Saving for the wedding

tricia1086

Does anyone know a good percentage that should be saved of a paycheck for weddings? Because I'm getting overwhelmed with trying to figure it out. Just a ballpark opinion please. I know there's expenses and things like that but just an idea would be great. Thank you.

manateehugger

tricia1086 said:

Does anyone know a good percentage that should be saved of a paycheck for weddings? Because I'm getting overwhelmed with trying to figure it out. Just a ballpark opinion please. I know there's expenses and things like that but just an idea would be great. Thank you.

Dude. There is not set percentage. I could give you a ballpark of 10%, but that may not be a realistic number for you. It all depends on how much you can set aside after necessary expenses and what expectations you have for your wedding. You have to do the nitty gritty budget work. There are plenty of online budget tools out there that can help you set a household budget and examine your left over money each month. 

Why did you delete your other post?

AprilH81

The percentage will be different for everyone.  Some people live paycheck to paycheck and can only save $10-$20 at a time.  Other people can fully fund  their weddings from an existing savings account.

You need to look at your normal budget and then see how much you have left and/or what you can cut back on until after the wedding.  That will determine your budget.

pumpkinsandturkeys

Is there something in your previous post you felt as though you should withhold from us this time around? I don't understand deleting one and then creating another, very similar thread right afterward.

Please review the advice given to you in the original topic.

photokitty

100% of what you do not need to spend on essential expenses. If it is priority then you should structure your unneeded speeding to a minimum. Make a budget of the bills you have to pay and save everything else. Only you can decide if you'd rather go to dinner and movie or save for your wedding.

emmyg65

15%

Jk, there's no set amount. Here's the advice I gave you in the previous post. I think it was pretty good!

"Well how much do you normally have left over every month? If it's none, then what can you cut down on?

PP is right, this is backward. I use Mint to make our monthly budget (it's a website) and it's super useful for tracking spending on various items. Try it (or something similar) out for a few months and then you can see how much you can save. Then, multiply that by the number of your months till your wedding and you have your budget! It might be $15,000; it might not."

OnceUponSnow

We have set a budget we'd be comfortable paying, and we calculated how much we had to put aside each month to save that amount. We're having a long engagement and budget-wedding (less than 10K), so it's actually a tiny percentage of our income. Also, I work part-time at University and 100% of this extra income goes into our wedding/honeymoon fund. 

I do not agree with ''everything that's not for paying the bills'', especially if you have debts of any kind. You also need to keep saving for other things, such as your retirement fund, your rainy day fund and other expenses that you might need and are not necessarily linked to you common bills. I believe you should make a detailed budget considering all this, and see what's available at the end of the month. Make changes into your spending if needed, but don't compromise on debt repayments and retirement/emergency at least.

photokitty

OnceUponSnow said:

We have set a budget we'd be comfortable paying, and we calculated how much we had to put aside each month to save that amount. We're having a long engagement and budget-wedding (less than 10K), so it's actually a tiny percentage of our income. Also, I work part-time at University and 100% of this extra income goes into our wedding/honeymoon fund. 

I do not agree with ''everything that's not for paying the bills'', especially if you have debts of any kind. You also need to keep saving for other things, such as your retirement fund, your rainy day fund and other expenses that you might need and are not necessarily linked to you common bills. I believe you should make a detailed budget considering all this, and see what's available at the end of the month. Make changes into your spending if needed, but don't compromise on debt repayments and retirement/emergency at least.

I consider debt and retirement payments to be bills or essential expenses. Debt is most definitely a bill, as you would get a monthly bill for any debt you have. 

If you save everything and cut out your wants - like dinners out and movies, shoes you don't really need - ad save everything you will have the money for the wedding or in case of emergency.

OnceUponSnow

What I meant by that is that your bill is the minimal fee you're supposed to pay. Most likely, it only covers the interests, you do not bring the debt down by sticking only to the minimal payments (so it's not ''debt repayment'', it's just ''interests payments''). I don't think you should compromise debt repayment to pay for a wedding. 

