Once the weather starts to turn from the gloomy cold to the warm spring, it gives you an extra boost of energy, not to mention it continues to get darker each day instead of being pitch black before 6:00 in the evening. While it may be overwhelming with the number of items on your to-do list, but take one thing at a time, open up the windows to get some fresh air in, and maybe cleaning won’t seem as bad. You may start to find your planner filling up more and more each day, and you know what that means; you can expect to be spending more. While that may be true that your activities will increase, that doesn’t mean you have to overdo it when it comes to opening up your wallet.
DIY Projects Will Keep You Busy
If you are doing the work yourself, household improvements are not actually a lot of money, it’s more time, and skill for that matter, which really counts. A lot of the time, these projects are only once a year or every few years, such as sanding or staining the deck, or building a shed. In order to complete the job, it could take a large power tools such as sanders or saws to make the right cuts, but is it worth spending a couple hundred dollars on a saw you might use once? You can actually rent from your hardware store for a fraction of the cost.
Entertain Outside
As you put all of your hard work into updating the yard, why not finally put it to good use so you don’t have to continue to curse at how much time it took up. Especially if you go out for dinner and drinks a lot, entertaining at home is a great way to save money, while still hanging out with friends or family after a long week of work. Even if you meet at your house for appetizers and a few rounds of drinks, it will still save you from what you would spend the whole night being out.
Cut the Cable Cord
What’s becoming more and more popular these days is cancelling cable. If you think about how much it costs for the few channels you do watch, let alone the shows that are on you DVR anyways, it might actually be worth testing cutting the cable cord in the summer while you’re busy, to see how you can get along without it. All of the best shows are on Netflix anyways, so get rid of cable and go for a streaming service around $10 instead. You can always can an HD antenna for around $20 and get all of the local channels in HD, for free, going forward.
Cancel the Gym Membership
Let’s face it, since you made getting in shape a priority in 2018 by joining a gym, the visits are probably becoming more infrequent, where you could even be paying every month and not even using in the first place. Save the $20-$50 a month you spend to not go, and start taking the dog for a walk every day to at least get moving around, and you’d be surprised by just being active outside doing work and eating right, you can watch the pounds fall off.
A Little Caulk Will Go a Long Way
If you didn’t talk a walk around the house to check around doors and windows to see if there is any air loss, now would be the perfect time as the in between period between when it’s cold and hot, giving your furnace and A/C a break right now. Any time you can limit the air escaping while taking advantage of your programmable thermostat to adjust warming up and cooling down the house based on when you’re home vs. at work, while cooling down the most while you’re sleeping.
Use Cash Instead of Credit
Since you are seeing your social calendar continue to fill up, a good way to limit overspending would be to use cash instead of credit, so that way you have a set amount to spend, and then when it’s gone, it’s gone until next paycheck. If you haven’t looked back on previous card statements to see how much you’re exactly spending, it could be worthwhile after you get passed the shock of how much you could have left if you eliminated impulse purchases and watching the money going out a little better. A budget could be a good way to allocate funds to the different areas of your finances.
