Hello Everyone!

Well, we are back in the U.S. What a refreshing time off, and a great honeymoon in a gorgeous location. Some of the highlights of our trip include: a trip into the Bavarian Alps (we were right down from Eagle’s Nest, a home built for Hitler…eerie), weiner schnitzel and apple streudel, walks and coffeehouses, The Sound of Music Tour (think singing off key through the Alps and a beautiful snow), and the Christmas Markets. Ahhhhhhh.

Onto the Roundup:

I’d like to share a hodge podge of some great articles I’ve read in the last week or so.

Passive Family Income asks Is it Frugal, Stealing, or Just Plain Cheap? Some of these are quite interesting.

Squirrelers asks Is Tipping Getting out of Control? Over the weekend we went to Pete’s Piano Dualing Bar (neat place!), and the person taking cover charge (that’s right, taking $8 from each of us) had a tip jar! I couldn’t believe it. Why would I tip him?

MoneyCrush is doing an incredible $6,000 donation match between now and December 11th. Send her your receipts after you donate to wherever you donate to normally (or to a new place), and she will add it to the match! Way to go!

MoneyBeagle discusses their transition to LED Christmas Lights. That will cut down on electricity costs this season without cutting out any Christmas cheer.

Finally, Andreas guest post at the Budgeting in the Fun Stuff blog with the Top 5 Songs About Personal Finance. I’ll give you a taste: Mo’ Money Mo’ Problems made it:).

Remember when we had our bags packed and were ready to go to Europe to honeymoon for two weeks? We were like those two kids on the Disney commercial who pack their bags late at night in anticipation of the magic to come. Well, several days before our honeymoon a volcano in Iceland erupted, sending magma and hot ash spewing all over our best laid plans and leaving us to honeymoon in the mountains of Pennsylvania (beautiful and serene also, but mole hills compared to the Austrian Alps).

Thankfully we only lost $120 due to having to cancel all of our reservations (I know, $120 is a lot of money, but we didn’t have trip insurance and our agent basically threatened us that all of our money was going to be lost). Once we recouped our money, we stashed it back into our Austria savings account and waited patiently while our vacation days built back up at work.

Well, I am excited to say that we are once again embarking on a trip to Austria. I’d like to take this opportunity to recap how we saved up for our honeymoon from sources other than our 9 to 5 paychecks (though $200 did end up coming from our paychecks). Our goal was to save $2500 in cash. We started in September of 2009 and got married in April 2010, so we took 8 months to accomplish this.

Below are the final tallies for each category:

• Freelance Writing Income: $760
• Bank Account Opening Bonuses: $421
• Wedding Shower Cash Gifts: $325
• Rebates: $222.49
• Our Paycheck Money: $200
• Sold Stuff on Craigslist: $141.29
• Carpooling: $104
• Research Study: $75
• eHow Income: $54
• SendEarnings Surveys: $27
• Miscellaneous: $5
Total: $2334.78

We are leaving this Saturday, November 20th and will get back on December 1st. Fear not—I have been working on some great articles that are scheduled for the next two weeks on my normal posting days, as well as have a guest post from a fellow personal finance blogger. So please continue to check back and leave your comments and I will read them all!

Please note: If you are my ex and are reading this, then it is not your jewelry I pawned!

Ever since being engaged (we are E+ two weeks now, as my fiancée likes to keep track of time after the big day), I have had this consuming desire within me to organize, de-clutter and simplify every aspect of our lives. I suppose I can only relate it to the fierce nesting a woman supposedly goes through during her pregnancy when the entire house must be cleaned and organized and perfect for this next big stage in her life.

Unlike some phases or emotions which can send a person to compulsive shopping, compulsive eating, etc., this one is actually quite lucrative (would you expect any less from me at this point?)!  By cleaning out the recesses of our closets, drawers, hope chests, and jewelry box, I have made a small profit, and have decided that all money earned will be donated to our honeymoon fund.

