June 9, 2026

Build a Summer Spending Plan That Lets You Spend Without Regret

Build a Summer Spending Plan That Lets You Spend Without Regret

How to enjoy summer, spend on purpose, and avoid the August credit card regret spiral

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Summer has a way of making everyone a little looser with money. Dinners, trips, long weekends, weddings, beauty appointments, beach days, concerts, random Target runs, and that very dangerous sentence: “It’s summer, I’m just going to enjoy it.”

And honestly? You should enjoy it.

But enjoying summer without a plan can turn into an August credit card statement that makes you wonder, “Wait… did I have THAT much fun?”

In this episode, Shari walks you through how to build a summer spending plan that lets you spend on purpose without making summer feel restrictive, boring, or guilt-filled. This is not about tracking every tiny purchase or creating a budget that yells at you. It’s about deciding what you actually want your money to do this summer before your calendar, your group chat, your family obligations, and your exhaustion make those decisions for you.

Shari breaks down why traditional budgets often fall apart in summer, how to use flexible spending ranges instead of rigid numbers, and the five summer spending categories she would actually use: travel and weekends, family/friends/obligations, food and convenience, social life, and personal joy and ease.

You’ll learn:

  • Why summer spending feels different from the rest of the year
  • The two questions to ask before setting any summer spending number
  • Why “permission without a plan” leads to regret
  • How to use spending ranges instead of strict budget categories
  • Why planned spending deserves to be enjoyed
  • How to choose one guilt-free yes and one clear boundary for summer
  • How to do a 15-minute summer spending setup before the season gets away from you

This episode is for the woman who wants to enjoy summer without entering fall with a black cloud of money doom hanging over her head. You can spend money and still be responsible. Those are not opposing values.

Grab the free Summer Spending Plan at everyonestalkinmoney.kit.com/summerplan

Want support sticking with this kind of system all season long? Check out the Everyone’s Talkin’ Money Club, where podcast episodes become tools, routines, community, and real money decisions.

Follow Everyone’s Talkin’ Money on Instagram @everyonestalkinmoney and let Shari know what you’re spending guilt-free on this summer.

If you’re ready for personalized, judgment-free financial guidance, learn more about working with Shari. Shari Rash is the founder of GWA Wealth, a virtual advisory firm helping women make confident, values-aligned decisions with their money. Visit GWA Wealth to explore your next step.

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Shari Rash is a financial planner and Investment Adviser Representative of GWA Wealth, a Registered Investment Adviser. The information provided in this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be construed as personalized investment, tax, or legal advice. Listening to this podcast does not create an advisory relationship with Shari Rash or GWA Wealth. All investments involve risk, including the potential loss of principal. Any references to specific investments, strategies, or securities are for illustrative purposes only and are not recommendations. You should consult your own financial advisor, tax professional, or attorney regarding your individual situation before making any financial decisions.

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Shari Rash (1:24): A quick summer update. New episodes will be dropping on Tuesdays during the summer. I'm keeping things simple while life, travel, and all the expensive summer chaos are in full swing. So make sure you're subscribed and I'll be in your ears every Tuesday with smart, honest money conversations to help you feel more in control without over complicating your life. Summer has a way of making everyone a little, maybe looser with their money, not as restricted, a little freer.

Shari Rash (1:55): Could it be the nice weather, the concerts, the sitting outside on your deck drinking Aperol spritzes? I'm not exactly sure, but it has this effect on everyone. Summer spending starts with a lot of reasonable yeses. Like none of this stuff is crazy. I'm talking dinners, trips, long weekends, beach days, pool stuff, cute outfits for the dinners, weddings, beauty appointments, because now that it's summer, we ought to make sure we're looking nice as well.

Shari Rash (2:37): Right? Random target runs. But it also has that dangerous sentence of, It's summer. I'm just going to enjoy it. And I am very pro enjoying your life, genuinely.

Shari Rash (2:51): I believe life is for living and our money is what helps us live the life we want to. So I'm not here to lecture today and I'm not here to say having fun and doing all of these extra fun things is bad. That's not the issue. The issue is not wanting to enjoy summer. The issue is going into summer with a vibe, enjoying the sunshine, feeling a little freer, instead of a plan.

