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The Ultimate Guide to Wedding Planning on a Budget

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Budgeting is important with every aspect of your life, but it is arguably most important when it comes to wedding planning.

I often say the best places to look to save money on reoccurring expenses are housing, transportation, and food. That’s because they are usually where you spend the most money, so you have the most room to make meaningful savings.

When it comes to one-time expenses, weddings make the top of the list. The average wedding in the United States costs over $35,000 (2016 data from The Knot)! Yes, an average wedding cost more than most new cars!

You know what $35,000 would be if invested for 40 years (with a 7% annual growth rate)?

I do*.

$489,819!

That is why there is a huge opportunity to efficiently plan your wedding on a budget. And with all your new found savings, you can go invest it and watch it grow over time!

*ha. Get it? Weddings… Anyway, read below to get some awesome wedding planning tips.

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How Much Should be in Your Emergency Fund

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I’ve been all over the map when it comes to an emergency fund and how much money should be stored in one.

I used to think that a nice, cushy emergency fund was important and necessary. I couldn’t take the risk of losing my job and not being able to pay the bills!

Then, I swung hard to the other side of the emergency fund spectrum and realized the risk of not investing my money. By keeping money stored in a bank account, I was foregoing potential returns!

Finally, I settled somewhere back in the middle. I now employ the mantra that one of my good friends told me, “do whatever helps you sleep at night.”

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Broader Lessons from the Debt Snowball Method

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Listen, I was skeptical when I read the title of this article from Semi Retire Plan as well. The Debt Snowball Method… that’s for people who don’t know about math!

Math helped me find the best credit card and maximize my rewards.

For those of you who don’t know what the debt snowball method is, quickly:

The debt snowball method essentially is paying off your smallest debts first and moving on from there, regardless of if your smallest debt has an interest rate of 2% or 25%.

The theory is that as you get small debts paid back, the momentum starts to pick up and it gets easier to pay the bigger debts back.

While I do not support this method (I think paying off your highest interest rate debts first is a no brainer), there are some really interesting phycological implications behind the debt snowball method that can be applied broadly across your life.

Learn more about these great lessons below.

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Is the Cost of a Cup of Coffee Costing You?

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The cost of a cup of coffee is relatively small in the grand scheme of things – the average cup costs just $2 or $3.

Though, the idea of saving money by ditching your daily coffee habit seems to be gaining some momentum. David Back recently published a book titled, “The Latte Factor” and Suze Orman is vowing to never buy coffee from a coffee shop. Ever.

This idea has been around for quite some time – stop spending $3 a day and you’ll save over a $1,000 a year. And if you invest that money it’ll grow even more!

And while I think trying to save some extra money every day is a great idea, I’m not entirely sure why coffee gets such a bad rap.

Below, I’ll question if the cost of a cup of coffee is really costing you…

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Save Money (and the Environment) and Sell Your Cell Phone

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Not sure what to do with your old cell phone? Did you know you can easily sell your cell phone and make a little extra cash? I wish I knew about this when I recently upgraded!

When you sell your cell phone you create a rare win-win-win situation:

  1. You make a little extra cash.
  2. Someone on the other end is able to buy a used cell phone for a lower price.
  3. Keeps one less thing out of the landfill.

You can learn more of the details below!

And if your hungry for more after reading this, you can view all of our money saving tips here.

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