12 Frugal Living Tips For Summer
I look forward to summer for many reasons, but the number one reason is because our living costs go waaay down. We turn off our heat, head outdoors and take full advantage of the bounty that summer provides. And we enjoy every sun-soaked moment of it while still planning and puttin’ up food and supplies for the leaner months ahead.
In true homesteader style, we work hard during the summer months and are always thinking about the next season and even the whole year ahead. But we make sure to take time to enjoy the simple things in life too. Because that’s why we chose this lifestyle after all.
If you’ve found yourself on a similar path or you’re simply looking for ways to save a little extra cash this summer and live well for less, here are 12 tried and tested frugal living tips for summer that you can use to save money this season without sacrificing a thing. Because summer is the time of year when we finally get to enjoy the fruits of our labour and the abundance that nature provides, and there’s no price tag on that.
Related: 12 Frugal Living Tips For Spring
1. Attend Free Events
Summer is THE time for free outdoor events in just about every city, small town and rural community. Fairs, parades, outdoor movies, barbecues and celebrations abound in the summer months. Check out what’s going on near you and plan some free family time around your local calendar of events.
2. Go Camping
There’s nothing more frugal than temporarily living off-grid for a few days (except maybe doing it full time). But camping can get expensive if you’re not careful. But all you really need is a tent, a sleeping bag, some basic cooking equipment, a way to make fire and a enough food to get you through and you’re set to live money-free in the wilderness for as long as you like! Play cards, sing campfire songs and tell stories for entertainment. And if you have your permits, maybe even do a little fishing and hunting to feed yourself and stock your freezer.
To make sure your camping trip stays frugal, opt for a site at a free campground or find somewhere a little more off the beaten path.
3. Cook Outdoors
Whether you’re off camping or chillin’ at home, you can save some money on electricity by cooking outdoors this summer. Fire up the barbecue at the very least, and cook over a campfire whenever possible.
If you want to up your outdoor cooking game, try cooking in a dutch oven or use a Sun Oven to cook, bake or even dehydrate your food outside using solar power and zero electricity. Good for your wallet, good for the planet. And most importantly, good eating all around!
4. Lay Out Under the Stars
If you live outside of the city away from all of the bright lights, you probably have a great spot nearby to lay out under the stars. And if you live in the city, you should probably find one.
Summer is the best time to stare up at the endless night sky and contemplate life and our place in this vast Universe. Get a map and try to spot the constellations. Have a competition to see who can find the most. And don’t miss the annual meteor shower that happens every August in the northern hemisphere. The meteor showers take place between August 10 and August 13 each year.
5. Hit the Beach
If you live near an ocean or a lake, schedule in some beach time this summer and head to the shore for a free day of family fun in the sun (or some relaxing alone time with a good book if you’re so lucky). Bring a cooler with a few cold drinks, some snacks and sandwiches, towels and chairs and a bucket of toys for the kids to play with and you have all you need for a frugal day down by the water this summer.
6. Plant a Fall Garden
I was going to first suggest that you should grow your own food, but by summertime you probably should have thought about that already. Hopefully you are already growing your own food (but if not, definitely follow the next tip to go frugal this summer). Summertime, however, is the time to start planning for a fall garden.
Plant cooler weather crops like winter squash, beets, carrots, cabbage, kale and salad greens and enjoy harvesting from your home garden well into the autumn and even winter months. Check out fall planting guides and first frost dates for your local gardening zone to know what to plant when.
7. Shop the Farmers Markets
If you’re not growing your own garden (and even if you are), hit up your local farmers markets this summer to get your hands on organic, local, seasonal produce at a good price. Plan meals around what’s in season and cook frugally with the bounty that summer provides. And stock up on that goodness to preserve some for winter when organic local produce is scarce and the cost of living goes up. It’s well worth the investment now!