It started with our guest room closet, aka the pit for things we don’t have a place for. I took everything out of it and made distinct piles: donations, throw away, sell. I threw away all of my fiancées wire hangers (think Mommy Dearest the movie), organized all of my photos into neat little photo boxes, and ruthlessly sorted through a lot of belongings. Next I focused my attention on our book shelves—Paul and I are both avid readers and each have our own book shelf. Between the two of us, we came up with 15 books we no longer want to sell at a used book store.

As I was walking back into the bedroom with a handful of old clothes, my jewelry box caught my eye. How about I sell my ex boyfriend’s jewelry and put it towards our honeymoon as well? Quite frankly I thought my idea was brilliant, although I am sure many others have done the same thing in the past. I picked out two necklaces, a bracelet, and two rings and cleaned them using jewelry cleaner. Now, I have never been to a pawn show before, and my imagination conjured up sleazy men with slicked-back hair, little spectacles and smoke-filled rooms. To my surprise, this was not the case, although the pawn shop I went to (The Write Pawn and Jewelry Co.) did have metal bar doors for an entranceway (this is most likely due to its location on Westheimer). In all but twenty minutes, I walked out of the place with a smile on my face, some money in my hand, and a feeling of weight lifted off of my shoulders.

Here is a breakdown of what I have been able to sell so far:

• Laptop Case: $10, Paid $15 for it
• Cell phone: $25, Paid $0 for it
• Jewelry: $50, Paid $0 for it
• Books: $15, Paid approximately $75 for them

With the books we sold, we were able to buy a copy of a used “How to Buy a House for Dummies” for $7.00. The rest of the money, as well as any other profits from sales, will be going into our honeymoon account. One hundred dollars is not much money, but this exercise has been more valuable as an intangible cleansing of the past for me, as well as a way to make room for us—and our belongings—to grow together.

Hurrah to simplifying and decluttering!

Check Out: How to Save Money on Your Wedding Part I.  

Our wedding was on April 17, 2010, and we were thrilled with the results. Here are some additional ways we have managed to save money on our wedding (remember from the first article that average costs are from the book Bridal Bargains):

Music/DJ for Ceremony and Reception: Average Cost $1,120

As mentioned previously, the owner of the place we are having our wedding and reception at is willing to announce us, announce our first dance as well as dances with parents, and play CDs of music throughout the ceremony that we choose. Therefore, we have decided to forego a DJ. The owner will also put his speaker system outdoors (or indoors, depending upon the weather), and play music for us on cue at the ceremony.

Cost Savings: $1,120

Flowers: Average Cost $1,103

The location of our wedding and reception will be putting in their first round of mulching and spring flowers the week before our wedding in order to spruce up the grounds. Because they run a restaurant business, they also have a florist who puts fresh flowers in vases as centerpieces on all of the tables each week. Therefore, we are only going to purchase flowers for the bridal party, parents, and grandparents in the form of bouquets, boutonnieres, corsages, etc. Most of the flowers chosen will be in-season to help us with costs (I do not have a huge preference here, only that they are fresh!).

Cost Savings: $853

Photographer: Average Cost $2,650

This was a tip directly from the Bridal Bargains book mentioned above, and boy is it saving us money! I contacted the arts department chairperson at a local university and asked if he/she could recommend a photography student to be a photographer for our wedding. We offered a rate of $200, plus the rights to all digital photos on a CD (so that we can print out whatever we would like), and this comes to about $33 per hour (which I would have killed for as a student!). Sure enough, I was put in touch with a former student who does occasional freelance photography, and who would love the opportunity.

Cost Savings: $2,367 (includes the cost of the meal we will be offering him during our reception)

Jewelry for Wedding Day: Average Cost Not Broken Down in Book

I am happy to be borrowing a pearl necklace that my father gave to my mother while they were married, as well as matching pearl earrings that my grandfather gave to my grandmother! These match my gown perfectly.

Ceremony Site and Officiant: Average Cost $800

Because we are using the site for our wedding and reception during off hours (11:00 am to 5:00 p.m.), and they can still open up for the evening dinner time, we only are charged a $250 site fee in total. Also, we found a wonderful pastor from my childhood church who is giving us some pre-marriage counseling, which is something we both wanted to do. His cost is only $100.

