Tips wanted for Newbie due to take on Mortgage and Marriage!

Lady_Pink

Hi All,
This is my first ever post on this site, though I've been getting the MSE email for a while, so please be gentle with me :-) . I've been in debt of one kind or another for a few years and only really tried to start sorting it out in January 05. This year, just to add to the fun, I'm getting married (August) and we're in the process of buying our first house - at least we get the majority of the stress over in a relatively short period of time eh?

I wanted to ask all you seasoned Money Savers for any tips you could pass my way to try and get ourselves sorted out. We both live with parents at the moment so it's going to be a phenomenal change for both of us. We have, rightly or wrongly, incorporated my "expensive" debts into the mortgage, leaving my low interest loan to run it's course, also his car loan. Both my loan and the mortgage can take free overpayments, which we're hoping to do - so how can we best look at having enough money left over each month to overpay?

As I said, any help and support you can offer will be gratefully received

katrinadionne1808_2

you have taken a lot on getting married and a new house, hopefully the financial burdens won't affect your relationship.

is there anyway you could take out a 0% balance transfer card that you can use to pay off your low interest loan? the same applies to your partner with his car finance.

are you getting a loan to pay for your wedding, if so my biggest advice is not to, hold off and save for it. I also get married in August of this year and have been saving like mad for the past 18 months. The last thing you want to do is start marriage with huge debts.

I am also getting my bridesmaid dresses from America (houseofbrides.com) and they are approx a 1/3 of the price of UK dresses. We have also bought our wedding rings from geraldonline.com they are gorgeous and much cheaper than the high street.

use ebay for things like favours, invites etc

Also if you have loads of clothes, shoes etc that you don't need have a clear out and get them on ebay, you may think you won't get much but the pounds add up!

good luck!

katrina

lyndsey3009

im also getting married in august and like you i have quite a bit of debt, ive bought my invitations off ebay and they were really cheap and professional £72.00 for 130 and it includes p & p,

Lady_Pink

Thanks for the tips :-) We're incredibly lucky in that my parent's have given us a substantial sum of money to cover most of the wedding - the other halfs dad has also given us a large amount of money so between them they're covering most of the costs of the wedding. If it wasn't for them I don't think we'd be doing it this way - we'd have snuck off to the registry office!

I've never used ebay - not sure how it works with regard to getting things posted out and stuff - perhaps I should check that out as I do indeed have loads of clothes. I've always given it to charity in the past but I reckon I could have made a fortune if I'd sold them instead - things like impulse purchases that still had the label on. Silly me - but then that's why I'm in debt, eh?!

Broken_hearted

I think it would have been better for them to give you money towards the house and debts rather than waste it on a wedding. You could still go to the registry office.

SamMoffatt28

You could ask for gift vouchers instead of wedding presents then you could buy things for your new home without getting into more debt!

Lady_Pink

Broken_hearted wrote:

I think it would have been better for them to give you money towards the house and debts rather than waste it on a wedding. You could still go to the registry office.

Thank you for your comment. However, while I appreciate what you are saying the money was given to us to be used for the wedding - a celebration for both our families - not to bail me out of debt, something I don't expect my parents to do. I, and my parents, do not see the wedding as a waste of money and we are not going OTT and spending a fortune. Additionally, as money has already been put down for deposits going to the registry office at this stage would actually be a waste of money!

We're looking to balance money saving and being sensible with enjoying the limited days we have on this earth. I was actually looking for tips on saving money after the wedding, rather than saving money for the wedding.

Heth_2

Hi,
We got married a year ago (my parents hosted the wedding) and it was a wonderful day of celebration with our families and I know how much they enjoyed it as well. Definitely not a waste of money.
Once we were married we have waited a year before finally completing on our house next week. We moved into a rented house together though when we got married and it did take a while to get used to living together and save up for our deposit. We have joint finances for everything, and have a budget. My husband does it (cos its on the computer, i'd probably just use a notebook or something) but we both decide the budget and how we are spending our money. We have sections for monthly outgoings, one off expenses like the car service/mot, going to a friends wedding and the rest we save. We transfer the money we are saving to the savings account at the start of the month so we can't touch it. When we spend money on food, petrol etc.. we add it to the relevant column to keep track, also when we take money out. We have really limited fun stuff like going out, while still eating good food and having a couple of cheap holidays.

Lady_Pink

Thanks Heth. I think it's because it's all unknown that I'm worrying about it as I'm not too sure what expenses will be coming out - however much you pre-think it you can guarantee you'll miss something! We're OK with not having much of a fun budget - we hardly go out and are happy renting a DVD and going without holidays. How long did it take you to get into the swing of things?

Heth_2

Lady_Pink wrote:

Thanks Heth. I think it's because it's all unknown that I'm worrying about it as I'm not too sure what expenses will be coming out - however much you pre-think it you can guarantee you'll miss something! We're OK with not having much of a fun budget - we hardly go out and are happy renting a DVD and going without holidays. How long did it take you to get into the swing of things?

Not sure really how long it has taken, but certainly a good few months to get used to living together, and a year to pay off our small overdrafts after the wedding and be in the position to buy a house.
I know uncertainties are really hard to budget, but you can probably get some good estimates for insurances, bills and so on. We are going to try and overpay our mortgage by 20 quid or so a month (small so we shouldn't miss it that much) then hopefully put a lump sum towards it at the end of the year. I don't want to get too obsessed about the mortgage though because it has been a bit stressfull not having much fun money over the past year.

MrsB_2

Lady_Pink wrote:

I was actually looking for tips on saving money after the wedding, rather than saving money for the wedding.

Try the Old Style board. They'll give you LOADS of really helpful advice on meal planning / shopping on a budget / ways to cut the costs of household cleaning etc etc. They're a very friendly bunch and have great ideas.

Good luck with everything. We sold DH's first house, relocated to a rented flat in one city, both started new jobs, bought a new house in another new city, dh changed jobs again, and we got married, all within 11 months, so I can totally sympathise with the hecticness (I made that up, do you like it!! ) of it all.

Good luck with the wedding plans, have a fab day.