8. Preserve the Harvest
Speaking of preserving, be sure to do as much as possible this summer and don’t let anything go to waste! Whether preserving your own food that you grew at home, fresh produce from your local farmers markets or food you’ve foraged, gathered, or hunted, be sure to use what you can fresh and preserve the rest to enjoy throughout the rest of the year. Learn to can, dehydrate and ferment foods. And if you’re really short on time or don’t want the hassle, at least throw your excess in the freezer for a later date. Stock up now while supply outweighs demand and you’ll be thankful when supplies are low and costs spike in the winter.
9. Forage & Collect
Summer is the time when everything in nature is most abundant. Take advantage (without taking more than your share) and head out into the wilderness on a foraging trip for berries or other wild fruit or greens, or to collect up some firewood to stock your woodshed for winter. Or maybe just take a trip to the beach to collect seashells, driftwood or other fun things to create art out of. Either way, now is the time to gather up all that Mother Nature has to offer and put it to use in resourceful and creative ways!
10. Live Electricity-Free (Almost)
Take advantage of the hot, sunny weather and put laundry out on a line to dry over the summer months. Save money on heating costs by turning your heat off and letting the sun warm your house (or closing your blinds and opening a window to cool it down). If you use and/or store solar power, now’s the time to soak up the sun! Turn off the TV and go play outside. Cook and dine and entertain outdoors around a campfire. Read a book. Whatever you do, do your best to power down and unplug as often as possible. Summer makes it easier than any other season to live without electricity and save money in the process. Take advantage!
11. Repurpose Something
Summer’s a perfect time to clear out some clutter and find things you forgot you had. Take a walk around your property or clear out a cluttered closet and decide what to keep, toss and repurpose. Maybe you have some old sheets that can be remade into a dress or some cushion coverings. Or make a rag rug out of old fabric scraps.
If you tend to collect scrap wood, metal or other building materials throughout the year, summer is a great time to put these resources to use. Here are some simple, frugal project ideas that can be made from scrap wood and other materials you might have laying around.
12. Plan Ahead For A Frugal Winter
While winter might seem decades away, rest assured it’s only a few months. And there’s no time like the present to start planning ahead for the cold, busy and expensive winter months and holiday season that’s coming whether you like it or not.
Whether you’re preserving food and “puttin’ it up” for winter, making extra jams, jellies, pickles and preserves to give as Christmas gifts later on, gathering natural materials for homemade projects you can make for gifts or just to keep busy over the winter, or even just stashing away some extra “snowy day” cash for the season when living costs seem to skyrocket, it’s a wise idea to start thinking about wintertime now and start putting a little extra away for later while everything else is cheap an abundant. It might be more of a frugal tip for winter than for summer, but to live a truly frugal life you need to always be thinking ahead.
What else do you do to live frugally during the summer? I’d love to continue to grow this list so I totally encourage you to leave your own frugal living tips in the comments below:)
CATEGORIES
1 Comment
Submit a Comment
ABOUT ANNA
You Might Also Like
How to Use a Rocket Mass Heater to Cook & Heat Off-Grid
* This article contains affiliate links. For more information, please read my Affiliate Disclosure. Learn how to heat and cook off-grid with a rocket mass heater, and why this is an even more energy-efficient solution than a traditional wood stove! This is a...
My Favourite Things – 2022 Edition (aka. The Modern Homesteader’s Christmas Wish List)
* This article contains affiliate links. For more information, please read my Affiliate Disclosure. Every year around this time, I compile a list of my favourite things: Things that I love, use or covet for my own homestead, and things that I know other modern...
If you haven't checked-in lately, the last week or so, we've sorta been in the trenches of homesteading and life over here. While some make it out to be glamorous all the time there are high's and low's just as there are in life.
With all that's going on, I've been making a point to find my way back into the garden, which is not only needed to feed my family, but also for some personal spiritual nourishment.
I just want to take a minute to love on my favorite veggie today, Broccoli! 🥦 It's one we plant over-and-over and I'm leaning into its abundance this year.