Shari Rash (3:20): The vibe most of us enter summer with is I'll figure it out. But the reality is your credit card does not send you a gentle reminder in July going, Hey, let's slow down a little bit, or Let's second guess a couple of things. Let's take a beat. Your credit card sends you a full statement in August, and suddenly you're looking at that number going, wait, I had fun, but I didn't realize I had that much fun. Today, we are not going through a restrictive budget.

Shari Rash (4:01): I am not gonna talk to you about tracking every lemonade stand purchased from your adorable little neighbor. We are not creating the guilt and shame spiral. I am not providing you a list of things you are not allowed to do, and I am not trying to make summer boring for you. What this episode is going to do is help you create a summer spending plan that lets you enjoy your life without turning August into despair, without you entering the fall with a black cloud of money doom hanging over your head. The goal for our summer is not to spend as little as possible.

Shari Rash (4:45): The goal is to spend on purpose, enjoy it while it's happening, and not wake up in August wondering where all your money went and why your credit card balance has so many zeros behind it. So I'm gonna give you the five summer spending categories I'd actually use, especially if you're managing your own money, your goals, your own social calendar, and your future. Welcome back to everyone's talking money. I'm Shari Rash, founder of GWA Wealth. And after almost twenty years in personal finance, working with women who are genuinely doing well on paper, but still don't feel fully in control of their money, I can tell you this with a lot of confidence.

Shari Rash (5:29): Most people do not need or welcome a more restrictive spending budget. They just need a clearer spending plan. Restriction sounds great for about four minutes. You write down the categories. You feel responsible.

Shari Rash (5:45): You feel like new me, new system. Like I am changing things and stuff's going to improve. And then real life shows up. Someone invites you to a weekend away. A friend's birthday turns into dinner, drinks, Uber, outfit, gift.

Shari Rash (6:03): A wedding weekend costs more than a mini vacation. Your dog sitter costs more than you planned for. You're tired and you're ordering dinner again. You realize your calendar is full and your checking account is not. This cycle is not a willpower problem.

Shari Rash (6:22): It's a plan design problem. So today we're building something that actually accounts for how summer works because summer does not work like the rest of the year and your spending plan shouldn't either. Before you set one number, before you open your spreadsheet, I want you to answer two questions. The first is, what do I actually want to enjoy this summer? This is not what Instagram says your summer should look like.

Unknown Speaker (6:52): This is not what your friends want, not what your family expects out of you, Not what sounds responsible. What do you actually want? Do you want more weekends at the beach? Do you want to go on a real vacation because you can't remember the last time you had one? Do you want to have more dinners with your friends?

Shari Rash (7:10): Do you want more work life balance this summer? Do you want to complete a home project? Go on a trip by yourself? Do you want more rest or more convenience? So think about that.

Shari Rash (7:24): What do you want this summer? What do you want to enjoy? Question number two. What do I not want to regret paying for later? Some spending feels amazing in the moment and feels terrible later.

Shari Rash (7:40): And some spending feels expensive in the moment, but it's actually worth it. You're like, oh my gosh, this is going to cost me a fortune, but I don't care. I loved every minute of it. The goal is not to judge every purchase. The goal is to separate spending that supports the summer you actually want from spending that happens because you're tired, rushed, pressured, lonely, bored, or operating on fumes.

Shari Rash (8:08): A summer spending plan should protect both your joy and your future self. They are not opposing things. Your joy today and your future self can work together. You can enjoy your life and still protect your bigger goals. So in a minute, I'm going to give you the actual categories to use.

Shari Rash (8:30): But first, let's talk about why normal budgets fall apart so fast once summer hits. There are four real reasons traditional budgets collapse in general, right? But in summer, most particularly. Like budgets in general fail for most people. And that because they are restrictive, because they are specific, because they don't account for the random things that life presents you.

Shari Rash (9:01): But I feel like in summer it's even worse. Like things are more loosey goosey. This random stuff happens and our budgets, if we set a budget, are not prepared for it. So here's the first reason. Summer expenses are irregular.

