Summer is definitely the time of the year when expenses start to rise. Not only with the electric bill going up having to run the air conditioner, but also spending more money on entertainment, whether it is summer trips, or having to pay for activities to occupy the kids while they are out of school. If you can avoid wasting money on some pretty common mistakes, you can have more left over to spend on having some summer fun.
Cranking Up the A/C All Day
You don’t have to keep the house at 68 degrees all day, especially if you are gone at work for most of it.  We do want to keep our house cool for pets and not having to spend all night cooling it down when you are gone for the day, but every degree you can set it higher will save you on your electric bill. If you can keep it at 74 degrees during the day and 68 degrees while you sleep, you will be in pretty good shape, especially if you can program the temperatures in your thermostat so you don’t forget.
Throwing Out Groceries / Eating Out
We are always on the go in the summer that it seems we eat out a lot. While that is not financially responsible to do on any budget, it also does not make sense especially if you continue to grocery shop. During the winter, we eat at home a lot more and need to do weekly grocery shopping to keep the refrigerator and freezer stocked, but in the summer, you can probably find a balance between eating out all of the time, and keeping the staples at home, so that you are not spending every meal out, but also do not have to throw groceries away, which is a lose-lose.
Watering Grass at the Wrong Time
If it’s 85 degrees and sunny all day, there really is no point in watering then, as it will just dry up and you will be wasting not only water, but also money when it comes time for the water bill. If you can water the grass early in the morning before the heat comes, or even better, at night after sun down, you will have more effective watering knowing that all of the water is going to feeding your grass, and will not to have to seeing money dry up.
Paying for Yard Maintenance
Sure, we would like to hire out everything, but sometimes it doesn’t make financial sense. Having a lawn service is great, but for an hour’s work once a week, even less if you don’t get much rain, you should be able to handle cutting the grass yourself. Keeping up on landscaping can be a breeze as well, just throw in your headphones and enjoy getting out of the house for a while. Much like being a pain to go in the cold to shovel snow, same goes for cutting grass in the heat, sometimes you just have to suck it up.