Saving for Milan

Our two biggest concerns when this Milan trip came up were

1. Will I be able to go (& work)?

2. How will we ever afford it?

Because the primary reason for this trip is for Eric's church internship, we went to our church for support. They were able to help us a little, and we were grateful for the consideration, but it put a huge decision on our laps...It would mean a significant depletion of our savings.

I worked hard the past three years to build up a tiny savings on our tiny income, so I was(am?) a little stressed about the prospect of using some of our meager nest egg. But ultimately, this is exactly the kind of thing that we decided we should use our savings for--a once in a lifetime opportunity.

My job for the moment is really stable and with our future (after E's graduation next spring) very unstable, we're not getting ready to do any of the "next big steps"-buy a house, another car, or have a baby- any time soon. So we committed and bought the tickets.

Then, I emailed my family to let them know our decision and situation. Gifts we really didn't expect got sent in to our church for our expenses. We ended up receiving a little over half of our anticipated summer expenses!

I'm so thankful for a generous and supportive church & family that is allowing us this opportunity! But we still have a fairly tight budget. With me working and making less for a month this summer, taking our vacation to New York, and the Euro/dollar exchange rate, we're going to have to make every penny count. I'll be blogging more about our trip budget when we get there.

Do you have any money-saving tips for European living? I'd love to hear them!

Perspective

Last night my MIL and I went to Costco to stock up for Thanksgiving and my family's visit and

E asked me to get our tires rotated--only to find out they needed replacing.

This is just another expense in a growing pile of them. We've spent about $800 on car repair in the last six months, and I got a ticket for coasting through a stop sign (UGH).

Money is becoming far more stressful than I imagined it being. I planned for some car repair, but not that much. We have an emergency fund, but it's pretty modest. It's so frustrating to take one step forward and one step back. It seems like every small financial victory is followed by defeat.

But last night, E put it all into perspective for me with one simple reminder.

We have more than we need--we can always survive on less than what we do now.

And what good does it do to worry and stress? Tomorrow money might be the least of our concerns.

Money Honey

In our house, I manage the finances: the day-to-day bookkeeping, bills, budgets, etc.

This works out well for the both of us, because I married an academically-minded guy who hates nothing more than thinking and worrying about money.

We generally have two types of conversations about money:

E: Can I go out to lunch today?

Me: Ok, but you have a total of $30 left for fast food this month

E: Awwww....

Me: and don't forget to bring me the receipt

...............

Me: honey, what is this $37 Amazon charge on our credit card?

E: (sheepish grin) ummmm, ok. don't get mad, but I needed a couple of books.

(he spends more money on books that on anything else)

Me: *rolls eyes* this means I get to buy a new pair of shoes

We covered "money" as a topic in our pre-marital counseling, but I certainly had no idea how challenging it could be for two people to manage a shared income with completely different priorities on how it should be spent.

I'm definitely the more spendy of the two of us. I like to make continual small purchases(online shopping...ugh!), and E usually likes to have the best of the big purchases (an HDTV we bought after Christmas...and the MAC he is dying to have once his computer konks out)

We're getting a little better at planning and spending with a tiny discretionary income, but in general we've done a poor job at sticking to our budget--particularly for food and clothes. I blame this partly on the fact that we created our budget before marriage, and it needs some updating. But I also think it can be traced back to the fact that I grew up thinking I was poor, because I have parents who were thrifty to the extreme, and almost never bought anything brand new, and often sacrificed quality for savings.

In college when I met E, I started to search for a balance--learning that spending wisely sometimes (often) meant spending more.

After a couple years, I also have learned we need some self-control. Despite our small income in Southern California, I know we can and should be living on less, paying off loans and saving--at least for emergencies. We pay our credit card bill in full every month, so our only debt is student loans, but there are months when I have to draw out of savings, and it kills me.