Not only is it one of my favorites, but we've also found it's one of the easiest veggies to grow so if you haven't tried it or added it to your garden yet, there's no better time than the present.
I've got an entire post on How to Grow Broccoli from Seed here: https://thehouseandhomestead.com/how-to-grow-broccoli-from-seed/ if you're looking for any tips or tricks.
In my "How to" post you'll also find a link to one of my favorite recipes for Cream of Broccoli Leaf Soup!
Can I be honest?
Sometimes you've gotta take a step back and look at the life you've created for yourself and ask yourself "is this truly what I want?"
The other day I shared about losing two of our rabbits this week to Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease. The stress of losing them comes amidst a backdrop of heightened tensions around here...
From work pressures for Ryan to me trying to run a business and handle a very fussy, colicky 2-month-old (and a very busy 6-year-old), to things ramping up in the garden again and all of the other million things that need to get done (including multiple loads of laundry a day thanks to more spit up than I ever knew a baby was capable of producing), I finally felt like I was ready to crack this week.
Oh, not to mention we're doing this all on next to no sleep thanks again to our sweet boy.
I know this is all part of what we signed up for, but when it all happens at once, it can feel completely overwhelming. And when I'm completely overwhelmed and stressed out, that's exactly when I get sick too, which is exactly what happened a couple days ago.
Then yesterday (Saturday) I woke up feeling awful and decided to scroll Instagam as I nursed Noah. I saw other mothers with 6, 8 or even 10 kids somehow keeping it all together getting three square meals on the table every day while managing to keep a tidy kitchen and find time to Instagram about it.
I saw other homestead bloggers reaching new levels of success in their business that I can only dream about right now. And as I sat there in bed, covered in spit up with a ravenous baby nursing off me as I tried to console him, I felt sad for myself in that moment that I couldn't live up to the folks I was comparing myself to.
Later in the day I had to work, so Ryan took the kids to the beach and I stayed home. And I felt sad once again; Sad that I was missing out on yet another weekend with my family because I had created a life where I now have to work weekends just to keep up.
But the silver lining was that the work I had to do yesterday forced me out into the garden, and it was probably the most soothing thing I could have done for my soul.
(Continued in comments…)
Sometime homesteading looks like homegrown vegetables and freshly laid eggs and sourdough rising on the counter.
And sometimes it looks like tears when you have to bury one of your animals 😔
Ryan went out to feed the bunnies yesterday and Flopsy -our little black and white bunny- was laying dead in the pen. There was no blood, other than a little bit by her mouth. Seems like something internal happened. We’re not sure what.
Evelyn helped lay her to rest yesterday. It was a hard weekend for her. First she stayed with grandma and went with her to put her sick, 17-year-old cat down. Then she came home to the news that Flopsy was gone.
But I believe she’s more resilient because of it. We talked to her about how death is a part of all life, and allowed her to go through the stages of grief and process it however she felt she needed to.
Homesteading isn’t always sunshine and rainbows and snuggly barnyard animals. Homesteading teaches us hard lessons and helps us to become stronger and more resilient by challenging us daily.
Yesterday was a sad, hard day. But I’m glad we got to experience it together as a family.
A few years ago, Forbes published an article titled Dear Homesteaders, Self-Reliance is a Delusion.
Let’s unpack this…
What does self-reliant really mean? Is it actually achievable, or just a pipe dream?
Over on the blog today I'm unpacking all of these thoughts, and the things I do know for sure as a homesteader, mother and member of a strong and self-reliant community.
But I really want to hear from you! Post in the comments below what self-reliance means in modern times, or what steps you're taking to be more self-reliant.
Read the full article here: https://thehouseandhomestead.com/what-is-self-reliance/ or at the link in my bio
The spring issue of Modern Homesteading Magazine is out now!
It’s that time again...
The time when things begin ramping up in the garden, the barnyard and the home.
From trays of seedlings to baskets full of eggs, spring is in the air and I don’t know about you, but I’m here for it!
