Frugality

The following is a guest post.

One of the first things you realize when you become is engaged is that it can be quite expensive to plan a wedding. You want to save money where you can, and that means some careful planning. The good news is there are plenty of ways that a newly engaged couple can save money.

Here are eight things you can do to save money for and on the wedding:

1. Combine Expenses

Go through your expenses together, and decide what can be combined. This doesn’t mean that you have to combine bank accounts, but it is good practice for when you have to share expenses. If you can find a way to combine some of your expenses, such as phone service, netflix accounts, or insurance, you can save money. Family plans, offered by cell phone companies, tend to save customers lots of money through an umbrella account. Instead of paying for one person to have unlimited text, it’s two for one.

2. Make Dinner Together

Even if you aren’t living together yet, you can still make dinner together. This saves money, since going out to eat consistently can add up quickly, and it is a fun thing to accomplish as a team. Plan some meals, and then cook together. It can be much more enjoyable than going out.

3. Look for an “Alternative” Ring

There is no reason to get diamonds, just because it’s the traditional option. My sister-in-law has a sapphire engagement/wedding ring, and my ring has emeralds in the band, rather than diamonds. You can get a piece of jewelry that makes a unique statement when you consider pearl, topaz, emerald, sapphire, and ruby rings, instead of diamonds.

4. Go Out During the Afternoon

If you still like to go out on occasion, go during the afternoon. Matinée movies are cheaper than evening movies. Lunch at a restaurant costs less than dinner. Another bonus: You often see fewer crowds at lunch and a matinee.

5. Create “Green” Wedding Invitations

More and more people are sending email invitations to their weddings, and setting up RSVP websites. This is a great way to save money, and, better yet, you can position it as a green decision. You save money on printing, and you save the earth.

6. Wedding on a Weekday

The most important people in your lives will take time off work to come see you married. For the others…well, a smaller wedding means smaller costs. A week-day wedding usually means lower prices at the venue, as well as lower hotel rates and less concern about booking conflicts.

7. Wedding Contributions as Gifts

My mother’s friend did our wedding cake as our gift. So we didn’t have to pay for a beautiful, professional, and ultimately, expensive cake. Let it be known, tactfully, that you are happy for your talented friends and relatives to contribute in lieu of gifts. It will save you money, and get everyone involved in the celebration.

8. Order Food that is in Season

This can reinforce your “green” wedding preference, and it means less expensive food. Focus on items that are in season, or that are locally produced. You won’t have to pay for long-distance shipping of other items. This is a fairly simple way to save money.

In the end, with a little creativity, it is possible for a new engaged couple to save money on living expenses and on the wedding. Your wedding should be a celebration of your love, not a wake for your savings account.

Here is a breakdown of my income for February.

Online Income	$626.28
Interest	$22.77
Stock Dividends	$12.95
Mystery Shops	$117.20
Survey/Cashback	$47.53
Job	$124.40
Total	$951.13

My income was lower in February than I prefer although it is nice to see most of the income is alternative income and passive income.  It isn’t good to have a month where your expenses were higher than your income.  I’ll make more money than I spend this month because I will be receiving my medical study payment.  It isn’t surprising my income was down in February because I didn’t do much to make money.  I need to put some work into increasing my passive income and alternative income.

 

This is a repost from last year. I don’t have Netflix right now because our apartment includes free cable. When we move I plan to sign up for Netflix again.

As you can tell from the picture of some of my movie ticket stubs from the last few years I love movies. Netflix is the greatest value I have found in movie watching entertainment. Yes, I could get DVDs for free from the library or an occasional free DVD from Redbox but neither of them have anywhere near the selection of Netflix. Now that I have the ability to stream movies over the internet as well as receive DVDs in the mail my other movie-watching options do not compare. I will always watch a few movies in the theater but now that I have Netflix I have cut way back on going to the movies. I try to limit going to the theater to those movies that will most benefit from being shown on the big screen.

Netflix is also a great way to watch TV series. I’m just about to finish the second season of “Veronica Mars” which is now one of my all-time favorite movies. I like the series so much that I almost went to see “When in Rome” just because Kristen Bell is in it but the previews made it look too awful so I will wait for it to come out on DVD. (I did eventually watch it on DVD, not that great.) Now that I have unlimited movies available via mail and internet I can take a chance on movies I’m not sure about it. My plan comes out to $9.68 a month with tax which is about what I would spend in one trip to the movie theater. This makes Netflix a frugal entertainment option for me. As you can tell I’m a big fan of Netflix and have no reservations about including a couple of affiliate links for them in this post.

We just got our electric bill for the month of February and I was pleased to see that it was only $61.  Although February was pretty cold we rarely had to use our heat.  We turned off our heat in the middle of February and our inside temperature has rarely been below 70 degrees even though there have been plenty of below freezing days.  My guess is that we are getting a lot of free heat from the neighboring apartments.

We also benefit from fairly cheap electricity rates.  This bill was based on usage of 728 kWh.  According to the Department of Energy the average residential household used 920 kWh per month in 2008.  We aren’t that much below the national average by kWh but I’d guess we are farther below by amount paid.  I’m hoping we can get the energy usage down more this month.

The medical study I am currently participating in requires me to check in Monday through Thursday morning during study periods.  The study is in St. Louis which is about 3 1/2 hours from where I live.  This means that I need to get a motel room in St. Louis when I have an early morning check in the next day.  Driving from St. Louis to my home and back would cost more in gas than a motel room would.  The cost of a motel is reducing my profit from the study.  I thought a good way to reduce my motel expenses would be to just sleep in my car for one night.

I do have some experience in sleeping in cars.  In my old Toyota I took out the top part of the back seat.  This allowed me to put my legs in the trunk and my torso on the back seat which was a reasonably comfortable sleeping position.  I slept in the car several nights while a friend and I were doing some key swap hiking on the Appalachian Trail.

I figured if I could sleep in my small Corolla I ought to be able to sleep in my larger Camry.  The sleeping in my Camry experiment turned out to be a failure.  I couldn’t get into a comfortable sleeping position in my car.  Just laying on the back seat didn’t give me enough room to stretch out my legs.  Folding down the back seat so I could put my legs in the trunk gave me just enough leg room. The back seat doesn’t fold down all the way flat though leaving my upper torso at an angle that was not conducive to sleep.  If I could have gotten comfortable I think the car sleeping experiment could have worked.  I had a spot where I felt I would be safe and not bothered.  I was able to rig a sheet up from the back window to the front sheets so people couldn’t look in and see me.   I had security and privacy but I just wasn’t able to get comfortable enough to sleep.

I’ll have one more set of Monday-Thursday visits in a couple of weeks.  I have a different, less radical, experiment to save on motel costs that I will try that time.  I’ll let you know how it goes.