Also, maybe I'm too organized, but I plan pretty much everything. I always have a clothing, drugstore, car fix, etc. amount of saving I take from every paycheck. I could skip those and the wedding will be paid twice as fast. But what if I get sick ? What if my winter boots get shredded by the dog and I need to purchase another pair ? What if my car has a flat tire ? etc. Life happens, and it's not by cutting all expenses that it will make the saving process easier.  We each have our views on what a budget should take into account I guess, but to me, it's important that I plan for these separately from other forms of savings, including a wedding. 

It's also by doing this that my FI and I agreed to postpone our wedding another 6 months, because we preferred to have a solid ''daily life'' budget and we considered the wedding to be independent from other expenses. In other words, it made more sense to us if the wedding wasn't in the way of our other financial goals. But technically, I could just not go out for 3 months and pray my car doesn't break and eat peanut butter sandwiches every day and it would all be paid off quickly. We just didn't think sacrificing our daily life quality was worth it (especially for a longer engagement : I can understand doing this for a few months ... but 2 years...)

photokitty

OnceUponSnow said:

What I meant by that is that your bill is the minimal fee you're supposed to pay. Most likely, it only covers the interests, you do not bring the debt down by sticking only to the minimal payments (so it's not ''debt repayment'', it's just ''interests payments''). I don't think you should compromise debt repayment to pay for a wedding. 

Also, maybe I'm too organized, but I plan pretty much everything. I always have a clothing, drugstore, car fix, etc. amount of saving I take from every paycheck. I could skip those and the wedding will be paid twice as fast. But what if I get sick ? What if my winter boots get shredded by the dog and I need to purchase another pair ? What if my car has a flat tire ? etc. Life happens, and it's not by cutting all expenses that it will make the saving process easier.  We each have our views on what a budget should take into account I guess, but to me, it's important that I plan for these separately from other forms of savings, including a wedding. 

It's also by doing this that my FI and I agreed to postpone our wedding another 6 months, because we preferred to have a solid ''daily life'' budget and we considered the wedding to be independent from other expenses. In other words, it made more sense to us if the wedding wasn't in the way of our other financial goals. But technically, I could just not go out for 3 months and pray my car doesn't break and eat peanut butter sandwiches every day and it would all be paid off quickly. We just didn't think sacrificing our daily life quality was worth it (especially for a longer engagement : I can understand doing this for a few months ... but 2 years...)

FWIW, I wrote her a longer reply in the original thread that she since deleted.

I plan for everything too. I have kept a detailed budget since I started college - I had to since I was working and paying my own way.

I prioritize my budget and when I "want" something - like a wedding or new windows for the house - I cut out all the unneeded expenses and start putting it all into my savings account.

I think if you are saving everything and it is earmarked for a wedding but your car gets a flat tire, you take the money out of your savings, bc you "need" it, obviously this is bill/ essential/ need. I am by no means advocating you should spend your entire savings on the wedding, you always need a safety cushion. But you should save everything you make that isn't spent on needs/ essentials. Cut out your wants. 

Personally, I don't feel the need to have separate accounts for a wedding or the windows or the rainy day or emergency fund. If I have one savings account and I "need" the money, bc life got in the way, I would take it out of the savings, regardless of other "wants." If you have separate accounts and get in an accident and need more than you have in the emergency fund, you're going to dip into the wedding account regardless of it being a separate account. Keeping them separate doesn't really matter if you need the money, you need it. It goes back to prioritizing. 

I am not suggesting anyone eat peanut butter sandwiches for 2 years, but the OP wants to Save $15K for a wedding in 22 months. She needs to decide if she is willing to eat BP&J for 22 months to pay for it…a budget that is 27% of her & FI's estimated take home salary for those 22 months. As I said before, only OP can decide what is more important to her - an aggressive wedding budget/ saving plan or not eating BP&J.

ETA typo

OnceUponSnow

I saw that there was another thread that I missed and didn't read, I don't know what has been advised prior to this one. I didn't know how long the OP's engagement is (mine is 2 years, that's what I was referring to, but it seems as though hers is almost 2 years as well).

I see nothing wrong with how you do your budget, I for instance couldn't keep all savings together (used to to that before and failed at it. My brain is working like a computer, I need different files for different programs ! lol). 

kaitlynmichelle

Go back to your original post and read the advice there. Why would you delete your post and ask a very similar question?