It’s also time for a brand new issue of Modern Homesteading Magazine, and boy do we have a good one for you…
In the spring issue, we cover a diverse range of topics from how to trade your skills for land to the realities of going off-grid, from seed-starting to what to do with too many eggs, and from the simple joys of a homemade herbal cocktail to the sometimes heavy emotional toll of raising meat animals.
In this issue, you’ll find:
🌱 What it really takes to live off-grid, with Tammy Trayer of Trayer Wilderness
🌱How you can trade your skills for a piece of land with the SKIP program from the folks at Permies.com
🌱 Everything you need to know about seed-starting to set your garden up for success and abundance!
🌱 What to do with too many eggs! Author Mimi Dvorak-Smith shares 800+ ways to use ‘em up when your hens start laying.
🌱 How to make your own healthier cocktails with homemade botanical syrups
🌱 Dealing with the emotional toll of raising meat animals on the homestead
Visit modernhomesteadingmagazine.com to login to the library and read the spring issue (current subscribers) or subscribe for just $19.99/year to read this issue and gain instant access to our entire library of past issues!
#modernhomesteading #homesteading #selfsufficiency #springonthehomestead
If you grow plants from seed (or if you want to), you’re likely going to want to start a few of them indoors. And if you start your seeds indoors, something that will make your life so much easier (and make your seedlings bigger, stronger and healthier) is an indoor growing stand with grow lights.
I've got a post I'm sharing with you today that will walk you through choosing the best type of lighting for whatever you're growing and then a step-by-step guide of how to make your grow stand, along with product recommendations if you want to make yours just like mine!
Ours can accommodate up to about 200 seedlings, but you can make yours as small or big as needed:)
You can check out the post here https://thehouseandhomestead.com/how-to-build-indoor-growing-stand/ or at the link in my bio.
Let me know in the comments what you're growing new, or what you're most excited about in your planting journey this year!
Theme of the Month: ADIDAS
No, not the textiles brand, it stands for: 𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝗜 𝗗𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗦𝗲𝗲𝗱𝘀 because it's officially March and we are in full swing around here!
Before you just start throwing seeds in the ground or into red solo cups on your windowsill, it’s important to take some time to read your seed packets and get to know each crop’s specific needs.
Understanding the information on a seed packet is super important when it comes to gardening, especially if you want your plants to get a strong, healthy start and produce an abundance of food for you. And what gardener doesn’t want that?!
Set yourself up for success and take a minute to read through my 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥 & 𝘜𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘚𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘗𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘎𝘶𝘪𝘥𝘦, before your weekend gardening plans begin.
Grab the guide link in my bio, or get it here: https://thehouseandhomestead.com/how-to-read-seed-packets/
Happy Planting:) ✨
This all-natural homemade toothpaste recipe is made with just four simple ingredients that are good for both your body and your bank account!
I’m on a personal mission to replace every commercially-made, toxic product in our home with homemade, all-natural alternatives. One-by-one, I’m getting closer every day.
The benefit of making all-natural toothpaste at home is avoiding the unhealthy additives found in most commercial toothpastes by substituting ingredients with proven benefits for oral health.
So if you’re also on a mission to rid your own home of toxic products and replace them with healthy, all-natural versions that actually work, then I highly recommend whipping up a batch of this all-natural homemade toothpaste.
Wishing you health, wealth and squeaky clean teeth… The all-natural way;)
You can find the recipe here https://thehouseandhomestead.com/all-natural-homemade-toothpaste-recipe/ or at the link in my bio.
It's that time of year 🌱 seed starting season!
I know you can feel it too. The transition from winter to spring is truly a special time. It’s when life begins again. It’s the very first taste of all that lies ahead.
So before you go just planting any and every seed you can get your hands on, I've got a list of 8 Things to Think About Before Starting Seeds, to get you off on the right food!
I will walk you through, planning, sowing, containers, watering, lighting and more, and if that's not enough you can download my Seed Starting Cheat Sheet at the end to lay it all out.
