Home » Summer Budget Breaks and a Giveaway

Summer Budget Breaks and a Giveaway

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Along with the joy and sunshine of summer comes a myriad of tasks and pleasantries to be done.  So the question of the day for you is:

What do you spend the most money on during the summer months?

Is it vacations?  Your garden?  Childcare expenses since the youngins are out of school?  You tell me.

As for The Frugal Farmer Family, at least this summer, it will likely be home maintenance stuff.  The barn is in desperate need of a staining (it’s never had stain before – yikes!).  That will probably be our spendiest “spend”.  I have a feeling that DIY project will be costly enough and time-consuming enough to cover our summer to-do list.

We’re also going to try and squeeze in a frugal summer vacation, although we have no idea what that will look like yet.

How about you?  What are your plans for your money this summer?  Tell us, please! And to help pay for those summer expenditures, we’re honored to be co-hosting a giveaway with some of our fave blogging buddies.  By using the Rafflecopter entry below, you are eligible to win a whopping $480!!!! And more great news: you can enter as many times as you’d like between now and July 21st.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

So enter today, and spread the word to your friends about this free summer bonus. 🙂

37 comments

  1. Alexa says:

    The frugal vacation didn’t work so well for me 😉 I don’t have any big plans for the summer. I got the girls a decent kids pool so I will probably just sit outside reading and relaxing while they swim. Couldn’t get any better 😉

    • Laurie says:

      The pool was a wise purchase choice, I think. We would always get those for the kids when they were smaller, and they spent hours in them! Now they’re old enough to want the giant above ground pools, and too big for the smaller “big” pools. Not sure how we’re going to handle that. Lots of days at the beach, I guess. 🙂

  2. I will have to buy one can of exterior paint to do the shutters and doors. That will be under $40.

    I had an unexpected expense this weekend. My blog host decided to close suddenly due to repeated DDOS attacks that have crippled them and left me unable to access my own blog. I have paid a new host and I am hoping migration will happen soon.

    I put the new host expenses on my Visa and now I have to figure out how to pay for it. Something else must be cut. I haven’t figured out what because there isn’t much I haven’t already cut.

    • Laurie says:

      Oh no!!! Sorry to hear about the blog host issues! I hate those out of budget unexpected expenses. We’ve had a few of those lately too. 🙁

  3. As someone who has grown up in the city all their life, I can’t imagine what it would be like to re-stain a barn! Actually, I can’t imagine what farm life would be like for that matter….best of luck in your DIY projects and thanks for partnering in this giveaway!

    • Laurie says:

      I’m a born and raised city kid too, DC. It’s definitely been an adjustment, but a wonderful one. I never thought the country life could be so awesome!

  4. Most of our money I the summer is spent on stuff for the yard, garden or house. We typically like to take vacations closer to the fall so it’s not as hot and don’t have as many people to deal with.

  5. Sicorra says:

    Staining a barn would be interesting. The last time I tried to stain a fence I had more stain on my and on the grass then I did on the fence. LOL

    • Laurie says:

      Me too, Shannon! I’m actually kind of looking forward to it simply b/c it’s so incredibly different from anything I’ve ever done before. Kind of like the city girl’s version of climbing Mt. Everest, although true mountain climbers would likely say that painting a barn is a piece of cake comparatively. 🙂

  6. Tara says:

    I spend the most money on gas/tolls and the occasional park fee. NYC has lots of nice beaches nearby but it does take either some hefty tolls and/or parking fees to access. If I have spare time, the beach is where I head.

    • Laurie says:

      Wow, I had no idea, Tara, about the tolls! We love the beach here too, but a $25 pass will get you in to all state parks/beaches for a straight year, no add’l fees. We’re lucky, too, to have a few great beaches really close by, but I often think that spending a grand on an above ground pool would be the better way to go in the long run. 🙂

  7. Thank you for your vote today Laurie! I don’t see a big difference in summer because seasons are almost the same here. I miss the long days, it gets dark at 7pm at the moment. Other than this, I love summer and the food, nice fruits and veggies, strawberries, cherries… when they are in the store, it means summer has arrived.

    • Laurie says:

      Gladly, Pauline. It was a terrific article! I know what you mean about the nice fruits and veggie. The kids are SO happy when our homegrown stuff grows in, because “it tastes SO much better than the store bought stuff”. My fave part of summer!

  8. AverageJoe says:

    My summer expense? We’re renting a house for a week in northern Michigan. We used AirBnB to lower the price significantly. It’ll be beaches and cool evenings (hopefully) for us!

  9. Sheila says:

    We would love to take a vacation if we can manage it. We have already scheduled time off work, but don’t have a plan yet.

  10. Hands down, travel. Bf and I go up to Maine to visit my grandparents and parents every summer. We drive up and have free lodging, but we like to take everybody out, buy lots of groceries to enjoy at home, and try to stock my grandparents up on some stuff they need. It all adds up, but it’s definitely worth it.

  11. idau85 says:

    I spend most money on home improvements. Being in MN, the winters are spend indoors. I am putting in heated roof coils to prevent ice dams.

    • Laurie says:

      Great idea about the roof coils – I’ll have to let Rick know about that! We’re in MN and we’ve got ice damming probs here too.

  12. Randy Millard says:

    Our summer days will be spent on the raised beds where our veggies are growing.

  13. Shelley says:

    KIDS! Camp, church activities, miscellaneous…love them to death, but they can be expensive!

    • Laurie says:

      Oh yes they can! We’ve cut out all of that stuff, or at least most of it, in our journey to be debt free. It’s difficult, but we know the temporary sacrifice will be worth it. 🙂

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