We are past Memorial Day and into summer, which means it’s time to figure out just how much all the summer fun is going to cost me.

The town pool costs $250 for the season. Not a bad deal at all for something like 56 days, 8.5 hours a day, of chlorinated fun (for five people). If I had managed to get myself to the pre-season sale, it would only have been $200. It follows that each kid needs at least one bathing suit and pool-appropriate footwear. That’s about $45 for the suits (three $15 suits at Target). Flip flops for the younger two should be about $10 total. Aidan wants slide-type sandals of a certain brand. Might need to hit up Ross or Marshalls. Hoping to keep that to $15. Me, I guess I’ll keep wearing the same suit/cover-up/flip flops I’ve had for a couple years now. I won’t be at the pool as much this year anyway what with working full-time. The kids all have suits from last year that fit, more or less, so there’s no big rush on the suits. Just like to have a back-up for the inevitable moment when the second suit is needed.

Update: Gemma and Sebastian have new suits now. And they both have new goggles, which were something like $15 total.

Then there’s sunblock and bug spray. I bought Target brand sunblock ($10?), and we seem to still have bug spray from last year.

Beach towels? I’m very tempted to buy bright, colorful, plush NEW towels. Technically, we can use what we have, frayed as they are. Or use regular bath towels. A towel is a towel. Shut up, Target. Maybe wait til end-of-the-season sales to stock up.

One thing I don’t want to spend a lot of money on is snacks at the pool. They are going to have to use their allowances for that. (Went to the pool today, failed at this right off the bat.)

Remembering that I got an eye infection last summer, most likely from swimming with contacts in, so I need to get prescription sunglasses this year. Hopefully insurance will cover them.

(How great to be back at the pool, with kids who need the barest supervision!!)

Let’s not forget the cats. They need flea medicine in the summer, which runs about $50.

Speaking of medicine, two of the kids need to have their well visits over the summer, and all need to go to the dentist. The two doctor copays will total $50.

Aidan wants to attend basketball camp, which is $175 for four days. Other than that, they will attend Camp Dad, Camp Grandparents, and Camp Bike All Over Town.

So we’re at $610 in summer costs, for a very baseline, no frills summer. I’m sure we’ll end up adding some other costs to that.

Enough about spending, let’s talk about saving. We took part in the town-wide yard sale at the beginning of the month. It was a last-minute effort, but we still made probably close to $100. I didn’t keep close track.

Recently I bought a new Brita pitcher to replace one we had for years and years.  One of the kids promptly dropped it on the floor and cracked it.  Hubs to the rescue — he super glued it from the outside and it is good as new!

I had a little standoff with my dad over my coffee maker the other day. He seemed perturbed by my refusal to get a new one. Mine works, but you have to use a fork to depress the thingy where the coffee comes out. No biggie. He said something about buying me a new one. I cannot promise that I wouldn’t sell it on eBay.

At work, I took part in a volunteer event and got a T-shirt for my trouble.  I like free T-shirts. I should find my oldest T-shirt and retire it.

I did another round of photo decluttering.  I think all my photos and memories fit in one medium bin, at this point. I also got rid of a ton of documents I don’t need anymore.

Saturday was another picturesque day at the farmers’ market.

On the left there we have a mess of chicken legs and thighs from Hillacres Pride. My market assistant stayed home to play with her friends and I was missing that extra set of hands.

Sunday morning, she did come along on a walk to a nearby supermarket with our beach cart. A new idea of mine that turned out to be fun. The cart holds about $70 worth of groceries, so if we had two carts, we could get a full order. I really should start biking with a trailer. Then I’d have exercise, less car use, and speed. Perhaps also untimely death.

I’m continuing to avoid eating out, mostly. Yesterday’s lunch was a leftover hot dog from our little Father’s Day barbecue on Sunday, and if that isn’t taking one for the team, I don’t know what is. Monday night I made pasta carbonara for the first time in forever. Easy enough to pull together after work and so good! I use a Rachael Ray recipe. Some of the kids ate it. We did have Chinese food Saturday night after a busy day. Need some ideas for dinner for the rest of this week. Here’s a random thing I ate on Friday night, after I realized my lettuce had gone bad:

I.e., salad without the lettuce.

Last week I finished reading “The Year of Less” by Cait Flanders (via Overdrive). Another great book recommendation from the Nonconsumer Advocate. It was very motivating in terms of hewing to the “no-spend” line. Not super relatable, as she is single and lives in Canada, but a good read nonetheless.

Last week we also wrapped up watching “The Terror” on Hulu. It’s cool if you like cannibalism and the such. One night Aidan was asking if we would ever have real cable TV again. Hubs said, and this is a direct quote, “I don’t know,  I don’t really miss it. What we have works well.” I had to cover my face with a pillow to stop myself from yelling I TOLD YOU SO!!