Summertime and the livin’s easy — but also, expensive. As we hit warmer temps and Summer Fridays give way to weekends out with friends, it’s easy to get sucked into overspending. Here’s how to save on your fav summer activities while learning a few things about your area, too!
Biking: Wanna go for a bike ride with the family, but you don’t actually own a bike? Spinlister is the site that lets you rent bikes from people in your area. The company verifies details and photos for quality, price, and accuracy, and then prospective bikers can search by location, bike size, and type to get a list of available bikes. Once the request is approved, both parties meet at an agreed-upon time and location to make the exchange…and you’re off!
Pro Tip: Have a bike and want to protect it, along with all of the other belongings in your apartment? Bikes are covered by most renter’s insurance plans. Shop around for quotes online, and for around $5 per month you can insure your stuff for piece of mind no matter where your home sweet home might be.
Beach Reads: Don’t spend $20 on a paperback that’s just going to get covered in sand. Instead, borrow an e-book! If your library is one of 18,000 branches linked up with OverDrive, you can check out titles virtually using your library card number. Been meaning to catch up on the classics? Visit Project Gutenberg, which lets you indulge in titles by Jane Austen and Charles Dickens—for free.
Movies: The secret to scoring on box office hits this summer is to beat the crowds (and the heat) by going early. AMC offers tickets for up to half price nationwide before noon, or you can save by pre-buying your tickets at Costco or other warehouse clubs. Know you’re going to be catching a lot of flicks this summer? Most of the major theater chains (including AMC, Cinemark, and Regal) offer discounts on bulk orders of 25 tickets or more.
Parks: What if we told you that for $80, you can get access to 58 national parks all over the country—for a full year. No, it’s not a gimmick, it’s just the National Park Service helping you to see the best our country has to offer! In addition to hiking and biking, many parks also offer camping, white-water rafting, and horseback riding. Check out nps.gov for the park nearest you.
Baseball: Fenway, Wrigley, Yankee Stadium—it’s hard to argue with the magic of these legendary stadiums. But for a fraction of the price (and a fraction of the headache) why not catch a local minor league baseball game? You get all of the benefits: the sunshine, the heckling, and—oh yeah—the baseball with shorter concession lines and easier parking. Find a nearby team at milb.com.
Museums: Forget going away on vacation; enjoy a staycation as a tourist in your own city. CityPASS, now available in 10 cities nationwide, offers discounts on admission to popular venues like museums and aquariums. Prices start at $44 and the more venues you add to your package the cheaper it gets—up to 50% off combined prices to your city’s must-see attractions. Start mapping out your itinerary now!