Cost Savings: $450

Another Article You May Enjoy:

Taking Care of your Wedding Day Checklist Without the Stress

I wake up in between a set of sheets so old and worn from washing (the thread count must be around 27 at this moment) that I might as well be lying on the 20-year old mattress below. There is no heat in this cabin, and so we’ve taken two sleeping bags leftover from when hunters occupied these beds over the last 20 winters or so and covered our goose-bumped selves. Paul gets out of bed first and checks the Franklin stove to make sure all flames have extinguished themselves from the night before. He opens the back door onto a deck, and a choir of birds eagerly belches out their greetings, sounding like wedding bells boastfully announcing and ringing at a church.  “Should be a gorgeous day—a little chilly” Paul yells in before shutting the door and turning the volume down on the birds. I get up, groggily sauntering into the living room and sitting down on one of the mismatched couches. I look around at the other remnants of people’s homes: old couches, side tables, and other furniture from when they redecorated, upsized, or moved. Yet everything a person could need—from cookware, to seating, to an old television complete with a VCR—is available for us here. 

                Paul and I were supposed to be in Austria enjoying a majestic landscape in the mountains, lazily reading, writing, and sipping away the morning at quaint cafes. In the afternoons we were to be hiking through breathtaking caves. However, due to inclement weather (aka a volcano erupting and spewing ice and ash all over Europe. You should have been there for that phone call), we have had to make…other arrangements. Thankfully my family owns a glorified hunting cabin in the Adirondack Mountains, and last minute we changed course from a 10 hour flight to Vienna, to a 2.5 hour car ride up the mountains of Pennsylvania. I was depressed for about two hours after learning that our flights had been cancelled. But truly we’ve gotten exactly what we had wanted in our honeymoon—a secluded cabin in the mountains. In fact, I am writing this at a café in the town of State College (okay…so it’s a Starbucks, but work with me here). On our way down the mountain this morning, we even broke into our own rendition—we have been practicing for weeks—of “The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music”. This afternoon we will be going to a cave and making googly eyes to one another among the stalactites and stalagmites.

               Perhaps one of the best luxuries of all is the utter simplicity we are experiencing in our cabin. On our way up here we purchased several days’ supply of food for $42.36, wine from a local vineyard for $39.54, borrowed some movies from my grandmother’s infamous collection (boasting over 2,000 VHS and DVDs), and purchased $50.12 worth of gasoline on our way out of town. Now that we are here, and now that we are married, our needs and wants are minimal and easily attainable. If we need warmth, we light the fireplace. Having no internet, and no capability to satisfy our curiosities in 30 seconds or less, or to look up the surrounding area and schedule a day of activities has led us to wander lust, and we have had some wonderful car rides and discoveries. We have plenty of lamps and natural sunlight to read all of the books we were somehow too busy before the wedding to enjoy. Our days are centered on cooking, starting a fire, taking in the mountain landscape on short walks or drives, and enjoying one another. How blissful!

                This utter simplicity is something that I began craving during the sometimes maddening wedding planning we have done over the past 9 months. A recommendation to read Possum Living in the Oprah Magazine (I get a free subscription thanks to my husband’s addiction to Coca-Cola and MyCokeRewards) I felt particularly called out to me one afternoon after spending roughly 6 hours looking at thousands of variations of wedding bands. I enthusiastically ordered it from Amazon. It came in the mail one week later, and I put everything down to delve into a book I had hoped would lead me to live more simply.

In this reprinted version from the original in the 1970s, a daughter writes about her and her father’s experience with living on around $700 per year 40 miles North of Philadelphia by making do with less, catching their own food, reusing, etc. Could a person survive without two salaries, two cars, while living next to a large city? The thought was intriguing, especially after having to spend nearly 4 hours of my precious life one day tracking down the perfect hair clip that my sister could use to make my veil with, and spending $65 on the most perfect pair of wedding shoes, which equates to over 9% of this family’s entire yearly budget. There is a way back to simplicity. I read on.

