Seasonal Spending - It’s Not Just for Christmas Anymore
I reconciled my checking accounts this morning, a process which entails categorizing all of my expenses. While I’m spending less and saving more than I was this time last year, I have been spending more on entertainment (quite a bit more) than I did in March.
I typically associate seasonal spending with the holidays, but I looked at my records from this time last year, and my forensic accounting has revealed a trend - April and May are disproportionately large spending months for me.
A few of the reasons are obvious. First of all, Matt’s birthday is in April, as is my best friend’s. While we don’t buy expensive gifts for each other, we typically do go out for a nice dinner or two. Second, as I have already mentioned, spring means it’s time to spend some time on money on the yard. I plant annuals, buy a few hanging baskets of flowers, and plant fresh herbs.
Finally, we entertain at home much more when spring arrives. Our house is small, but we have a nice outdoor space that becomes our second living room during fair weather months. On any given weekend evening between now and October one can usually find us on out on our deck, enjoying good food and good adult beverages with good friends.
I love to entertain. More specifically, I really enjoy cooking for friends and family. I don’t make anything fancy (tonight, for example, it was Niman Ranch sausage, grilled and served with fresh mozzarella and a homemade sweet pepper relish on toasted ciabatta rolls), but I do like to use quality ingredients. We budget a bit more for food in the summer, and with the fruit, veggies, and eggs I’m scoring from my CSA - we should spend much less on food this year than we did in 2007.
All and all, I feel pretty good about my planned expenses this summer. We’re doing a couple of days of a bicycle tour, volunteering at a two-day music festival, and attending a few weddings - as well as planning our own. This year I’ve offically given up golf (it’s an expensive hobby - I never played enough to become good at it), we have most of the bike gear that we need, and we never take much of a vacation - so our summer spending should be kept in check from here on out.
Summer hobbies (biking, golfing, boating are all pretty pricy), summer travel, and all those summer weddings really add up. What’s your summer weakness? Do any readers experience a similar uptick in spending this time of year?
Stumble it!
May 12th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
I really enjoy that
“Niman Ranch sausage, grilled and served with fresh mozzarella and a homemade sweet pepper relish on toasted ciabatta rolls”
qualifies as “Nothing Fancy”. I’m not criticizing at all, it sounds lovely, but oh what lifestyle inflation does to us all.
May 12th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
@Red. You’re right about the livestyle inflation, and food is my weakness - but this meal sounded more expensive than it was. Six rolls for $2, the mozzerella was $1.80 (they make it on site at the local market), sausages were a splurge at 4 for $5. Peppers and tomatoes were purchased at the farmers’ market over the weekend for less than 25 cents a piece.
It’s great to live in a community surrounded by farms!
May 13th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
My boyfriend and I are music fanatics, and so we spend quite a bit in the summer going to out-of-state festivals (this year, the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago) and concerts. The ticket prices, hotel bills, and gas really add up. Pitchfork will have to be our “big” vacation this year. I agree with you that it is harder to stay on track financially when so many fun things await you in the summer.
May 14th, 2008 at 7:31 am
I notice i spend quite a bit during planting season for seeds, veggie seedlings, annuals and assorted gardening equipment like stakes and fencing.
Last fall as i was cleaning up for the season i threw a potted parsley plant in the garage and forgot about it. I never watered it all winter but amazingly, it survived a New England winter, looking very parched by March, at which time i realized it was still alive, so i watered it and now it’s into its 2nd season.
I don’t actually use the parsley much as it’s a host plant for swallowtaili butterflies so i let the little caterpillars have their fill.They start off as tiny black dots you see on the leaves and they grow from there.
but my point is, i’m going to try overwintering plants more as well as doing cuttings and dividing existing plants. Last year i realized how easily a pinched impatiens stem roots, as does coleus. I tried boxwood, but not sure that worked too well.
May 15th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
I’ve already paid for a lot of travel that will occur over the course of this year. I calculated that I spent 20% of my net income on travel for the first few months of the year! Of course all I have left to buy is my Christmas plane ticket, so the % of my annual income will be FAR lower than 20% when I do the math later on.