May 2012 Weddings

How are you budgeting?

FI and I decided when we set a wedding date that we wanted to keep our wedding low budget. While we dont have a real firm budget the goal is to keep it as low as possible so we have the money we've put away for other things, mostly getting through the period of time he'll be waiting for his work visa when he comes into the states.

So we've been dumping all the wedding money into one of my mom's savings account that is like 9 million years old and has a really high interest rate. Which for a while was awesome, and my mom was so sweet to let us do that. But since we've started to use that money its become a real pain in the rear. It means my mom has to move the money into my checking account or get me cash or whatever to make it work. I don't want to make her do that for us, she's so good to me.

But I thought hmmm it would be awesome to have a way to track every purchase how much when where and know now much I have left in my budget. I do this on excel already but I tend to get lazy and fail to list every transaction if its under $30.

So I decided to get a prepaid debit card, I can see how much is left on it, get a statement from it etc. I did a lot of homework and found one with a low fee on it, $0.99 a month. My mom and FI told me I was anal retentive. I was just curious how everyone else who is on a budget is handeling theirs.

White Knot

Re: How are you budgeting?

  • We have a combined account, but combined savings too. I use an Excel speadsheet to make our budget, deduct bills & spending, then put $ into Savings. I use another tab on the sheet to track Savings and how we spend it on the wedding. In the budget, monthly, I also break down what we'll use the $ for that month so we can pay things off a little at a time..

    Anally organized?? that's me! ;)
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  • I am using excel as well. One tab for general budgeting. Then several tabs with what was spent on what and when.
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  • I am using a spredsheet too... (thanks to my Kat Smile)
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  • we opened a joint savings/checking account. the savings is for the house which when the time comes, there is a program that i am enrolling it which matches your contribution 4 to 1, the checking is for the expenses for the wedding. I have a percentage of my paycheck put into the account bi-weekly and i pay everything with the debit card so i can make sure by checking online that everything is where it should be while still managing to keep money in my personal account for things like my car payment, insurance, cell phone etc.
  • In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_may-2012-weddings_budgeting?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20Club%20BoardsForum:f0ca0bc1-9255-4120-8042-b40e7f3e99c5Discussion:694f34e0-4c99-4387-9f78-042f8c6cdb28Post:689a3e25-83da-4460-a819-2ea2a2b0a2a9">Re: How are you budgeting?</a>:
    [QUOTE]I am using a spredsheet too... (thanks to my Kat )
    Posted by Ambie106[/QUOTE]

    <div>Yay and totally know you can change it up however you want. I found an actual wedding budget speadsheet online that I don't like as much if you want that lmk :)</div>
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  • This one should be fine... I am working on it now... hehehe
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  • I use spread sheets too...I don't think there is really an "easy" --"no forget" way to do this...but a prepaid card sounds like it might help...however you won't earn interest on your money...is counting every penny worth loosing the interest? Maybe it is for you? If so then that may be a good idea...but I think here you just have to figure out what is more important to you...
    ...hope that was somewhat helpful.lol. :)
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  • In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_may-2012-weddings_budgeting?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20Club%20BoardsForum:f0ca0bc1-9255-4120-8042-b40e7f3e99c5Discussion:694f34e0-4c99-4387-9f78-042f8c6cdb28Post:ecbe8c10-43eb-4882-b3b1-0afcd72d32b6">Re: How are you budgeting?</a>:
    [QUOTE]We have a combined account, but combined savings too. I use an Excel speadsheet to make our budget, deduct bills & spending, then put $ into Savings. I use another tab on the sheet to track Savings and how we spend it on the wedding. In the budget, monthly, I also break down what we'll use the $ for that month so we can pay things off a little at a time.. Anally organized?? that's me! ;)
    Posted by klw0022[/QUOTE]


    Um, Kat, I think you might be my other soul mate, because I do the exact same thing! LOL
  • In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_may-2012-weddings_budgeting?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding Club BoardsForum:f0ca0bc1-9255-4120-8042-b40e7f3e99c5Discussion:694f34e0-4c99-4387-9f78-042f8c6cdb28Post:9435d12c-d02f-4612-858e-7b8e80fcde40">Re: How are you budgeting?</a>:
    [QUOTE]I am using excel as well. One tab for general budgeting. Then several tabs with what was spent on what and when.
    Posted by Tlongo[/QUOTE]

    Doing this. And we have an ING savings account linked to both of our checking so we can transfer money in and out.
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  • Our parents are paying, so we just tell them what each different vendor or whatever it is taht we are buying costs. We always try to cut costs for them, so they're always happy to pay. We're having a lot more decor and stuff than my FSIL who got married last September and saving thousands because I am DIY'ing and researching the crap out of everything!
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  • We also do the spreadsheet and have joint accounts. :)
  • I'd like to say I have a budget.  But I don't.  My parents are paying for our wedding.  And when we first started looking at venues I kept asking my mom what my budget was and she could never give me a firm answer.  Then she gave me this "Katie, I don't know your wedding could cost 10K or it could cost 40K we'll just have to see."  Sooo, I'm kind of just going with the flow, if my mom thinks something is too expensive, I try to find something else.  But for the most part, she's just letting me book everyone I want.  The only place we ran into a money issue so far, is the photog because they were so darn expensive but it worked out.  And I'm trying to save my mom money by not having floral centerpieces, and trying to do some DIY stuff.  But we definitely splurged on the venue, but thats okay because me, my fiance, and my mom all absolutely loved it!
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  • We have an account for the wedding, that will be turning officially into the joint checking after the wedding.  We have an excel file we are using to keep track of things and I have been using the knot one as well just for an extra one.  

    There is nothing wrong with being anal about the wedding money especially if you are paying for things.  Thats just being a smart bride and person.  
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