Savings plan for wedding

MissOwl

Mr.Owl and I are both contributing to our joint wedding account. I have had to borrow against it recently to pay for a few weird life things that have come up but I've just figured out how much I owe back to the account. I'm going to do my darndest to keep squirrelling away money each month. My birthday is next week so hopefully I can use some of that towards the balance.

How are you doing on wedding savings? Any good plans out there?

GApeachOH

We honestly haven't set anything up. Biggest mistake ever! 

We are starting December and saving $400 a month or more. It is going to kill us, but we can do it!

jnkreager

I had the same thing happen Mrs. Owl.  My transmission went out on my car and I had to borrow from our joint account to get it fixed.  The only thing you can do in that situation is try your best to scrimp and save even more next month to catch up.  Boo for unexpected expenditures! 

tiffanydaniels

We had the same thing happen, FI lost his job and we had student loans we had to pay back, so we stole all our wedding savings, but we plan on saving around 1500 dollars a month starting this month and december, to pay for the wedding and the house, so hopefully it all works out, my FI keeps saying we have a lot of money, and I keep saying shut up, because something WILL happen and then we will not have money. 

Carly245

Who knew saving money was so painful! I have been doing good though. I made a budget for what I spend every month and try to allow myself some extra money to do fun stuff and shop. But, i am writing down everything I spend so I know how much and where it's going to, which has helped me stop eating out as much!

Also, my job is salary plus a commission check every month. The past couple of months I have been putting each commission check in the savings account to go towards the wedding! Looking forward to the tax returns also!

tiffanydaniels

Oh tax return is scaring me!! I have had to pay every year, but this year I am able to claim myself so I am hoping we get lots of money back but I am not banking on anything! 

GApeachOH

I probably won't get much. I moved and changed jobs and then changed jobs again.

sweetcarolanne

We each put a set amount in a joint account each month and if we come across anything "extra" we add it.  FI's a spreadsheet guru so every component of the wedding is laid out in Excel and we're tracking all our expenses there.  So far so good.

Happy note - FI just got notice that he's getting a bonus at the end of the year so he's putting a big chunk of that toward paying off the rings and the rest into our wedding fund.  I facilitate programs at different colleges every so often and just got booked for January so that'll be another big bonus for us, too. Hoping to get booked a few more times, too - it's a PIA but good money for not a lot of work.  

MissOwl

thanks for all the thoughts ladies. i'm definitely banking my tax return but i'm also hoping to eek out money other ways. for example, i'm going to london for work and i get a per diem for food and incidentals. since i'm on a diet anyway, i plan to eat cheap and little and try to bank some of that money. we'll see. 

osuchica85

I wish we got bonuses at my work....or well we do but it isn't money. Last year we had the option between a ham or pair of movie tickets. Yes, you read that right, a ham. I picked movie tickets (I don't like ham) and I forgot to use them by the expiration date. I haven't heard anything about the gift this year though. As long as it is not a pen like three years ago. Since I have no need for a fancy pen....that baby lasted a minute before I lost it on the unit. What they should have given us is a pen on a string.

AshLW

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_ohio-columbus_savings-plan-wedding?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:112Discussion:bc1988fb-7434-40f0-bcce-1217cbeb1dadPost:8f6a4d93-ce92-4a74-8f02-d251c76da681">Re: Savings plan for wedding</a>:
[QUOTE]We each put a set amount in a joint account each month and if we come across anything "extra" we add it.  <strong>FI's a spreadsheet guru so every component of the wedding is laid out in Excel and we're tracking all our expenses there</strong>.  So far so good. Happy note - FI just got notice that he's getting a bonus at the end of the year so he's putting a big chunk of that toward paying off the rings and the rest into our wedding fund.  I facilitate programs at different colleges every so often and just got booked for January so that'll be another big bonus for us, too. Hoping to get booked a few more times, too - it's a PIA but good money for not a lot of work.  
Posted by sweetcarolanne[/QUOTE]


Thank the good Lord for my FI, because he is the same way... almost anal about it.  He makes significantly more than I do, so most of the wedding fund has come from him. 

[Deleted User]

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_ohio-columbus_savings-plan-wedding?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:112Discussion:bc1988fb-7434-40f0-bcce-1217cbeb1dadPost:0816f6ed-e466-4b99-ae36-1db07a59faa5">Re: Savings plan for wedding</a>:
[QUOTE]I probably won't get much. I moved and changed jobs and then changed jobs again.
Posted by GApeachOH[/QUOTE]

Oh, it is so fun doing 2 different states tax returns. We both were in that boat a few years ago when I moved to GA. I didn't think we were ever going to finish our taxes it took forever.

Karadee1

So far, our plan has just been to make a budget and stick to it. The budget includes allowances for grocery, gas, entertainment and restaurants. Sticking to it hasn't been bad so far. The thing that really helped has been packing lunches for work and cooking during the week. 

In addition, we have one very well-organized spreadsheet for wedding expenses, with how much of our total budget we want to spend on each item. Every item we will have to buy/spend on has been thrown into that budget so we know when and how much we will be spending on each thing. Being this organized really helps. It helps me keep my "eyes on the prize" and knowing that our saving is going to pay off in the wedding we really wanted. I'm really lucky my FI is analytical, because I would never be this organized on my own. 

I haven't set aside much extra money for shopping or doing (expensive) fun things, so we're definitely looking forward to our honeymoon! It kind of helps that I'm in grad school now, because I don't have time to do anything fun anyway! haha