I am getting married in less than a year and trying to live on a budget in order to save, so we can have the things we want at the wedding. So, in order to save we have been watching free movies online instead of going to the movies and on average it has saved us around $100 a month. I have also been doing as many projects as possible that are do-it-yourself projects for the wedding, in order to save money. I have been going to seminars as well as bridal expos to get deals from shops at their trade show booths where they typically offer some type of service for free just because, you listened to their offer. I try to register at every booth in order to win something for free and so far I have received free wedding invitations and a 4 hour free limo service for the bachelorette party. My fiancée is a partner with Brighton SEO and has been very successful and I am able to afford more than most brides however, this is a new thing for us so, I still like to live as frugal and thrifty as possible. Currently, I am in between jobs which give me the opportunity to organize this wedding and make it as beautiful as possible and my fiancée likes that I am home taking care of him plus, we want to have children as soon as possible after the wedding so I will most likely just be a stay at home mom and wife. We did things a little out of order, we actually just bought a house together which did drain a lot of our funds however; we saved for years and checked our credit on a free credit score website in order to get the best mortgage rate. We bought our house before we got engaged which I thought was better because, you actually get to see what that person is like before you marry them to see if you can actually stand each other.
It was a little difficult at first as we were not used to seeing each other in every aspect like the morning dump and occasional mouth ulcers that I get from too much salt. Those little things did work themselves out but, it is definitely still a work in progress. I am trying to get the stereo-typical 1950s house wife does everything attitude out of his head but, like I said we are a work in progress. Also, since learning how to save I recently saved a bundle on switching to Auto Insurance California. It seems that I have been getting hustled for an additional $400 a year and the same with the phone and cable bill. It seems that people are too busy or proud these days to look at their bills and question “convenience fees” and other fees that they like to put in the bills and since taking a closer look at our bills, I have been able to save an extra $3,000 a year. That will pay for our photographer! Some people may look at me like I am some sort of penny pincher but, I just ignore them because, we all work hard for our money; why give it away without knowing what you are giving it too?
I recently put a pretty nasty ding in my car and it cracked the paint and fiber glass on the car. I took it to the dealership to get a quote which was over $1,500. Are you kidding me for that little ding? So, I did some research and found a fiberglass repair kit and was able to fix my car myself for under $100. I used to be more of an impulse buyer and spender but, since doing this for the wedding I will never go back to those ways of careless spending. I have recently been looking for cute wedding favors to give to our guests for coming to the wedding and my fiancée thought it would be cute to do something that included our heritage in the gifts. My fiancée is Scottish so I have been looking online for some really cute Scottish Gift to give to our guests and I have found some really cute ideas. I found some traditional Scottish food like drop scones and caramel shortbread. So I did buy those two cookies and put them in a basket but, then I thought how cute it would be to include the recipe and ingredients for a batch of those cookies and my family loved the idea.
Being a bride on a budget can be extremely hard these days but, you can do it as long as you have the heart and support from your partner to do so. Think outside the box and listen to your intuition and in the end remember that this is about you and your fiancée.