I recently started following this blog, written by 3 wives (a mother and 2 daughters) with helpful, every-day, money-saving tips

http://frugalwifewealthylife.blogspot.com/

I was really motivated by the debt recovery progress of Katie & Ryan on Bless This Nest

http://hagensnest.blogspot.com/search/label/debt

It's taken me a while to think less selfishly about money, and make some sacrifices, but I hope to much more diligent about our spending in our second year of marriage.

Who handles the money in your family? Do you follow any other great money-saving blogs? (please share!)

ps. www.mint.com is a great resource for managing your accounts, bill payments, budget and savings/debt goals. Best of all...it's free!

Budget Breakdown: The Invitations

I spent a lot of time with this in excel, but in order to paste it properly I had to make a screenshot of the spreadsheet.

I am very happy with the amount of money I spent on the invitations overall. I tried to gauge what the actual cost per invitation was for me including all factors, so I hope this is helpful for anyone else looking to DIY their invitations. I thought it was sooo worth it, but this was an important piece to me (read: i was a little OCD/wedding inspired) and I had lots of help.

This project was worth it to me--and I realize I could've spent a lot less (or a lot more!) on them. I saved where I felt I could (family design help and no reply card envelope), and splurged (the pocketfold and postage for it)

Please let me know if you have any questions--I'd be happy to answer them!

(oh, the one thing I forgot was $6 for the graphics we used, via istockphoto.com)

USPS, you dissapoint.

I just poked onto the USPS website to see what my options are for my invitations....(preview, DIY steps, and budget will be coming soon!!)

and this is what I found for my 59 cent invites--$60.00 for these?

I have to admit I'm pretty dissapointed. I'm not too picky about the way our envelopes look--I'm not doing a wrap around label (i think), not embossing a design on the flap, not sealing it with a wax seal. But I don't want my envelopes to look ugly.

There are other options...but is it worth it to buy a wedding stamp from Zazzle (many more options) or make my own on either Zazzle or Stamps.com?

(p.s. here's a little sneak peak from the invitations. My monogram designed by Paper & Ink.

or, my favorite E-pic.

Even with online coupon codes, my total goes from $60 to $95 for postage. I've gotta think quick, as I'd need to order these by tomorrow to have them in time to send the invites.

What would you do?

ok, so my wedding will be a little trendy

Because.... we're having a candy buffet!
and it's going to be the yummy kind. No color coordination, no excess decorations...just bunches of rainbow candy goodness.

I had never heard of a candy buffet (or a candy bar, as I keep saying to everyone's confusion), until I entered the world of wedding blogging. Now I can't imagine my wedding without it!

Here are some of my inspiration shots (all taken from the Flickr Candy Buffet photo pool)

Last night, aunt jet and I made a mock set up before we pack up the containers for the attic. I'm running out of storage space! Here's a photo of the set up I'm planning at this point, though we may add a piece or two.



Now, the best part, how much this set up is costing me....are you ready?

Every single piece on the table was purchased from a thrift store or borrowed from a relative.
The total cost of all the containers is less than $50!

centerpiece mockup

You may remember when I purchased my first wedding-related items. I had a vision for a centerpiece I hadn't seen an exact replica of yet. Over the last few weeks, I've been accumulating wedding items (vases, ribbons, baskets, etc) and dropping them off in aunt jet's spare bedroom (also known as "my room" when I spend the night :-) ) for storage.


I went over there this week and she wanted to show my something! This is what I saw...


A mockup of our table centerpieces, made with a dried green hydrangea bunch from her garden. I love how aunt jet sprinkled the extra stones around the votives!








It's perfect! We bought little stones from the dollar store and decided that we would need 2 bags for every 3 centerpieces. Total of $12

We're going to use votives which came as one piece in the glass (slightly different from what's in the picture) Package of 12 for $5 X 5 packages = $25

Fishbowl vases $1.75 x 23 (we now only need 18 but are keeping the extra just in case!) $40

The only thing left to buy are the flowers, which should be around $130 from Fifty Flowers if we have to buy them (aunt jet has two or three large bushes and if they're blooming--they're free!)


