Summer Savings Series - Win a $100 Amazon Gift Card!

June 6, 2008 · Filed Under Contests, Group Projects ·

Summer is upon us and with the higher temperatures are coming higher prices for just about everything under the sun. Gas costs just went up, the summer vacation is costing an arm and a leg (maybe two!), and you may need to take out that second mortgage just to send your kids to summer camp.

Money Life Network realizes that times are tough this year and people are cutting back to make ends meet. With that in mind we decided to do a group writing project this month at our member blogs looking at ways that you can save money this summer. We’re calling it the “Summer Savings Series“!

Money Life Network Posts

Monday 6/9: Summer Savings Series #1: Food is a big expense. How can you save?

Tuesday 6/10: Summer Savings Series #2: 9 Money Saving Ways to Prepare For a Vacation

Wednesday 6/11: Summer Savings Series #3: Everyone Can Save Money This Way In The Heat!

Thursday 6/12: Summer Savings Series #4: Fun Frugal Ices With Your Child

Friday 6/13: Summer Savings Series #5: Make Summer Activities Affordable

Monday 6/16: Summer Savings Series #6: Save like you’re paying off a high interest debt

Tuesday 6/17: Summer Savings Series #7 - Send Your Kid to Summer Camp Without Blowing the Budget

Wednesday 6/18: Summer Savings Series Tip #8 - Watch Movies And Play Video Games For Free!

Thursday 6/19: Summer Savings Series #9 - Our Disney World Vacation

Friday 6/20: Summer Savings Series #10 - What is a staycation?

Monday 6/23: Summer Savings Series #11 - Saving at the movies this summer

Tuesday 6/24: Summer Savings Series #12: Save Money and Get Fit with These Summertime Activities and Programs

Wednesday 6/25: Summer Savings Series #13 - Don’t Drive 10 Miles Out Of Your Way To Save $0.20 On Gas! Use GasBuddy!

Thursday 6/26: Summer Saving Series #14: New York State Empire Passport

Friday 6/27: Summer Savings Series #15: The art of Hypermiling

User Submissions:

8 cheap summer fun ideas @ Broke Grad Student

Military Discounts @ Military Finance Network

Summer Savings - What I did @ OneGirlsQuest

You Know What I Did This Summer - Save Money! @ Are You Going To Be This Way The Rest of The Time I Know You?

Dealing with high food prices @ Paradigm Shifted

7 Ways to save money this summer @ Dreamline Savings

10 Money Saving Vacation Tips @ Think your way to wealth

Summer Savings Series: My Game Plan @ Kingdom First Mom

Freeze Your Air Conditioning Costs @ CashMoneyLife.com

How I Plan to Save Money This Summer @ Amelia’s Healthy Life

How I Will Save Money on My Summer Vacation @ The Dangling Conversation

Using Coupons @ Actiwiz.com

Saving Money This Summer @ Keep it Simple

Our blogs cover a lot of varied ground when it comes to personal finance, and this series will probably be no different. Some of the topics we may touch on include:

Ways to save on travel
Frugal activities for the kids
Ways to save on your auto expenses
Ways to save on groceries
How to get motivated to save

Over the next 3 weeks each member of the Money Life Network will write 1 post per week about how to save this summer on their blog. Keep checking the group site because we’ll have a new article every day Monday-Friday for the duration of the series. We start the series on Monday June 9th, and we’ll wrap up with a roundup post on June 30th. So subscribe to our feed, bookmark this page and stay tuned for tons of great ways to save this summer!

You can participate and win a $100 Amazon Gift Card!

If you want to get in on our “Summer Savings Series” as well, write your own post about how you plan to save money this summer. You can even use our snazzy graphic that appears on this page and link people back to this “Summer Savings Series” page.

Once you’ve posted your article just shoot us an email through our contact page, or leave a comment on one of our blogs, and we’ll post a link to your article at the top of this page.

Why would you want to take the time to contribute to the writing project? MONEY! When you write your post you’ll be given an entry in our contest to win a $100 Amazon gift card. A drawing will be held once the series is complete. Ways to win include:

Write a post about how you plan to save money this summer. Send us the link. (5 entries)
Subscribe our our group feed, and email us the secret phrase. (3 entries)
Leave a comment with your summer savings tip. (2 entries)

You can enter each way once for a total of 10 entries. We’ll put all of the entries into random.org to choose the winner. Entries can be submitted up to 11:59 am Monday, June 30th. We’ll announce and contact the winner on Tuesday July 1st to email the gift certificate. If the email address is not valid we will award the prize to the second place finisher. Good luck!

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Tags: Contests, Group Writing Project

Comments

81 Responses to “Summer Savings Series - Win a $100 Amazon Gift Card!”

Joey on June 6th, 2008 10:13 pm

My summer savings tip -
Use coupons when buying my groceries. Every little saving makes a difference.

Will be blogging about this too. Thanks!
The Happy Rock on June 7th, 2008 10:00 am

Get your air conditioning unit checked and tuned up to help save on energy costs.
otherdeb (Deb Wunder) on June 7th, 2008 10:02 am

Know that bicycle that’s been moldering against your back porch/in your attic/in your garage, etc? Get it out, get it checked over, and start using it for local errands!

If you are anything like me, as you build up a bit of endurance, you will also want to start using it to do some local sightseeing!
Rachel on June 8th, 2008 10:21 pm

Summer Money Saving Tip: For a cheap sun burn treatment that won’t require an extra trip to the pharmacy, freeze some of the lotion you already have on hand on a piece of tin foil. Once it’s frozen, it cools and soothes the burn and also moisturizers to ease peeling and blistering. Works great too for those who are allergic to Aloe Vera like me!
Sam on June 9th, 2008 8:50 am

Turn you thermostat up to 80 and use your ceiling fans or box fans.