Dolly Freed is a strong-willed and independent woman, which I admire. But in my opinion she has suffered through several hardships due to her father’s way of living, which she has wholeheartedly adopted. For instance, their mother could not remain in “the squalor” they were living in, and so she left them both. She mentions how she cried when her father (whom she refers to throughout the book as “Old Fool”) killed the animals she was raising for food. As a child she always kept an emergency fishing rod and hook hidden away so that she would never starve, leading me to believe that they had some rough times feeding themselves. Furthermore, she mentions almost as an afterthought that she would like to have kids one day, but that someone has to take care of the “Old Fool” because he has no retirement saved up whatsoever, so she would probably have to remain living with him for life. But these nuggets of real life for Dolly Freed are hidden around many other topics, and some that are rather gruesome…such as the rabbits.

I try to keep an open mind while reading her tips on such horrifying things as skinning a rabbit from the herd they raise in their cellar, and peeling off the shells of turtles. While sitting on the deck of our cabin I envision our own life of living off of the land—whether by choice or necessity—and ponder about what our meat source would be. My family has been hunting deer at this cabin we are honeymooning at since before I was born, and each year we receive deer steak, deer sausage and deer bologna. Deer does taste pretty good, and I suppose if I were living off of the land, I could eat it as our meat. I would also be a big fan of keeping chickens and eating the fresh eggs, as well as fishing. Perhaps we would keep a few cows for milk and—though I can’t picture how difficult this would be—make homemade cheese and yogurt. As for the rabbits, I can’t do it. I can’t even describe to you what she describes. And I must admit I was very happy to get out of the gruesome animal-killing section and onto other parts of the book (especially when she suggests eating cats and dogs—Oh, Lyla!).

But it doesn’t seem to get better. Perhaps it is the environmental regulator in me that winces when she discusses things like making illegal moonshine (and also drinking it with her father as an under aged girl) and fishing illegally, with a distinctly audacious tone. Or maybe it’s her blunt declaration: “we’re incredibly lazy. You wouldn’t believe it!” that my inner ambitious self finds so unappealing. I suppose in my own version of Possum Living, I would not be breaking the law, and I would be working incredibly hard…on the things I would need to survive, and the things that I hold dear to my heart. Yet she does raise an excellent point when she states, “It’s easier to learn to do without some of the things that money can buy than to earn the money to buy them.” What an intriguing thought.   

Overall, my mind was certainly expanded by this book, and I am glad to have read it before heading up to a cabin in the middle of nowhere. But it truly was not what I had been expecting, and I was disappointed.

For those of you who have never had a wedding, let me explain the mindset that I am in. Our wedding is less than two weeks away, and while all of the large details are taken cared of, there are about 30 smaller details still left. These details include anything from tux pickup, marriage license, nail salon and hairstylist appointments, packing for our honeymoon and for the wedding (being held in another state), making sure our bills are all automatic so that they will be paid for the month of April, finding a cat-sitter, final RSVP number to our location, etc., etc., etc.  Did I mention that I have about a hundred articles I wish to write, a full-time job that has been quite demanding lately, a garden to weed and a home to clean? Of course I am not alone in all of these tasks, but the work is a bit overwhelming.

So when faced with expenditures that will only add convenience to my life at this particular moment, I have had to ask myself this question: how much is my sanity worth to me? Lately, my sanity is worth a lot.

I have been diligent in saving as much money as possible on our wedding, and have even kept a notebook of each expense, what it would have cost, and what it actually cost after my frugal efforts, such as using discounts/coupons/etc. Thus far my direct savings for asking for a discount, using a gift card from my credit card rewards, shopping around, or using coupons is $1,838.65. I am quite proud of that number!

However, I am no longer in diligent-saver mode. I am in save-my-sanity mode, which means that I am making spur-of-the-moment purchase decisions based upon an entirely new set of criteria: how can I fulfill a purchase that I need in as little time as possible, and with as much satisfaction as possible. The results are twofold: an increase in our spending—which I had all ready figured would occur in the weeks leading up to our wedding—and not having to run around like chickens with our heads cut off. If this were my overall strategy for spending money, then I think we’d be in big trouble. But for right now—it’s working out quite well.

