As summer comes to a close, it’s time to take a look back on our spending. Thankfully, Mint.com makes this very easy to do 🙂
We really had to buckle down and stick to our budget, and I think we did a good job. Looking back on the last few months, we really did have a lot of fun.
So, how did we do with summer spending? Here are the numbers:
- Groceries: $875
We bumped up our grocery budget to $300 for the summer, since we like to grill and eat a lot of fresh foods. In the winter, we make casseroles and soups, so our grocery budget is pretty good at about $250, but we avoid turning on the oven during the summer. We eat salads almost every day, and since we had a small garden this year with cucumbers and tomatoes, it really did help us save!
- Drinks:Â $169
We like beer and margaritas. There’s nothing better on a hot day than a cold can of Modelo or a bottle of Corona with lime. Or how about a strawberry basil margarita, blended up with fresh basil from the garden? Cause there were some of those going on here, too. Yum!
- Restaurants: $233
This includes pizza, ice cream, and “fast” food. We don’t go out to eat very often, but we do love pizza! It’s hard to resist a slice and Polish water ice when we’re on the boardwalk. We also dined out a bit on our road trips.
- Â Gas: $340
Gas prices around here were pretty stagnant all summer, sitting at about $3.65. It’s currently around $3.45 a gallon. We had to fill up a few extra times on road trips, and when we went down the shore. We budget $100 per month, so this wasn’t too far off the mark.
- Hotels: $150
We stayed in hotels when we went to Gettysburg and Williamsport. Since M. works for a brand hotel, there are awesome discount rates available to him all over. It’s a great perk of working in hospitality when you love to travel!
- Clothing and Shoes: $164
We don’t buy many clothes, but we have a 3-year-old who is growing all the time, so she needs “new” things every now and then. This number includes work shoes and basics for M., shoes and a swimsuit for our daughter, and some other miscellaneous items. I’ll be hitting up my favorite second-hand sales for fall and winter clothing soon.
Summer Spending total: $1931
Obviously, this does not include our fixed monthly bills, like a car payment, rent, and cell phones. This is just the variable spending that we did this summer. We went down the shore 4 times, took 2 road trips in PA, and spent a lot of relaxing evenings at home, sipping on a cold drink in the backyard. All in all, I’d say we had a really great summer without breaking the bank.
Have you calculated your summer spending? How’d you do?
You really had a great summer guys! We went swimming before the summer’s end, we had so much fun and I spent too much for the drinks, pork for barbecues and fresh fruits.
Wow, those hotel discounts look pretty sweet. My mom used to have a client who worked for a hotel chain and he got a lot of nights free. They exchanged childcare for hotel nights as my mom has and still owns her open daycare. Maybe I will do a post on bartering and how it helps people.
That’s a great idea for a post!
Love the basil in a margarita idea! We certainly have an excess of basil at this point in the growing season. And it’s always the right time for a margarita!
This spending looks pretty great, especially with the travel! Good work!
It sounds weird, but it’s so good!
I can’t wait to try that margarita recipe! We had a bunch of mint in our garden so frozen mojitos were a regular occurrence in our home over the summer.
Frozen mojitos sound good!
Strawberry basil margaritas?! Can I come to your place? I think you guys did well. I did pretty well, but spent a little more on food and alcohol because of the nice weather.
Come on over! 😀
Honestly I have never thought to do something like this but it would be interesting to see how well we did on paper vs just thinking we did good. This summer was a crazy one for us and it flew by as we we going non stop. I’m actually looking forward to the slowing down that comes with fall and winter. Although I’m not sure how well that will work now that KC is starting preschool.
I’m feeling like that too- fall and winter could be busy!
I think you guys did really well all around! Our summer spending wasn’t too bad. We were on budget last month and in July, so that’s been a relief. It’s certainly possible to have a fun, frugal summer!
Fun and frugal for the win!
You had me at beer and margaritas! We did pretty well this summer, especially considering the number of events we had!
I think spending less than 2k and being able to fit in 6 trips is really impressive. Sounds like you guys had a fun summer. I haven’t added up our summer spending yet but I know we def overspent on dining out!
It definitely helps that we don’t pay for a place to stay at the beach. If we did, we couldn’t afford to go so often!