Shari Rash (9:18): Traditional budgets assume most months look the same. Like expenses are similar. Spending is similar. But June does not behave like February. July is nothing like November.

Shari Rash (9:35): Summer doesn't care about your neat little monthly categories. Summer shows up with a beach bag full of expenses that your February budget never saw coming. I'm talking travel, weddings, showers, bachelorette weekends, family visits, pet care, beach weekends, rooftop drinks, extra meals out, Ubers, home projects, concerts. I mean, we don't have that stuff in the winter. So in summer though, we do.

Shari Rash (10:03): And that's awesome. And that what is what makes summer magical. But it using a February budget for July is just not realistic. And a lot of times, though, these summer expenses are not always surprises. They can be predictable.

Shari Rash (10:22): If you know you go to a lot of concerts in the summer, if that is your joy, if that's what you value, plan for it. Don't be surprised that you went to five concerts this summer. Plan for it. If you know in the summer you're eating out more often, you're grabbing quick dinners, You're going out for ice cream. Again, don't be surprised by it.

Shari Rash (10:47): Plan for it. Learn from your past summer behaviors. Reason number two budgeting just doesn't work in the summer. Summer spending is emotional. People spend because they want ease.

Shari Rash (11:01): They want to create memories. They want to feel more free. They want to break from their routine. They want to feel better, look better. They want to have some fun.

Shari Rash (11:10): And summer just feels different. Even if we're still grinding, it it the the sunshine makes everything a little bit more palatable. So summer spending can be emotional, and emotional spending is a lot harder to manage with a rigid spreadsheet. We we don't know what emotions we're going to have on any particular day. So planning our spending with these rigid transactions is not realistic because we do feel a certain way in the summer and our spending reflects it.

Unknown Speaker (11:52): Reason number three. Summer creates permission. So have you said, you know, it's only summer once or it's it's finally nice out. I want to enjoy it. I work hard.

Unknown Speaker (12:05): I deserve it. It's just one dinner. I'll figure it out. I don't want to be boring. I don't want to miss out.

Unknown Speaker (12:12): I can't say no again. I said no last time. Some of this is true. You do work hard. Life is short.

Shari Rash (12:20): Summer should be enjoyed. You should go out with your friends. Like, all of those things are true. But permission to do those things without a plan to back it up is where regret comes in. That's when we start regretting our decisions because we made excuses for doing what we're doing.

Shari Rash (12:45): It wasn't part of our plan. We didn't have a plan. And then we feel bad about it. So if you have a plan and you know these are my concerts I'm going to. I'm going out to one extra dinner a week.

Shari Rash (13:01): I'm gonna focus on my beauty routine more in the summer. And here are the approximate costs and you build it into the plan, it removes the drama of feeling bad or regretting it and having like the bad boy blues. If everything, every extra thing is just automatically yes, nothing's chosen. So you have to be a little discerning about what you are saying yes to. Saying yes to everything is how you get to August with a giant credit card bill or no money left in your checking account and no clear sense of, was this worth it?

Unknown Speaker (13:48): Should I have spent this money on it? Reason number four, budgets don't work in the summer. Too many decisions happen in the moment. I know no one says it anymore, but it's like we're YOLO ing over here. The decisions are last minute.

Shari Rash (14:04): You get invited. Yeah, that sounds awesome. Let's go. That comes at a cost. And also it's harder to track.

Shari Rash (14:16): The more things you decide while tired, rushed, or emotionally overwhelmed, the more expensive summer gets. And this is not bad judgment on your part. You're just missing a framework. So we need to build one. And I promise building it is not going to be complicated.

Shari Rash (14:36): So what we're going to do is look at the five summer spending categories to help build that framework. So the five categories I'd use with a summer spending plan are because they exist. They're real. But because they cover most of the places your summer money goes to. Like these are real destinations for your dollars.

Shari Rash (15:03): So five categories. We are not overthinking it. Category one, travel and weekends. I'd say most people underestimate how much they're spending on travel because we just think about like the flight or the hotel. But we don't include airport parking if we're taking a flight.

Shari Rash (15:26): Rental cars, again, if we're taking a flight. Or if we're not taking a flight, Uber's everywhere. We don't take into account who is watching your dog. The food at the airport. We don't account for eating out or the activities we're going to do while away.