Of course, I haven’t given up frugality entirely (I would never choose to do that!). In fact, just last weekend I snagged a roll of aluminum foil for $0.23, we saved a total of $60 on our groceries by using coupons paired with sales, and Paul purchased and installed a toilet repair kit for a toilet that we thought we would have to replace.

As my coworker likes to periodically remind me (you know, after watching me clip coupons over lunch, or learning after giving my fiancée and I a microwave for our wedding shower gift that we had not owned one for the last two years): we earn money and should spend it once in awhile. Convenience happens to be one of the luxuries money can buy, and we are taking advantage of that right now.

I’d love to hear stories about when you’ve had to just cast frugality to the side and spend!

Since September of 2009, I made a goal to put $2500 into savings to be used for our honeymoon using as little of our own 9-5 paycheck money as possible. I am happy to report, just 22 days away from leaving on our honeymoon, that we have succeeded in doing this. We thought outside of the box, and pulled in extra income through freelance writing, rebates, carpooling, etc. All of the hard work of saving is over for us, we’ve got our passports, the airfare and hotels are all booked, so needless to say, we are ready to splurge and enjoy ourselves! 

               Before we tally everything up, let’s look at how we did with adding money to our savings goal in March:

• $15 Oil of Olay rebate
• $10 eHow earnings
• $100 Freelance income
• $250 Wedding Shower money

This brings the total to $2334.78, with $165.22 still needed and only a little more than half a month to do this in. Unfortunately, I was not able to make up a larger portion since the last post (what I had to sell was not worth as much as I had hoped, but I will be holding onto it for a future use!). Even though we have half a month to go, and will probably make up the $165.22 before then, I would like to do an overall summary now and close out this savings goal.

Below are the final tallies for each category:

• Freelance Writing Income: $760
• Bank Account Opening Bonuses: $421
• Wedding Shower Cash Gifts: $325
• Rebates: $222.49
• Our Paycheck Money: $200
• Sold Stuff Craigslist: $141.29
• Carpooling: $104
• Research Study: $75
• eHow Income: $54
• SendEarnings Surveys: $27
• Miscellaneous: $5

I hope this serves as an example that while it may seem that putting small denominations of money into savings here or there, and getting a few rebates does not add up, if you give all of your miscellaneous money a purpose, then you can save up for something very large, and very tangible in your life. For us, it’s off to Austria!

Hello Everyone! We were able to add $301.99 to our honeymoon savings goal this month, bringing the total to $1,670.78 (check out progress bar in right hand column). The breakdown is below:

• $121 from ING Checking Account Opening Bonus
• $120 from Freelance Writing Income
• $11 Hasbro Rebate
• $9.99 Oil of Olay Bodywash Rebate
• $10 Gas Rebate
• $30 Carpooling

How are you doing with your savings goal? Have you started a new one for the New Year?

Hello Frugal Confessions Readers!

If you check out the progress bar for paying cash for our honeymoon, you will see that we are now at 54% of our goal! While that is wonderful…I realized the other day that our honeymoon is just three and a half months away. Needless to say, we need to get moving.

We added $122 to our savings account in December from the following sources:

• $5.00 Dulcolax rebate
• $3.00 rebate from Comcast for overpaying the previous month (not sure how that happened…)
• $85 from freelance writing income
• $15 from eHow income
• $14 from carpooling (was paid more…but this is how much made it towards our goal)

Wish us luck in January!

According to Bridal Bargains and various other sources, the average 150-guest wedding in the United States costs around $30,000!! Ofcourse, this number is an average, so it includes the million dollar weddings as well as weddings that are $500 (as pointed out by the authors of Bridal Bargain). But based on this average, where is all of this money spent?

