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7 simple steps to prepare for a thrifty summer

U.S. News & World Report

June 11, 2017, 5:30 AM

Senior Adult Planning Agenda Calendar Concept(Getty Images/iStockphoto/Rawpixel Ltd)

With the start of summer comes much warmer temperatures, summer vacations, outdoor activities, fresh foods and much more. But summer can also come with extra costs, such as travel expenses and high energy bills. Those extra expenses can definitely cast a shadow over the bright sunlight of the summer months.

Don’t despair: You can take a few steps right now on the doorstep of summer in order to save money on many of those extra summer costs. Here are seven simple strategies you can implement to keep the costs of summer low without taking away even a bit of the summer fun.

Make your home more efficiently cool. Right now, adjust all of your ceiling fans for summer rotation (the blades should spin counterclockwise in summer), change all of the bedsheets to cotton, switch to LED lightbulbs and get the propane grill ready. All of those steps will make your home much more energy efficient in the summer in terms of keeping it cool, and they’re all steps you can take right now. Proper ceiling fan rotation encourages airflow, cotton bedsheets are much cooler at night, LED lightbulbs emit far less heat and grilling outside keeps a ton of heat out of your kitchen. (Thinkstock)
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Know your finances. (Thinkstock)
Plan ahead for tax-free holidays. Many states have tax-free holidays during the summer in which some classes of items are sold without sales tax, making it much nicer to shop locally. On those holidays, many retailers compete for your business and offer competing sales, which really bolsters the effect. Plan for this by looking ahead at tax-free holidays in your state this summer and center your shopping for those items around the tax-free holidays. (Thinkstock)
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Watch for last-minute travel bargains. The cheapest way to take an interesting vacation is to simply buy last-minute flight tickets to whatever destination is the least expensive and then figure it out as you go. So, in the week or two before you have some time off, start hunting for tickets, and when you find something dirt cheap, see what’s going on at your destination and where you can stay for cheap. Doing this kind of on-the-fly planning makes for a spontaneous vacation that costs very little. (Thinkstock)
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Make a summer calendar. Look ahead at the community calendars of the towns and cities in your area and identify lots of cool, free activities, such as free concerts and community festivals, during the summer months. Add everything that seems interesting to your calendar right now, so that you’ll be reminded of those things as they get closer and you won’t forget about them when the time comes around. For the ones you definitely don’t want to forget, put reminders in place, so that you’re alerted about them regularly as they get closer. (Thinkstock)
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Plan some frugal family days in advance. Many of the best frugal activities happen when you put in a little bit of advance thinking and footwork, so do that now. Look for ideas for free and inexpensive activities throughout the summer that your family might enjoy right now and make a giant list of them. Add some of the dated ones to your calendar as optional things to do. If you’re pretty sure that some of those ideas are ones you want to follow up on, do the legwork, such as watching for sidewalk chalk on sale or finding a bunch of local geocaches, now so that they’re simple to pull off when the time comes around. (Thinkstock)
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WTOP Garden Editor Mike McGrath says now is the perfect time for planting garlic cloves, pansies, and new trees and shrubs. (Thinkstock)
Plant some easy-to-grow herbs and vegetables. If you don’t have a green thumb, plant stuff that’s incredibly easy to grow, such as chives or oregano, or even a standalone tomato plant or a small lettuce patch or a cucumber vine. You’ll invest just a little now, but later in the summer, you may just find yourself with an abundance of ultracheap vegetables and herbs. If you plant some extras, you can swap them with neighbors who also garden in order to expand your variety of super-cheap produce. (Thinkstock)
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Reading should be a fun activity, not something seen as a punishment. (Getty Images/iStockphoto/FamVeld)
Plan some time off for a staycation. Taking a staycation simply means that you stay at home to catch up on some things that you haven’t had time for lately, whether it’s simple home repair or something more fun, such as picking up a hobby. Rather than spending all of your vacation time on travel, plan on spending some of it around your house or apartment on the things you’ve left undone. In fact, plan ahead a little and make a list of all of the stuff you’d like to take care of or dabble in during a staycation. (Thinkstock)
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Know your finances. (Thinkstock)
WTOP Garden Editor Mike McGrath says now is the perfect time for planting garlic cloves, pansies, and new trees and shrubs. (Thinkstock)
Reading should be a fun activity, not something seen as a punishment. (Getty Images/iStockphoto/FamVeld)

[See: 12 Habits of Phenomenally Frugal Families.]

[See: 12 Frugal Ways to Save on Vacation.]

[See: 20 Tips for Saving Money at the Grocery Store.]

More from U.S. News

10 Summer Savings Tips

12 Ways to Save Money on Food

8 Big Budgeting Blunders — and How to Fix Them

7 Simple Steps to Prepare for a Thrifty Summer originally appeared on usnews.com

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