Shari Rash (15:43): Airport parking. Tips. Everyone's asking for tips. We never account for that. Random resort fees.

Shari Rash (15:49): Like, really? I mean, that could add hundreds of dollars to your bill depending on the resort. I forgot my sunglasses or I left them on the plane. I have to buy new sunglasses. So think about the real number that travel actually costs you, not just the price of your plane ticket or your hotel room.

Shari Rash (16:11): Category number two, family, friends, obligations. So family visits. You know, when your family comes to visit, that's not cheap. They're getting the free place to stay, but likely you are having more food and drinks and all of that, or maybe doing activities that you wouldn't normally do because your family is playing tourist where you live. Gifts, weddings, showers, bachelorette weekends, birthday dinners, picking up dinner when you go out with your niece or your sister.

Shari Rash (16:49): Again, taking care of your pets. If you're out and about for most of the day, you may need the neighbor to come out and come and let your dog out. That could be $20 you didn't account for spending. So think about all of the expense that comes when it comes to family and friends and obligations. And I'm not saying don't tell your family they can't come for for the weekend unless you want me to.

Shari Rash (17:10): If you wanna blame it on me, that's fine. But or I'm not saying you can't go out and do these things with your friends, but again, it's planning accordingly for them. So that's category number two. Category number three is food and convenience. This is a sneaky category.

Unknown Speaker (17:28): So obviously we have food spending every other season of the year, but in the summer it can get more expensive. You could see more takeout. You could have more grocery delivery because it's like, who really wants to be in a hot car driving to the grocery store, doing all of that, coming back unloading when you could be sitting by the pool on a Saturday? You're going out to eat. Restaurants.

Unknown Speaker (17:55): You know, you're packing snacks for the pool, for the beach. You might be DoorDashing because it's just easier. You're hanging out with your friends and you don't have any food in your fridge to feed them, so we DoorDash something. Last minute dinners. It's hot.

Shari Rash (18:11): The last thing I want to do is cook right now. So the convenience food and eating out and delivery and all of that is not bad and it can be supportive, and it can be that mental break that you need. The issue is the unplanned convenience. So plan for the convenience you're going to use. So then, you know, again, we're removing the mystery from the spending.

Shari Rash (18:41): Plan for the convenience you're actually going to use so then it removes the drama from it all. And then cut it off. So if you feel like you're going to be big into DoorDashing over this season, then fine. Then you do have to go get your own groceries. Right?

Shari Rash (19:00): It's a give and take. So we're not making everything convenient and paying a premium for it. Category four, social life. Right? We are more social when it's nice out.

Shari Rash (19:12): We're no longer hibernating in our homes. So we're going out to dinner. We're grabbing drinks. We're going out to brunch. We're going on dates.

Shari Rash (19:20): We're going to concerts. We have different events where, you know, when you're at these concerts and events, like obviously you're gonna get grab something to eat, grab something to drink. You're taking Ubers there because we are responsible adults and when we're going out. You may go buy a new outfit. So all of this stuff, it adds up and it is a big category, especially in the summer.

Shari Rash (19:49): Category five, personal joy and ease. So I'm putting this one in here on purpose because if your plan has no room for joy, you will rebel against it. Right? It's the caged animal effect that I talk about. If you are not purposefully spending on things that make you happy and you're completely restrictive, then at some point, yeah, it's going to work for a little bit.

Shari Rash (20:16): Then at some point you're going to explode and you're going to make up for lost time. So we need to have some joy in our budgets. So beauty, clothes, fitness, that workout class that you're like, I've been dying to do this and I think it would be so much fun and summer body. Hello. It all makes sense.

Shari Rash (20:37): Getting that massage, getting that book that your friends have been talking about, starting a new hobby, spending time together, upgrading your home, because now that the sun's out and it's shining on your house, you're like, oh my gosh, we need we need a new paint. We need this upgrade. Going on a trip by yourself. Doesn't that sound wonderful? So building in those things that make summer feel like your summer.

