details from my buddy but I know for ourselves, we have all the gear and such to make it happen without having to buy extra.
I’ll look into the group’s plans for food and activities – thanks for the reminder.
I just saw a Grease sing a long at the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday! Really fun. Anyway I think summer is always tough to keep your budget under control. I always have the urge to say f it and go have dinner on some nice patio somewhere and not think about money. BTW this is the second time I’ve heard a blogger mention dragon boating! I had never heard of this before!
Dragonboating is great fun, buddy! You should look into it if you like being on the water.
As I have discovered, summer seems to be a big trigger. Moving forward, I think I’m developing a plan for making everything happen without compromising my budget. Cheers!
Wow thats an expensive week you had there. I understand the birthday you should have fun and enjoy. If we had weeks like this I think my budget would get up off of Excel and slap me. Glad you had fun but lets get the budget back this week. We try to do as much at home or for free as possible. Living close to the beach really helps and when in doubt we hit the Redbox or Netflix. Game nights start this Thursday.
It should have definitely slapped me – I wonder if I can write into Intuit and request that for the next roll out of Quicken. I didn’t believe it until I downloaded the banking info twice – it’s crazy.
I will definitely be able to practice frugal entertainment this week since I have no other choice. And rightfully so.
Seems like an expensive week, but birthdays are generally a pretty good excuse. You just have to make it up afterward. I’m all about entertaining at home. We have folks coming over this weekend and I am pretty excited about it. Generally, more so than I am if I am going out.
Hey Greg, I responded to your comment below Anna – I messed up the “reply”.
I loved dragon boat racing, though I couldn’t keep up with the schedules – what a great activity! I’m curious, too, which stand-up comedian you saw? I really respect their work, and love going to watch them live. Here’s hoping for a better spending week for you! 🙂
It is an expensive week. I think moving forward, I’ll utilize my mystery shopping opportunities for birthdays and date nights out. I have a ton of options every week for stuff like this since I’m signed up with so many companies – that would have takenc are of the $60 dinner bill with no problem.
Entertaining at home is a great option – I’ve never really gotten into it because I find I spend just as much on food and drink for the guest. I know there’s a happy medium, I just have to find it.
Dragon boating is a lot of fun but the schedule can be much! I know I’m worried about the schedule too – I have to talk more with my husband and work out all the logistics.