• Apparel: $2,102
• Rings: $6,280
• Music: $1,120
• Miscellaneous: $2,049
• Ceremony Site and Officiant: $800
• Flowers: $1,103
• Cake: $692
• Reception/Catering: $12,722
• Photography: $2,650
• Videography: $1,450
• Invitations: $407
• Limo: $610
  • Source: Bridal Bargains, 2009

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, Paul and I are engaged, and we are getting married on April 17, 2010. Could you ever see us spending nearly $30,000 on one day? I don’t think so. There are many ways that we are finding to decimate this number. With a little bit of forethought and smarts, we are planning the wedding of our dreams without killing our finances. Check out the following ways that we have found to save money.

Apparel: Average Cost $2,102

• My entire wardrobe costs less than $1,000 (and this has been years in the making; I still have clothes from when I was 16!), so how can I justify spending over $1,000 on a gown I will wear for one day? However, I do want to look fabulous. Fortunately, to placate both my desire to look fabulous and my need to save money, I got my gorgeous gown for $500.10 at David’s Bridal. What’s even better is that they let me take it home that day (usually you have to order your gown and wait up to six months to bring it home). My budget was $500, and the dress was actually $550; I asked if there was an upcoming sale, and the woman went to her desk to look it up. When she came back, she said “surprise!” and gave me a discount of $150! After taxes, I came in just over budget by ten cents. Not bad.
• My sister and I are going to make my veil. If you look at a veil, it is literally just long, lacy material with some occasional beads and other decorations sewn on. Why spend upwards of $250 for that? Plus for me, it is a complete afterthought from my gorgeous gown. I bought some tulle (lacy fabric) from Hobby Lobby craft store at 50% off, paying about $3.99 for 3 feet. I will pick up a hair comb with some rhinestones from Claire’s, and viola.
• Paul is going to get his tux rental for free. Many stores will give the groom his rental for free if his groomsmen rent from that store, such as Men’s Warehouse.

                                Cost Savings: Approximately $1,551.90

Invitations: Average Cost $407

Our 75 invitations cost us $29.00. They are utterly perfect, and found at a location I never would have thought to look at for wedding invitations: Wal-Mart. I was in Wal-mart one day shortly after getting engaged, and happened to walk down the wedding aisle. There they were: our invitations in our wedding colors (a light bluish/green with chocolate brown). The invitation set includes the actual invitations, jackets with envelopes, response cards with envelopes, seals, ribbons and an extra invitation for testing. We will need to print them—which I have not decided if it would be more cost-effective/convenient to do at home with our printer, or at an Office Max or Office Depot—as well as put postage on them.

A word about postage; I took the entire invitation bundle to the post office yesterday to find out how much it would cost to send each. The cost will be $0.61. With about 60 invitations going out, and the cost of $0.44 per response card, it will cost us approximately $62.00 in postage. I plan on signing up for a free trial on Stamps.com to take advantage of the free $25 in postage you receive to cut our invitation cost even further.

                                Cost Savings: Approximately $310

Reception and Catering: Average Cost (for 150 guests) $12,722, or $85 per guest

Probably one of the best ways we are able to save money in this category is by not inviting 150 guests. That was pretty easy for us though; we have a list of priority guests that we both agreed on from the beginning (or perhaps we don’t even know 150 people intimately enough!). Our guest list is approximately 55, with each guest invited to bring an additional guest. Because our wedding is out of state, many of these people are not likely to come. We think we will have 60 people present in total for our reception.

Planning our wedding for an out-of-season month is another way that we saved on our reception/catering. We were able to negotiate a 17% discount from the original cost of $100 per person, which means we are paying $83 per person. Now, before you start commenting about how high this number is, please be aware of what is included: reception site, butlered hor d’oeuvres, several course meal, alcoholic beverages (beer and wine), all taxes and gratuities, linens and china settings, fresh flowers centerpieces, candles, and background music. This place is also offering to play our first dance music, songs for dancing with our parents, and then play whatever music we would like for the rest of the reception so that we do not have to hire a DJ if we prefer not to. In other words, we are saving on linen/china rentals which most catering companies charge for, as well as money for centerpieces, and possibly money spent on a DJ/dance floor (though we still have not decided yet). Plus, most places we priced added taxes and gratuities and alcoholic beverages on top of the per guest rate, and not built into the per guest rate.

