{"id":273370,"date":"2021-08-26T12:29:50","date_gmt":"2021-08-26T11:29:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/?p=273370"},"modified":"2025-03-14T17:35:06","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T16:35:06","slug":"how-to-deal-with-unexpected-summer-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/?p=273370","title":{"rendered":"How to deal with unexpected summer costs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Have fun saving money over lockdown, did you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sure, the distinct lack of expenditure over the past 15-16 months have been great, but things arestarting to get back to normal.With a return to normality,you\u2019ll probably find your day-to-day spending is steadily rising to where it was before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The next few months are set to be interesting ones from a budgeting perspective. Many rescheduled social events like weddings, stag and hen dos and other big celebrations that were postponed over the past year and a half are all getting crammed in close together. For those participating, that can rather quickly take monthly spending from next to nothing to an awful lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Indeed, summer is a classic time for unexpected costs to rear their head, but with this year especially likely to be a shock to the financial system, what can you do to deal with them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Reasons your budget isn\u2019t working<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If your budget has gone from being watertight to looking shaky recently, these could be some of the reasons:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>You haven\u2019t given it enough thought<\/strong>: Saving money over 2020 and beyond may have happened to you organically. By that we mean you didn\u2019t make any budgetary decisions to generate savings, they just happened. Now that life is back to normal the associated costs come with it, so you might need to put more effort into your budget to stay in the black.<\/li><li><strong>You\u2019re spending more than you\u2019re earning<\/strong>: Again, this perhaps wasn\u2019t a particular worry over the past year and a half with nothing to do, but that might have stopped youfrom thinking about where and how you\u2019re spending your money. With every wedding, party or event you attend, you\u2019ll be spending a small fortune.Those costs may well suddenly add up to more than your income on the month.<\/li><li><strong>You\u2019re not budgeting properly for different categories<\/strong>: Now that a lot more recreational spending is back on the table, you may have to address your category spending and apportion more funds to having fun. That spending should come at the cost of another area, though, which is a key thing to figure out to get your budget in shape.<\/li><li><strong>You aren\u2019t adjusting it<\/strong>: Summertime, and summer 2021 in particular, is always a period of higher spending. With holidays and general fun in the sun to consider, you need to account for that in your budget. Planning your finances to spend more now and save more later will help you to recover from the bigger spending months.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Building an emergency fund<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Emergency funds are essential for dealing with unexpected costs, particularly if you\u2019re getting to a point where you\u2019re spending about as much as you earn again. Right now, you might be thinking about how next week\u2019s stag do is going to affect your budget, but what if the boiler breaks down or a pipe suddenly bursts? Sudden, unanticipated but essential repair costs like these can send you into financial chaos if you\u2019re not ready for them.That\u2019s where an emergency fund can help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can build an emergency fundby aiming to set aside three to six months\u2019 worth of living expenses. This might seem like a mammoth task, but if you put little bits of money aside gradually \u2013 as much as you can afford every month \u2013you\u2019ll build towards it quicker than you might think. Then, when a rainy (or chaotically sunny) day comes, you\u2019ve got that all-important safety valve to keep you financially afloat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Just remember to assess your finances and ensure you are only putting away an amount of money that will not leave you short.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have fun saving money over lockdown, did you? Sure, the distinct lack of expenditure over the past 15-16 months have been great, but things arestarting to get back to normal.With a return to normality,you\u2019ll probably find your day-to-day spending is steadily rising to where it was before. The next few months are set to be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66720,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-273370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-banking-finance","category-stock-money"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/66720"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=273370"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":342777,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273370\/revisions\/342777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=273370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=273370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=273370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}