Shari Rash (21:05): It is curated for you. Not for someone else's Instagram feed, not your neighbor, not your best friend, but your summer. Give this category a real number, and do not make this the first place you cut when guilt shows up. You cut your family visiting. I'm just kidding.

Shari Rash (21:29): So every money decision has to support your life, your future, and your financial freedom. So if you're listening right now and thinking, okay, this is exactly what I need because summer spending always gets away from me no matter what I do, I have something for you. The summer spending plan. It maps out real summer expenses. It helps you choose categories.

Shari Rash (21:57): It helps you set flexible ranges and helps you decide what you actually want your money to do this season. The goal here is not to create some miserable budget that makes you feel guilty every time you enjoy your life. The goal is to spend with more clarity, more intention, and a lot less regret. You can get it at everyone's talkingmoneypodcast.com/1534 or get it from the link in your show notes. There are five steps to putting this together, and none of them require a degree in Excel spreadsheets.

Shari Rash (22:33): Step one is to pick your categories. So use the five categories I gave you or customize it. Do not overcomplicate this. Think of where you spend your money in the summer. Even look back to last year.

Shari Rash (22:47): Run your transactions on your credit card for last year and see where you spent your money. Learn from the past. Right? Just create five categories, not 42. We are not getting super specific because specificity when it comes to budgets never works.

Shari Rash (23:08): We get overwhelmed. Things don't fit neatly into the little areas, and we give up. So we are trying to make this as useful as possible for you. Step two, set a spending range for each category. This would be really helpful to go back and look at past transactions because you may be like, I have no idea what I even would spend on this.

Shari Rash (23:36): What do I spend on concerts? Tickets are ridiculous. I don't even know where to start. So looking back on past transactions could be helpful, but give yourself a range. A range gives structure, but it also gives you breathing room.

Shari Rash (23:53): So example ranges. Travel for a weekend, know, dollars 1,500 to $2,000 for two weekend trips. Right? Food or the convenience of getting food, 600 to $800 a month. Family, friends, other obligations, 400 to $700 a summer.

Shari Rash (24:17): Personal joy, 200 to $400 Whatever it is. But these numbers depend on one, your income. Right? We need to be realistic. We need to look at your goals, your lifestyle, your debt, and your priorities.

Shari Rash (24:32): So we don't want to abandon any automatic savings strategies you've had. We're not stopping those. We don't clearly, we don't want to spend more than what we bring in. So we have to be realistic with these numbers and maybe also redirect. Like, if you have a gym membership that you use during the colder months, maybe see if you could put that on pause because you can go outside and walk for free in the beautiful weather.

Shari Rash (25:05): And then that frees up money to be used elsewhere on a more summer type expense. So the lower number in your range is the target. That's what we're going for. We don't want to spend the upper number. That's not our goal.

Shari Rash (25:21): That's the ceiling. That's our buffer. Anything in between the target and the ceiling is okay, but again, let's go for the target, but knowing in the back of our mind, if things are more expensive than what we expected, we have a little extra built in. A range of expenses gives you structure and breathing room, so it doesn't present as a failure if something was like $50 more expensive. Your budget is not blowing up and yelling at you the way traditional budgets do.

Shari Rash (25:52): Step three, decide your non negotiables. So a spending plan should tell you what you are protecting. And like I mentioned, we are protecting our monthly savings transfer or our monthly investment. We are protecting our debt payoff. I mean, how horrible would it be if we enter summer, we spend more than we planned for, and we're still in debt because we stopped paying towards our debts.

Shari Rash (26:17): Have even more than what we started. We are not pausing our emergency fund progress. If you know in the fall you have travel, if you have expenses that are out of the ordinary, we're not pausing saving that. Okay. So we want to keep future self still aware and planned into our summer range expense numbers.

Unknown Speaker (26:45): Because if we don't, Summer's going to spend that money. Summer likes to spend. She's not malicious. She's just quiet about it, but it's one convenience charge. It's one dinner out.

Shari Rash (26:56): It's one Aperol out on the porch at a time. So we need to protect our goals and be aware of them. Step four, predecide where you are and where you are and are not flexible. So where am I willing to flex and where am I willing to not flex? What am I willing to give up because the concert was more expensive than I thought or the weekend away was more expensive than I thought?

