Do you have a summer budget? Why not?
If this were November, you might have seen a hundred articles and blog posts and tweets telling you to beware Black Friday and showing you "10 ways to save" on gifts and entertainment during the "43 days 'til Christmas."
Shopping projections would take over where hurricane season left off: How much damage would consumers do this year? When would they be able to pay it all off? I've written a few of those stories myself.
Meanwhile, summer -- in all its spend-it-now glory -- sneaks by, under the radar. Yet summer shopping is second only to the Christmas holiday season, says Kathy Grannis, a spokeswoman for the National Retail Federation.
Without a decent budget in place, the upcoming warm weather (and hot sales) could sweat the cash right out of your wallet.
The catalogs are coming
I know. You want to believe that summer doesn't pose any financial risks. You want to sit on your patio and drink a cold one and pretend you're not going to read the Boden and Brookstone catalogs.Well, take those rose-tinted sunglasses off and look at the dangers:
- Wedding season.
- Graduation season.
- Long weekends where you go somewhere or guests come to you -- either way, it's expensive.
- Home improvement season (my husband is painting as I type).
- Back-to-school season.
- Extra grooming (ladies, you know what I mean).
- Yard sale season. (Do. Not. Leave. Your. Car.)
- The mysterious need for a new swimsuit and sandals. Who can explain it? But there it is on your Visa statement. Again.
Let's not even mention baseball games or, heaven forbid, a vacation.
The numbers are telling
You might think I'm kidding. But the sales figures tell it all.Americans spent nearly $952 million in January, February and March 2009, on clothes, furniture, cars, McDonald's and more, according to the monthly retail and food-services sales report from the Department of Commerce.
We spent an extra $100 million-plus during June, July and August, for a total of $1.6 billion during the summer months.
Clothing stores accounted for about $44.4 million of January-March sales. That jumped to $50 million for June-August, according to Commerce Department data.
Meanwhile, back at the picnic cooler, guess where else your money goes during summer months? Beer.
Americans spend more on beer from Memorial Day through Labor Day than at any other time of the year, according to the 2009 Beverage Alcohol Review, published by Nielsen. Sales skyrocket to their peak during the week of July Fourth, by the way, to about $340 million.
How is it that a veritable fiscal crisis erupts each year with the onset of Memorial Day weekend, and hardly anyone even mentions it?