Summer is the most anticipated season of the year. In fact, many people start making summer plans as early as the beginning of the year. And living in Russia, you’ll agree that you don’t want to miss all the fun that goes down between June and August.
With the weather being warm in the summer months, and the days lasting longer, it’s not too hard to let your spending out of your control. You can start feeling the urge to eat out more often than usual, take vacations to different cities and all of these can have negative effects on the state of your wallet.
So you need money.
And you really don’t want to spend all your money cruising from city to city and then you’re broke when winter is approaching. So how do you manage your money while you’re spending in summer?
Here are a few tips on how to have the best summer, and not overstrain your wallet:
1. Set budget limits in advance: If you are someone who creates a budget at the beginning of the year, you can revisit the one you’ve created and set limits for summer. It is important that you are realistic with the limits by recognizing your plans and desires for the summer and also finding the cheapest means towards achieving the plans.
Setting a budget limit helps you to gauge your spending at any time in summer. You can also classify the limits into transport, feeding or accommodation and also set the limits monthly or weekly as you find comfortable.
2. Buy in advance: This applies to everything ranging from transport, to booking apartments or even feeding. Travel tickets tend to be cheaper weeks or months before the departure date so you can take this advantage to plan ahead by buying the tickets earlier.
Make sure you also plan your accommodation earlier and have it booked in advance to save last minute costs. You can have bulk shopping for feeding in the summer months because things tend to be cheaper when bought in bulk and kept.
3. Track your spending: This is very important because you can get carried away by the fun and enjoyments of summer that you forget the budget. It is important to include miscellaneous spending in the budget but also strictly track what you spend.
This can be done with special apps and can be done on a daily basis or a weekly basis. This is just to make sure you are in line with the plans and budget and recognise when you’re buying randomly.
4. Plan in a group: Never walk alone… If you have close friends who have the same plans for summer as you, you can easily plan travelling, feeding and even accommodation together in order to save cost.
It might even be something as simple as a Netflix subscription for the summer. Just split costs with one other and save some extra cash for the future.
5. Make smart swaps: In a country like Russia, it’s very easy to find different options for a particular thing you want. It might be different flight airlines, brands of milk, apartment companies, or taxi companies.
You can always compare the different options you have for a particular thing and go for the cheapest with comfortable quality. You can also decide to cook meals at home some days instead of always eating out.
6. Earn extra cash: This can work both for the plans in summer or even just to generally increase your income. You can pick up a side hustle, such as teaching, babysitting or housesitting to earn additional income, which can then be used to achieve other summer plans or even just to replenish what has been used for the summer.
Don’t let the fear of spending too much in summer restrict you or let the carelessness of summer cripple your wallet.
What are your summer plans? Let us know!
