Remember last month when I did a distribution of our wedding expenses and noted that more than 23% of our wedding expenses were incurred during the actual wedding month? And heck, that 57% of our wedding expenses were incurred in the two full months leading up to our wedding?
I think that this is excellent news for those of you who think that paying for a wedding might be a huge struggle. Even though it’s not something I recommend, if you stretch out your engagement for 15 months or so, you would have plenty of time to save up money to pay for probably a $15,000 wedding!
There are lots of tips in the personal finance blogosphere on how to save money, and I’ll show you those in a few minutes, but here are some that I think are especially useful for engaged (in other words, soon to be married!) couples!
- Move in with your fiancé (or vice versa). You’re getting married, right? If you aren’t already living together, that is a huge financial mistake. You’re paying probably twice the rent (or mortgage) than necessary. Forget your parents’ (or your) objections, and move in with each other to save some serious cash before the wedding.
- Now that you’re moved in together, that means you can eliminate other things like extra cable bills, water bills, etc.
- Sell your stuff. Whether you’re already living together or just moving in, start selling your stuff. Old furniture, old books, clothes that don’t fit … whatever. Clear out the house in anticipation of those nice shiny wedding gifts that will be filling it up soon.
- Speaking of cable, cut back on all cable. You won’t have much time for tv-watching as the wedding approaches anyway
- Combine all your insurances. Thanks to domestic partnership laws in a lot of states, you and your fiancé can likely combine insurances to save some money. So, consolidate your health insurances, auto insurance, etc.
- On a similar note, if you have a decent enough emergency fund to cover it, consider increasing the deductibles on all your insurance policies. This will help you save money each month on your insurance policies!
Without further ado, here is a list of links that contain an insane amount of tips for how to save money. Implement them now, and be able to pay for your wedding in cash!
- Save $1000 in 30 Days
- 100 Tips for Saving Money
- 30 Easy Ways to Save Money
- 106 Money Saving Tips
- Money Saving Tips
- 25 Ways to Save Money
- 30 Money Saving Tips