Shari Rash (27:23): Where am I willing to give up and create some wiggle room? You may not be willing to give up dining out for the entire weekend you're traveling, right? You may want to have breakfast, lunch, and dinner out versus going to the grocery store and grabbing some granola bars for breakfast. Going out to eat while traveling may be your thing. You may not be willing to give up one event you really care about.

Shari Rash (27:55): The convenience, maybe grocery delivery, you're not willing to give up, but there could be other things you are willing to concede on. The plan is not there to control you. It's there to keep guardrails up and to keep one category from cannibalizing all the other categories. So you might be thinking, but Shari, what if something comes up? Because something will come up every single summer.

Shari Rash (28:26): That's not the reason to avoid the plan. That is exactly why the plan needs flexibility built in from the start. And we're not trying to predict a perfect summer. It's just a framework for navigating an imperfect one. Whatever you do today and plan for your summer is better than what you've done last summer and the summer before.

Shari Rash (28:51): Like if you came into this episode going, Yep, I have no idea. Summer spending. I have no control over it. I always spend way more than I wanted. And you end this episode and you download my worksheet and you're like, I'm going to create a plan and follow it the best I can.

Shari Rash (29:10): You're already so much ahead than you were last summer. So be gentle on yourself. Be realistic and just think about it. Because the problem is that we don't think about this stuff. So step five is to run a quick summer calendar scan.

Shari Rash (29:31): Take a look at the next eight to ten weeks and identify your trips, your weddings, your showers, your birthdays, the visitors, your family plans, concerts, events, long weekends, pet care, and see the expensive weeks before they happen and set realistic ranges. Stop pretending every week is blank and you have nothing going on. You have something every weekend. I'm confident of that. You are so popular and you have so much going on that you are busy.

Unknown Speaker (30:07): So now you have the framework. You have the categories. You have the ranges. So here's the part no one talks about. How do you actually spend without guilt once you have a plan in place?

Shari Rash (30:17): A lot of women I work with can build the plan and that's the easy part, but the harder part is letting themselves actually use it without auditing every purchase. So guilt is usually not about the purchase. Guilt often comes from not knowing whether the purchase fits or if it was okay. So buying lunch and immediately wondering if you should have, booking a massage and then debating canceling it, saying yes to a trip and then obsessing over every expense, going out with your friends and thinking about the Uber cost of it versus if you clearly just stayed at home. When you don't know what is in range, even reasonable spending feels suspicious.

Shari Rash (30:59): When there is a plan, you already have permission. You already granted yourself permission. And the permission is not like, it's summer, I'm going to figure it out later. It's actual permission. And if it fits in the plan, it fits and that's it.

Shari Rash (31:13): No more analysis. No more guilt. No more drama around it. Point two. Planned spending deserves to be enjoyed.

Shari Rash (31:21): If you chose it, you planned for it, and you protected your priorities, then you do not need to punish yourself while enjoying said thing or said event or said expense. Do not spend money and then ruin the experience by emotionally auditing yourself the entire time. That is not financial responsibility. That is anxiety on vacation, wearing a cute dress. High achieving women struggle here.

Shari Rash (31:49): It's the discipline that helps them earn and save and build, but that same discipline can also make spending feel wrong. But spending that fits your plan is not irresponsible. You worked hard for your money and enjoying it is not a betrayal of your money. Point three. Fun money is not a moral failure.

Shari Rash (32:14): Money is not only for bills and emergency fund and retirement and future goals. Money is also for living, looking good and feeling good, ease, connection, experiences, pleasure, rest. So going on that solo trip, going out to dinner with your friends, hiring a cleaner for your house, buying that dress you love and you look great in, having that beach weekend, going to the concert. If you are protecting your priorities and not going into debt, you are allowed to spend on things that feel good. Point number four.

Shari Rash (32:47): Use the no regret rule. Will I be glad I spent this when the bill comes? Ask yourself that. Will I be glad I spent that money? If the answer is yes, go right ahead.