I hope you're as excited as I am for the beautiful Spring season that lies ahead:)
You can find the list here https://thehouseandhomestead.com/before-starting-seeds/ or at the link in my bio.
What are you planting this year? Anything new you've never tried before? Share with me in the comments!
Ever thought about growing mushrooms at home??
A great EASY way to get started is with one of these mushroom grow kits from @northsporemushrooms
All you need to do is cut open the pack, spray with a little water (the kits even come with a handy little spray bottle), and then sit back and watch the magic happen!
And seriously, watching mushrooms goes does feel a little like magic because they grow so fast you can practically see them growing, no time lapse necessary!
The mushrooms are ready for harvest in just a few days. No gardening experience or land necessary! Even a newbie homesteader in an apartment in the city can grow these babies!
This is a great way to dip your tow into the much bigger world of mushroom growing and harvesting, and to try out a few new varieties that you probably won’t find anywhere else.
I grew Pink Oyster Mushrooms, Lion’s Mane and Blue Oyster Mushrooms (all pictured here). I’ll be using the Pink Oyster Mushrooms in a rigatoni pasta for dinner tonight. I turned the Lion’s Mane into Lion’s Mane “crab cakes” and the Blue Oyster Mushrooms are delicious as part of a stir fry or sautéed in butter and spooned over sourdough toast.
If this reel intrigues you, you can grab your own mushroom grow kit (along with time of other mushroom related products, including fruiting blocks, outdoor log kits, medicinal tinctures, capsules and more) at northspore.com. Use code HOUSEANDHOMESTEAD for 10% off your order!
And if you haven’t yet, be sure to check out my interview with Louis Giller of North Spore Mushrooms in the winter issue of Modern Homesteading Magazine. You can also find my recipe for Lion’s Mane “Crab Cakes,” along with other delicious mushroom recipes and an in-depth feature on medicinal mushrooms including Lion’s Mane, Reishi, Chaga and Cordyceps in the winter issue.
Visit modernhomesteadingmagazine.com to subscribe or login to the library and read the current issue.
Mushrooms really are pure magic, don’t ya think? 🍄 ✨
#mushrooms #mushroomhead #shrooming #eatyourshrooms #mushroomsaremagic #modernhomesteading #urbanhomesteading #homegrown
If you’ve been following me for any length of time, it probably comes as no surprise that I don’t exactly love relying on the grocery store to provide for me and my family, and that sentiment is only getting stronger as time goes on.
Between supply chain issues, rising food costs and the plethora of unhealthy ingredients, chemicals and GMO foods on grocery store shelves, I’d rather toil in the garden and kitchen all year to grow and preserve my own food than have to rely 100% on grocery stores to provide for me.
But that being said, we are in no way 100% self-sufficient so when I do go to the grocery story, I haveI have some ingredient guidelines in mind that I use when shopping for my family.
Check out my shopping tips, what I do and don't buy, and where and who I like to buy from here at this link https://thehouseandhomestead.com/healthy-grocery-shopping-tips/ or at the link in my bio.
Usually by late February/early March, right about nowish, I’ve pretty much had enough of winter and the thought of enjoying a tropical fruit platter and a cold adult beverage on a sunny beach in *insert tropical vacation destination here* seems to be just about all I can think about...
But with a newborn at home that's about the last thing on our to-do list right now! So this year, I will be visiting my tropical escape via my favorite Low-Sugar Mango Jam recipe.
If you do have tropical vacation plans, have a piña colada for me 🙏🏼, but if you don't then this recipe may be just what you need to "escape" for a few minutes into that tropical paradise:) 🥭🍹
Check out the recipe here https://thehouseandhomestead.com/low-sugar-mango-jam-recipe/ or at the link in my bio.
Let me know how the recipe works for you, and if add in any additional fruits to change it up!
Also disconnect from cable and those satellite. I’ve disconnected over 2 yrs now and you will Save tons of money