What are your frugal summer plans?

[jas]

Well up until July 2nd it will be all about getting things finished up for ds wedding. My dd is hosting the bridal shower (which means me really). The rehersal dinner and the little projects fdil has planned.

Also dd is graduating in May. She does not want a party so that is good. After the wedding I don't think we will have any expendible funds to speak of to do much. Dh and dd want to plan a camping trip to one of the springs in the area which does not cost that much, but will be hot, hot, hot.

We have just started making a raised bed garden so we will be tending to that, it is our first time. Probably some trips to the beach which is only about 5 miles away. I have to watch the sun though. I will be the one with all the heavy sunscreen on!! And staying white. I do like to take walks on the beach and sit for a bit, but not all day like when I was young.

That's about it.

[Spirit Deer]

We have lots of frugal fun planned, like cleaning out the garage or at least parts of it. Believe it or not, I'm looking forward to it.

We camped forty nights last year and the house, yard, and UFO's all suffered for it. So this year we're cutting way back and focusing on home projects, for the most part.

We will be taking about nine days to go to the Black Hills, so we can take advantage of the annual national parks pass we bought last year in Yellowstone. Or not. We're wrapping up a kitchen remodel and now that we're on a roll, it would be nice to keep that momentum going. We've already canceled one trip to North Dakota in favor of working on the house, and it wouldn't take much for us to talk ourselves out of another one so we have more money and time to work on home projects.

We're talking about using the money we're not going to be spending on the ND trip to build a deck we've needed for years. Not sure if we'll do that or not, considering the long list of other projects.

I want to build and fence a perennial garden in front of our house. It'll be built with materials we've either collected cheap from garage sales or have laying around waiting to be used, so the main expense for that would only be the dirt to put in the raised beds, so that would be fairly frugal.

I'll be building more self-watering planters from our leftover cat litter pails and some PVC we have, so those will be free except for dirt.

We'll do some nearby camping trips, most likely.

I'm already growing our flowers for summer in one of our Aerogardens. The veggie plants will be started in another AG tray soon, so we will buy little or nothing from the greenhouses, except for another apple tree.

We'll no doubt be grilling loads of goodies outside and enjoying just being at home.

[Menifeemom]

We plan on taking advantage of all the fun library programs in our area. We'll be heading to a local park for movies after dark and for some free concerts in the park. My favorite is a Jazz concert in the park because last year one of the community parks gave away free hot dogs, chips, and drinks to everyone who came. We hope to start our first garden and do some hiking in our area as well. The theme this year is how much fun can we have for free.

[Lady_V]

Rough Draft ---

week 1: "Friends are still in school" week, summer reading & book reports
week 2: tutoring 3x week, summer reading & book reports
week 3: Basketball camp 8:30-2 (gift)
week 4: 4th of July bbq, daily swimming, packing, leaving for vacation
week 5: on vacation, unpacking, daily swimming
weeks 6-11 : tutoring 3x week, free movie Tues, free movie Wed, swimming,
week 12: early nights, prepping and school starts on Wednesday

week 3 & 8 - "Camp Momma" Fri, Sat & Sun -- I hold a neighborhood camp, we do various crafts, learning/experiments and activites. I don't charge for them to come, but I do ask that they bring their own lunches (except Sun before 7/4, I have a weenie roast for them).

In addition,
we go fishing and feed the ducks in the pond out back (free)
go to the farmers market and walk around for an hour and buy a cookie
check out the library and the summer activities there(free)
Home Depot Learn/Build/Create workshops for kids (free)
Lowes Build,& Grow Clinic for kids (free)
Michaels Crafts for Kids (free)
play games as a family (free)

This is pretty much what is coming up this summer... I will start to create the monthly activity options calendar as soon as I have the exact dates for some things and hang them on the wall the morning of the last day of school... they are usually in some summer related shape (last year was campfires) and as the week ends, we remove it.

[krbshappy71]

I have summers off from main job, I hope to still be doing the part-time job. I plan to be a lean-mean-freecycling machine. I'm the queen of immediate pickups of anything I ask for which usually gets me stuff more often.

I also plan to go through my own stuff and offer it, and/or do lots of thrift store donations.

I love walks to the library for free books and magazines, ours also has a beautiful pond and fountain. If I'm just dropping off and don't have to go indoors I bring a dog or two and let them play in the water to cool off.

I plan to walk my dogs more often, I love my time off from working to be with them.

I plan to start a small container garden and take much better care of my yard this year than I did last year.

It will be my last summer with a bird in the nest, I'm anxious to see what she does, how she spends her "last summer" at home, free from cares of the world. (youngest daughter will be 17 but graduated) Will she get a job? Save up for a car?

[waterbaby77]

We're planning on taking advantage of the large porch area (with a splendid view) in our new apartment (We moved in September so have not gotten to fully enjoy the porch so far).

I'd like to do some container gardening (tomatoes, basil, other herbs). I'm also planning on refinishing a chair and a desk.

I'd like to eat dinner on the porch, and spend time just sitting out there with a book and a cool drink.

We usually do a lot of picnics and hiking excursions in various parks, and go to BBQs at friends' houses.

We are going on vacation the last week in June. We are going to stay in a cabin on an island in the San Juans. Our cabin has a stove and refrigerator so we are going to bring our food from home and cook in the cabin. It is really expensive to buy food on the island because everything has to come over on the ferry, plus there is sales tax in Washington, so we are going to bring as much as we can from Oregon. We plan to do a lot of hiking, yoga, tai chi, reading and lazing around while we are there.

Aside from good hiking boots and some new sandals, I don't think I'll have to buy much in the way of clothes this summer.

[frugalfoster]

Since there is a wedding looming in the future next year and I am saving all my pennies.....we will be up at our cabin on the outskirts of Mount Rainier National Park...We buy a National Parks Pass and that allows us unlimited entry to the park...so hiking...hiking....hiking.... :-)

[frugalfranny]

It seems that mine keep changing............was going to Calif. but with the gas prices..........not so sure.

Thank heavens for a friend that lives close (mile away) that has a pool.......when the heat hits. I get to take 'the kids' too.

So...flexible is the name of my game........and not sure.

[Sophia]

For us this summer, The kids will be swimming in our pool. Youngest ds swims as much as he can in summer. Plant a garden. We have VBS coming up in June so that will be a 6 to 8 everynight for a week. Church outings. Going to trade day. Oldest DS will do a week helping at Camp KIKI (day camp for children with diabetes) He has only missed one camp in 11 years and that was the year we went to Hawaii. He started at 8years old when we found out he was a diabetic and now he is a counselor. Going to Trade day on Tuesdays. Cooking out . Painting some in the house and maybe if we have the money putting down new flooring in 2 of our bedrooms. Doing some canning. Trying to get things ready for a new homeschooling year and oldest starting back to college in the fall.

[imagine]

Our local aqua park ( swimming pool, water slides, sprinkler park, intertube water ride) has family night on Fridays a family can come for the price of an adult ticket $5. three hours of swimming is just perfect.

By the way this is the only local swimming pool so any swimming including swimming lessons happens at the aqua park.

Library activities free, free concerts,

[Sassyclass]

1. plant tomatoes, green bell peppers, and potatoes
2. hit the Farmers Market every Saturday
3. start shopping at the Amish store again
4. while utilities are back down to earth, increase stockpile
5. get outside in the sunshine more to get my Vitamin D up and save on $ for prescription


Cat