So centerpiece total (barring any unforeseen design changes) = $207

That's less than $12 a table, folks.

That won't be the end table cost total as we still need table numbers, etc. But I am pretty freakin' happy with my super cheap centerpieces that are exactly what I want...and that I can still include fresh flowers!

Budget tip #1

Don't get the package deal!

Unless you are planning on everything, and I mean everything (serving fish or filet mignon plated meal, a traditional cake, full open bar, linens, etc) it is not going to be beneficial for you to just accept the wedding packages your venue offers.

Every "wedding" venue plans dinners for a myriad of other events (work luncheons, funerals, dinner parties, etc) and they have a completely different menu and "extras" options for those types of events.

Make sure you carefully compare pricing, but if you're planning on skipping anything that comes with your venue's wedding package, or subtituting anything (i.e. a chocolate fountain instead of a cake), it's very likely that paying for each item you choose, separately, will save you a great deal in the long run.

By serving wine and beer on a tab basis (versus an open bar), and bartering for a chocolate fountain, we are going to save around $4,000 on the reception!

the money stuff $$

I redesigned my blog a little big using a 3 column template from here, and I'm so happy I did!

It allowed me to add the budget feature I've been thinking about lately, which I orginally saw on That [Engaged] Girl's blog

I was struggling with how much personal information I wanted to share with the blogging world, but hey, it's just money, right? I'm not the slightest bit embarassed about how much we're spending, because it's the perfect amount for us. We cut the guest list by about 40 to make it happen, but we're spending less than half of what the average wedding costs in my area (around $27K).

We're contributing some, and my parents are chipping in most of the rest. I decided we needed to contribute a little to make our wedding exactly what we wanted. The budget does not include the costs of the reception that we are having in California the month after the wedding, as E's parents are paying for that entirely and I'm not responsible for the budget!

I'm also not SO set on this budget that if we go over, it'll break the bank. It's a realistic goal, I think. The more $ we save, though, the more gelato we get in Italy!! yum.

Check it out, and if you feel like it, share your wedding budget!

I'm sure I'll be posting a lot more about the budget and ways to save money in the future.

my first big commitment

I did it. I finally made a decision on my centerpieces.

I've been looking almost non-stop on websites, in magazines, and at florists. I think I have been more concerned about my decorations than I have been about my dress!

My two biggest concerns were: keeping with my theme of woodsy, rustic, elegance--and finding something SUPER cheap!
Some other concerns: I wanted to put them all together myself, and if they needed to be last minute put together, they needed to be easy, I didn't want anything too tall, or too inconspicuous (hey, I'm working hard on these, they should be seen, right?!)

Here are just a few of the million ideas I've considered: (All photos should be credited towards theknot.com)

Aren't they all just so much fun?

I love the vase of apples...wish I was getting married in the fall!

But all these lovely pictures (and MANY more) were giving me idea overload. I couldn't pick what I wanted and just LOVE too many things to actually do.

Thank heavens for my wonderful aunt, who is doubling as florist, seamstress, and head wedding designer (though she would never claim the title!) finally convinced me to just make a decision and stick with it!

And I had C, my friend and BM (who is getting married just a month after us!) come along and help me to be decisive.

So we headed over to Hobby Lobby's half-price sale and I picked up these:



So 22 of these suckers were loaded into the cart...at a whopping $1.75 each!



I love them!
(And I may need to remember this in the future when I find a bigger, better idea and start getting bridal regret)

We'll be filling the bottom of the bowls with rocks (either white rocks or little river rocks, then water and mixing in white and green hydrangeas like these:





We'll tie raffia around the bowl (the bowls I got have a slight rim)

What a relief, and what a fun night with two wonderfully helpful people!

Here is C goofing around in florals


And Aunt E helping me pick a vase for my ceremony flowers...4 dozen white tulips in two big vases on pedestals at the front of church

I spent a total of $65 for 22 fishbowl vases, two large column vases and 4 rolls of rafia. Yay!

Another post on my thrifting for more decorations to come...