You can certainly opt to save more money than we have in this category, such as having an hor d’oeuvres-only cocktail reception. However, we chose to not do this for two reasons. Number one, when we priced for a cocktail-only reception, some locations still were going to charge us $50 per person, and that didn’t even include alcoholic beverages! We are getting a lot more value for our money with our reception site. The second reason, and most important reason, is because we have a lot of guests who are traveling several hours by plane to see us marry, and are also having to pay for hotel and transportation costs. We would like to show them a good time, and let them know how much we appreciate their extra efforts to celebrate our occasion.

                                Cost Savings: This one is difficult to quantify yet; it appears we are only saving $2 per guest off of the average, which would net us a savings of $120. However, because of the all-inclusive offerings of this place, we will be saving money on florist costs, possible DJ/music costs, and linen/china rentals. Also, there is no reception site fee. Finally, we are only having around 60 guests and not 150 as in the example above, yielding us a savings off the average of $7,650.

Wedding Bands: Average Cost $1,980

For us personally, this is a category we did not want to skimp on because even though our celebration of marriage is only one day long, a ring is for life. Still, we managed to save a decent amount of money on our wedding bands. There are great resources online for wedding bands  and many of these sites realize customers’ hesitancy of buying fine jewelry over the internet. So, some online shops encourage you to get the jewelry checked out by a jeweler, and they give you 30-60 days to do this. If you are not satisfied, returning your item and getting a full refund should be an easy task. And if you use Swagbucks to search online (sign up using this link to receive 3 free swagbucks to start you out; I currently have 397), then you can earn free gift certificates to online merchants like Amazon.com, which has an amazing array of wedding bands to choose from at fantastic prices.

After all of my researching online, Paul and I went to several jewelers to try on different styles and metals and see what they looked like in person. I was not satisfied with anything that I tried on. Then I happened to need my engagement ring resized, so I went back to the original jeweler Paul had purchased from, and there it was! Not only was my perfect wedding band, in my size, waiting for me on display, but it just so happened that this was the one week out of each year (leading up to Thanksgiving) that all jewelry was on sale for 50% off!! With this sale, our rings were much cheaper offline than online, and we walked out of the store with them. After taxes, we spent $1261 for both of our bands, and left very satisfied.

                                Cost Savings: $719

Cake: Average Cost $692

My sister is a whiz at making cakes—even tiered ones. So she is making our wedding cake! We came up with a design with her help, and she is making a mock one for us to see first. We will be paying for all of her materials, as well as for her labor/creativity, and will be still saving a small fortune!

Even if you are not fortunate enough to know someone with great baking skills, you can save money in this category by having a small tier cake that you cut in front of everyone, but serving cake to your guests from a cheaper sheetcake in the back. Your guests will not know the difference (or care), and this could save you hundreds of dollars. 

                                Cost Savings: Approximately $450-$500

Miscellaneous

There is not necessarily a category devoted to the following ideas, but they are cost saving measures for us. For one, we are borrowing several items. My friend Aurora got married two years ago, and offered to give us an unused cake cutting knife someone had given her, as well as a beautiful ring bearer’s pillow her mother made, and a handmade flower girl basket. We will never use these items again, and it makes it more special knowing that it is coming from a friend then to just purchase these items from a store.

Also, I love bubbles, and want them to be blown into the air when we walk back down the aisle. A craft store near us was having a 50% off sale on bridal items, and so for $9.99, I was able to snag 72 bubble containers for our guests!

As a final thought, a great way to save money on your wedding is by making a budget, and sticking to it. Microsoft Office has an excellent and free wedding budget excel sheet where you can input what you want to spend (in the estimated column) and then what you actually spend in order to both budget, and keep track of your expenses throughout the process. Remember to figure out what your priorities are, and spend the most money in those categories.

How to Save Money On Your Wedding Part II