My LightBulb Moment... Newbie

Annie_Fanny

I agree Seven-day-weekend...

I really struggle to understand why people spend thousands upon thousands of pounds on weddings. The weddings industry is a money making racket just like any other. When I get married I am gonna do it cheap as chips and use a venue that will ensure money is poured back into the local economy like a community centre. When it comes to weddings people just seem to lose all sense of perspective. £6000 on a wedding or a deposit for a home? I know what I would rather have!

MrsTinks

Having been to a weding last month where I'd be amazed if they had any change from £30.000 (£7k on hiring the banquet hall alone) and others last year where they spent less than £1000 I would go for a small, informal and romatic wedding Those people impressed by gilt and glamour are not your true friends so their oppinion don't matter, those who truely matter are you two The list on how to have a budget wedding is enourmous and I am sure wed all be happy to help with hints and tips Use your airmiles to minimise the cost of flights (tesco clubcard vouchers can now be exchanged for airmiles... Start saving those up!)

DOn't forget - once you have cleared some debts get some cash back credit cards (but pay them off each month!) and either save the cash or use the tesco one and save the vouchers and then use them for airmiles

To be honest you at least have an engagement ring Im still waiting for even that

dirtyepic

Annie_Fanny wrote:

I agree Seven-day-weekend...

I really struggle to understand why people spend thousands upon thousands of pounds on weddings. The weddings industry is a money making racket just like any other. When I get married I am gonna do it cheap as chips and use a venue that will ensure money is poured back into the local economy like a community centre. When it comes to weddings people just seem to lose all sense of perspective. £6000 on a wedding or a deposit for a home? I know what I would rather have!

Having been to a weding last month where I'd be amazed if they had any change from £30.000 (£7k on hiring the banquet hall alone) and others last year where they spent less than £1000 I would go for a small, informal and romatic wedding Those people impressed by gilt and glamour are not your true friends so their oppinion don't matter, those who truely matter are you two The list on how to have a budget wedding is enourmous and I am sure wed all be happy to help with hints and tips Use your airmiles to minimise the cost of flights

I hope I haven't offended people by the cost of our wedding. That wasn't the reason why I put down the figure. We were on a very strict budget and determined not to borrow and included all our savings, parent's contributions (all parents being late 60's early 70's and on pensions). I had three jobs at one point, I designed and made all the stationery (due to previous career as graphic designer) and favours and table settings/designs, we didn't have a photographer (due to both be unphotogenic!!!), no cars, seasonal flowers used in bouquets etc.

The past few weddings I have been to have been no expense spared (£30,000+) and I am to be maid of honour at my best friends wedding in Brighton next year where it is going to be a ridiculously scary amount

My figure was shown just to show that you can budget and have your perfect day. And I think I succeeded in this.

Maybe I should've mentioned that we had our own mortgage on our flat therefore didn't need to save for a deposit. I didn't feel the need to. I only posted my message to mention the wedding gift ideas etc for honeymoon. Not thinking this would offend anyone. Oh yes and cos I am extremely happy at the moment coming up to our wedding anniversary.

Everybody has different ideas for their wedding and if I wanted to spend £150 I'm sure I would've. I saved and worked really hard and I got the perfect day I wanted.

So apologies again if this figure has upset people. I am a diligent moneysaver and am continuously checking this site for ideas to help me save money in all areas of my life, health, leisure, travel, etc

Regards
T
who feels a bit foolish

Annie_Fanny

dirtyepic wrote:

I hope I haven't offended people by the cost of our wedding. That wasn't the reason why I put down the figure. We were on a very strict budget and determined not to borrow and included all our savings, parent's contributions (all parents being late 60's early 70's and on pensions). I had three jobs at one point, I designed and made all the stationery (due to previous career as graphic designer) and favours and table settings/designs, we didn't have a photographer (due to both be unphotogenic!!!), no cars, seasonal flowers used in bouquets etc.

The past few weddings I have been to have been no expense spared (£30,000+) and I am to be maid of honour at my best friends wedding in Brighton next year where it is going to be a ridiculously scary amount

My figure was shown just to show that you can budget and have your perfect day. And I think I succeeded in this.

Maybe I should've mentioned that we had our own mortgage on our flat therefore didn't need to save for a deposit. I didn't feel the need to. I only posted my message to mention the wedding gift ideas etc for honeymoon. Not thinking this would offend anyone. Oh yes and cos I am extremely happy at the moment coming up to our wedding anniversary.

Everybody has different ideas for their wedding and if I wanted to spend £150 I'm sure I would've. I saved and worked really hard and I got the perfect day I wanted.

So apologies again if this figure has upset people. I am a diligent moneysaver and am continuously checking this site for ideas to help me save money in all areas of my life, health, leisure, travel, etc

Regards
T
who feels a bit foolish

Oh goodness no you haven't offended anyone Dirtyepic - well you certainly haven't offended me! If you spent £100,000 on your wedding then that is entirely your choice and I'm sure you would've had a great time! I PERSONALLY would not spend thousands on a wedding but that is my choice alone. I guess I just don't understand the desire to do so if you see what I mean.

