How to Start Saving for Your Wedding
Your wedding day is one of the most amazing and memorable events in your life. Whether you have a big elaborate wedding or a small intimate gathering, marrying someone you love in the presence of your friends and family will stay with you all your life. However, along with the big wedding can come a big bill afterward. The cost of a wedding can run into the thousands which can take years to repay if you are taking out a loan to finance it. If you want to save for your wedding instead, then this can be better in the long run. Here are a few tips to help you get into the saving habit.
Work Out What You Want
Saving for a wedding is good, but how do you know how much you need to save? You need to start working out what type of wedding you want and how much it is likely to cost. A small wedding will cost a lot less than a big one obviously, but it depends on the way you want your wedding to go. If you have always fancied a glamorous venue with lots of flowers and a lovely honeymoon, then this is fine, but you need to know that this will take longer to save for. Go through the wedding magazines and websites and choose the accessories you want. Then add these to the budget and start looking at wedding venues, this will give you an overall budget that you can start saving towards.
Work Out How Much to Save
Once you have the budget, you need to think about how much you need to save each month. The amount will depend on how much money you need overall, and what you can sensibly save. You also need to factor in when you are looking to get married, a wedding in a year’s time will mean a lot of money to save each month than one in two years. It could be that your finances mean you need to postpone the wedding a little longer than you had originally planned.
Cut Costs
As well as starting to earn additional income to help pay for the wedding, you can also try to cut some costs from your existing budget. These savings don’t have to be permanent, but they will help to free up some money so that you can save a little quicker. Think about luxury items like magazine subscriptions or buying a coffee every day. These things can be scaled back to save you some cash. You can also think about quitting habits like smoking or drinking as these will save you a lot in the long term.
Arrange a Regular Amount
The sooner you start to save, the more manageable it will be, but, you need to save somewhere that won’t be easy to dip into when you are short of money. One way is to open a separate bank account that you can both pay money into. You can then leave this account to keep your wedding fund in, and only take money out when you need to pay for something for the wedding. If you choose a high-interest account, then you might also be adding interest to your savings which will help.
Loans and Credit Cards
Although you want to save as much as you can for your wedding, there may be times when a big bill or an unexpected problem arises, and you aren’t able to save as much as you want. In these cases, you can reduce the amount you are saving to direct to the bill, or you can take out a loan or credit card to pay for it. Many companies like Bonsai Finance can offer good rates for loans, especially if you can pay them back in good time. A credit card can also be a good way to pay the bill, and it might be interest-free as well depending on your credit company. However, if you don’t make the payments on the credit card, it can lead to interest being added.
Sell Some Unwanted Things
There is nothing better than making some money, and there is no better cause than your wedding. It can be a good excuse to start going through your things and see if there is anything you no longer want. There are many ways you can sell unwanted items, you can try an online auction site, in the local papers, or even a garage sale. Depending on what you want to sell you can generate quite a lot of money for your wedding fund.
Ask for Money at Birthdays
If your family still like to buy you gifts for your birthday, then this can be a good opportunity to add some money to your wedding budget. Ask them that instead of a present, that you would like money towards your wedding. Most family members will be pleased to do this for you, and it means a little extra that you didn’t budget for in the beginning.
Work a Second Job
Although you are probably working a lot of hours already, you might not be able to get any overtime with your existing employer. If that’s the case, then you can always see if you can get a second job to raise extra cash. It doesn’t have to be well paid, but it should be something you can do that won’t interfere with your main job. If both of you decide to get second jobs, then this will dramatically increase your wedding income. It might be that you don’t even need to go anywhere to work your second job. Some people can do work from home as a freelancer or by working for a company. The benefit of this is that you won’t need to pay for any additional travel costs, and you won’t get so tired.
With a tight budget and smart saving, you will soon be able to have the wedding of your dreams.