We also turn off the AC at night and just use our ceiling fans.
finaidgirl on June 10th, 2008 6:56 pm

Since we’re moving 1000+ miles with a car and moving truck, I’m concentrating on more gas-friendly driving habits, like driving the speed limit or slower, braking more slowly and steadily, not idling, and paying to tune up the car before the trip to prevent any big issues from happening on the way.
RachaelfromNJ on June 12th, 2008 1:10 pm

My summer savings tip:

Sometimes items that you own just need a good cleaning and they will look like brand new. Alot of men don’t realize that their baseball caps can be cleaned, in the dishwasher. Go to any Walmart, Target, Footlock, or any store that sells hats and you can get this plastic thing to put the hat in and all you have to do is place it in the dishwasher to clean it. It will make the hat nice and clean and save your man alot of money in buying a new hat everytime it gets dirty!
That One Caveman on June 14th, 2008 12:26 pm

My savings tip:

Vacation in or near your hometown. There are often a lot of cheap or free ways to entertain yourself - you just have to look for them. We’ll be visiting a few local museums (free entrance + free air conditioning), the zoo, the lake, and a few parks this summer - all for free!
cindy on June 15th, 2008 3:15 am

I’m saving money in a number of ways this summer. The first way is riding my motorcycle to work every day it’s not raining. I use about half the gas I would in my small car.
Some of my co-workers, who live closer than I do, are riding thier bikes to work. That’s free and they’re getting excercise to boot, a double benefit.
Diana Corlett on June 15th, 2008 5:25 pm

Combine going green with economizing. Be inventive…come up with new ways to use and re-use. Repair what you have instead of throwing it away and buying new. Make a hobby out of garage sales…you never know what treasure you might find.
Christin on June 16th, 2008 2:19 pm

My $ saving tip:
Dry your laundry on a rack outside. This saves $$ and your clothes will last longer too!
Mercedes on June 20th, 2008 11:48 am

This summer I have decided to quit driving my kids around for activities and stay local. I have been lucky to have found things to do in the small town that I live. So far I love this simple summer life. I am kicking back and enjoying the nice weather without a hectic lifestyle.
Melinda on June 22nd, 2008 3:45 am

Continue to start our summer vacation (Decemeber here) 2 weeks before summer school holidays officially begin.
No crowds at the amusement parks, lower airfares & greater discounts on accommodation.
Gold Coast QLD here we come!
Morgan on June 23rd, 2008 8:37 pm

Go on a long walk with your significant other on a nice summer evening. This is a great way to get exercise, communicate, and not spend money.
bunny on June 24th, 2008 1:41 am

Use ceiling fans instead of AC.
Dry your laundry outside under the sun.
Go to the parks for nice family outings.
EL on June 24th, 2008 9:16 am

My summer savings tip is to use the community pool, if you have one. It’s a great, cheap outing for hot days, great exercise, and keeps you from using the air conditioner.
Lauren on June 25th, 2008 12:15 pm

I’ve planted a vegetable garden to help save money at the grocery store, not only for the summer, but into the fall and winter months as well thanks to the joy that is freezing and canning!
celticbuffy on June 25th, 2008 1:20 pm

Summer savings tips:

1)Keep the ceiling fans going to make the house feel cooler.
2)Close the curtains on sun-facing windows to cut down on the amount of heat coming into the house
3) Grill out or eat “cool” evening meals as using the oven can really heat up the house.
Mrs. Micah on June 29th, 2008 5:52 am

I’m going to leave mine as a tip because it’s really not something I should expand upon in a whole post.

My tip is to try wearing as little as possible indoors to help keep the need for a/c down. We didn’t turn ours on until mid-June when a heat wave hit DC and I found this a useful part.

Of course, if you have kids what you can get away with is probably warmer than what you can if you don’t have kids. And it requires shutting the blinds/curtains, but that’s probably a good idea anyway for reducing heat in the house.
biblemoneymatters on June 29th, 2008 7:36 am

Hah.. you’re funny Mrs. Micah. I’ll have to suggest that one to my wife since we don’t have kids..
Donna V. on June 29th, 2008 4:58 pm

My husband and I have been trying to save money on our date nights this summer.

We love going to the movie theater and have saved money by going on Saturday before noon when tickets are $4-5 depending on the theater.
shawna on June 30th, 2008 7:06 am

My tip - hang dark colored sheets/blankets over your windows to prevent the sun from coming in and warming it up too much inside (and prevent the AC from running too much). I take push pins and put one on each side of the window at the top, then I take binder clips and put one on each side of the blanket and hang them that way so that it is easy to take them down. The setting sun really heats up some of my rooms and I do this with success.

Those reflective car sun shades also work well in windows.
Christopher on June 30th, 2008 9:04 am

My tip has more of a family overtone to it.

Go out and have a family day. Go to the zoo, the park, the beach, or another inexpensive place. Pack a picnic lunch to avoid the overpriced concession stands. Play games like volley ball or baseball, build a sand castle, or ride the swings.

While you may not save money when compared to staying home and doing nothing, the memories you create will last a lifetime.
Christiana Olajide on July 5th, 2008 4:02 pm

Instead of using dryers when doing laundry, get a clothing line and hang the clothes outside…it’s incredibly hot anyhow so why not utilize the heat?
Chimobi Emukah on August 16th, 2008 3:48 pm

Use as many coupons as you can and walk instead of driving to save gas.

Summer Savings Series - Win a $100 Amazon Gift Card!

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You can participate and win a $100 Amazon Gift Card!

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