Source: Reach Media / Radio One Digital
Summer is around the corner and families will be spending money on trips and activities both local and outside the city for fun. To conserve, it may be time for you to create a “summer financial fitness plan” to make sure you are not emptying your pockets too much and still having fun. Financial expert, Clyde Anderson joins the Get Up Church this morning to give us some tips on creating a plan that fits your Summer month plans.
READ TIPS BELOW
Tip #1: Set Boundaries
You must take a look at your cash flow and make intentional decisions about where you want to spend and where you want to make cutbacks. Look at the Summer, it’s about three months or so. We can take a picture and say exactly what we want to do, what we want to have, and we know how much money we’re going to be working with so let’s go ahead and put it on paper.
Tip #2: Smart schedule
So, there are certain things where they’re cheaper to buy at certain times. So, travel, for example, August is usually the best month to travel. So, you want to look at the best times when you can catch deals. When is the best time to go? When is the best time to stay? When is the best time to find activities to do for your family and so schedule it and be smart about it.
Tip #3: Use Cash as Much as Possible
When you have cash in your pocket, you know when you break that 20, you know it’s going and you’re counting those dollars. But when you are swiping, it’s almost like imaginary money and we don’t want to think about our ATM card as imaginary money.
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Tip #4. Track It (You can’t change what you don’t measure)
It’s just like athletes, athletes check their stats every year. They know how many passes they caught. They know how many passes they threw. We got to know what we’re spending, what’s coming in, what’s going out. If we’re not measuring how much we’re spending on fast food, we’re not, you know, the movies, going out, those dollars will go out of pocket, so quick and it’s so easy nowadays for things are so expensive to go in the grocery store and spend. $100 on stuff we don’t even need.
Tip 5: Focus on free activities
I mean, the summertime is the season, so get creative and explore your cities. There’s lots of things in the papers and the free section on the weekends of things to do. Check your local papers and websites to find free events near you. Ask friends what they are doing with their kids. Create a little network of people that can share information and decide. “Hey, this is what’s going on this week.” I want to share it with someone because we want to save money. Make it a game. Determine how much money you can save this summer versus how much you’re going to spend.
Create A Summer Financial Fitness Plan | Money Monday was originally published on getuperica.com