Shari Rash (33:01): Proceed. Enjoy it. If the answer is no, or you're unsure, pause and give it twenty four hours. Let the urge to buy or to do settle. Spending that often causes regret is pressure spending, boredom spending, loneliness spending, last minute spending, reflexive upgrade spending.

Shari Rash (33:25): So we're just upgrading out of habit. Everyone else is doing it spending. Spending to avoid saying no. Spending on plans you didn't actually want to do, but kind of felt pressured to do. The type of spending that rarely creates regret are things that you consciously chose.

Shari Rash (33:45): Things that are planned for. Things you genuinely wanted. Things that you waited for. And stuff that supports the summer you want. Regret comes from spending that was never consciously chosen.

Shari Rash (34:00): And that is exactly what the plan helps to prevent. So before you go, here's the fifteen minute setup I want you to do this week. It's June. It's getting hot out. Some kids are out of school.

Shari Rash (34:13): You're hearing your coworkers talk about the vacations they're going to go on. So we need to start this now. Step one. Open your calendar. Look at the next eight to ten weeks.

Shari Rash (34:23): Identify the trips, the weddings, the family visits, concerts, friend plans, work travel, long weekends, all of that. You got to get the lay of the land before you start setting numbers. Step two, pick your five categories. So here are some that I suggest travel and weekends, family friend and obligations, food and convenience, social life, personal joy and ease. But adjust this to fit your actual life.

Shari Rash (34:51): I mean, some food inconvenience or convenience in general may not be that attractive to you or may not be necessary. So whatever it is, right? Figure out the five categories for your summer life. Write them down. Name them.

Shari Rash (35:10): Step three, set ranges. So for each category, ask yourself what would feel reasonable? What feels too high? What can I spend while still protecting my bigger goals and priorities? Go back and look at your past spending and probably add like 15% for inflation because that's the reality of the situation.

Shari Rash (35:30): And write the range. Write the lower number, upper number, and know anything you're spending in between is okay, but strive for the lower number. Step four, choose one guilt free spending category. So this is important and you need one intentional yes. So for example, this summer, I am intentionally spending on beach weekends.

Shari Rash (35:53): This summer, I am intentionally spending on dinners with people I love. This summer, I am intentionally spending on going out with my friends because I want to have more of a social life. This summer, I am intentionally spending on convenience because I am not going to lose my mind over grocery shopping. Name the thing. Give yourself actual permission for the thing you care about.

Shari Rash (36:18): And it's real permission with numbers. Step five, choose one clear boundary. So one example may be setting a cap for takeout or setting a cap on social spending, group trip boundary, target boundary, Amazon boundary, a beauty spending range. Not saying yes to every random upgrade. Checking your calendar and your checking account before saying yes.

Shari Rash (36:49): We need one guilt free yes. And we also need one clear boundary. That is what's going to change the feel of your summer. So here's what I want you to take from this episode. A summer spending plan is not controlling every dollar.

Shari Rash (37:05): It's not punishment. It's not a list of things you cannot have. It is not a way to make summer smaller. It's not a way to create more guilt or feel bad. A summer spending plan is about making sure your money goes towards the summer you actually want, creating memories you care about, the ease that you need, being with the people you want to spend time with.

Shari Rash (37:25): You can spend money and still be responsible. They are not opposing values. You can enjoy summer and protect your bigger goals and you can have real fun without every expense becoming a surprise. But it takes a plan. If you want help building out your summer spending plan, visit everyone's talkingmoneypodcast.com backslash one five three four or click the link in your show notes.

Shari Rash (37:54): It walks you through the categories, the ranges, the calendar scan, everything I've discussed today. And if you want support sticking with the system all season long, not just building it, but actually using it, check out the ETM Club. This is where we take episodes and turn them into tools, routine, community, and real money decisions. Follow the show on Instagram at everyone's talking money, and please leave a quick rating and review. Remember, money is not just there to pay bills and stress you out.

Shari Rash (38:26): Money should be a tool that helps you live life on your terms. I'll see you next time.

Unknown Speaker (38:47): Spring just slid into your DMs. Grab that boho look for that rooftop dinner, those sandals that can keep up with you, and hang some string lights to give your patio a glow up. Spring's calling. Ross, work your magic.

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