You definately shouldn't feel foolish - all opinions are welcome and you have certainly given some great advice to the OP.

Please don't be put off and I hope I didn't make you feel bad - if I did, naughty me!

grimelda

DirtyEpic: I am sure you didn't offend anyone and I'm glad you had the perfect wedding.

Different people have different priorities, you know?

2brownboots

Wow! Thought i'd accidentally started something there... Just checking to see if there's any more useful advice - Thank you all for the useful bits & pieces of advice, so far.
I've started looking at the full SOA & its scaring me! I'll post it up in the next few days, although i've already spotted areas of potential savings already - i just need to get on with it!

2BB

2brownboots

This will be a bit long, so please bear with me...

The aim here is to be free of 'personal' debt rather than 'shared'...OH & I view shared debts as shared resonsibilities & like to 'compartmentilse' these off into another part of our lives, ... although there's no reason why we can't try & reduce our overall costs & length of shared debt!
To us, Car Finance is ONLY different to cc as there's still something tangible at the end of the debt - although there's nothing stopping us trying to find a better deal, after all 10.7% is at least 5.7k over the term, compared to (ball park) 6.9% = 3.7k...
We obviously still need to be more MSE minded...
I started looking at a combined SOA for myself, OH & shared finances - it all got quite scary & over-complicated to do it all as one, so i'll state the SOA's as we currently deal with them i.e. 3 seperate SOA's - mine, ours & his (the one i know least about)

My SOA as posted before, with a few tweaks/ explanations as proposed in the brackets:
My net. salary £1820+ = Total £1820 (sometimes have overtime, which will be used to pay off more debt from now on)

£800 'Shared' contribution s/o (covers mortgage, car, bills, groceries & other day to day living, as well as 'Shared' costs e.g. gym - see below...)
£43.32 Life Assurance (Norwich Union)d/d (although associated with the mortgage we deal with them individually as mine is much higher - my job affects this, but could still try & reduce it a bit!)
£35 Mobile Phone (t-mobile) d/d (should come down to around £23 with recent tariff change & customer discount - their weekly updates will give me a better idea of how i spend it)
£20 Weekly pocket money for socialising, cinema, taxis, coffees, occasional lunch, stamps, £2 Pig "food", etc.
£35 Haircut (every other month) OR clothes (reduce cost, stop buying clothes etc, until debts paid off)
£21 Toiletries/ Cosmetics/ repeat prescriptions (£10 Boots brand skincare products, £5 Boots Brand haircare products - these can vary as i try & make the most of offers, approx. £6 prescriptions for asthma/ eczema/ hayfever - these aren't every month, but average out as this over the year)
£117.06 min. SLC (old mortgage style) repayments d/d (Bal. £3.2k@3.2%, so not too bothered about paying this off quickly)
£100 Mint CC d/d (Bal. £1.72k@15.9%, min. £43, also £55 expenses clear in 2 days, use online savings to reduce further, will also start snowballing debts this month)
£200 Cahoot Flexi. Loan d/d (Bal. £2.87k@6.9%, then 8.9% from Sep'06, min. £62)
Overdraft - 200@14.8% (limit £2k, currently not OD but will be by end of month - use online savings to eliminate)
£150 Cash ISA s/o emergency fund - (reduce to £25 token payment until personal debts are paid off)
£100 Online savings s/o Bal. £650@4.25%- NZ in Feb '07 - need £1.5k to cover flights, accom., food etc (reduce to £25 token payment until personal debts are paid off, and see if i can still go to NZ with a combination of points/ cash on a reduced budget)
£100 Regular Saver s/o Bal £0 - Annual stuff, but have just paid for lots of things. (Close Account & use online for regular savings - terrible rate anyway)
£5 Wedding Savings s/o token figure (@4.55% can't withdraw balance until April & requires min. monthly deposit)
Grand Total =£1886.38!! upto £67 a month... no wonder i'm overdrawn ...

I've now stopped saving so much (i feel bad if i don't save at all) & am making the changes proposed, but SOA is still shown as pre-changes.
So as of end of July i will have an extra £365 to snowball remaining debts, so looking at the calcs my DFD could be as early as Feb'07(DFD:June'07 incl. SLC)
From now on i can only afford clothes etc, if they come from my weekly pocket money - just like being 14 again!
Just an extra thought... is it worthwhile BT'ing my Mint bal. to my Cahoot Loan or a 0% card (closing all the other 3 with £0Bal.)?

Oh yeah, just forgot... inflation pay rise effective 1st July, so that's roughly £60extra a month to add to the snowball as of next month :-)
Shall go away & re-calculate the snowball...

Our SOA as follows:
My contribution s/o £800 + OH contribution s/o £800 = Total £1600 (if we reduced these we could throw more at the personal debts)

Mortgage £568.03@4.9% fixed til Mar'08
Buildings Insurance (Countrywide) £22.21
Contents Insurance (Countrywide) £16.85
Other mortgage related insurances £17? +£7?(will check if these are still needed...)
Swalec Elec dd £22
Swalec Gas dd £19 (might have Swalec's back to front - have also had £170odd in rebates in each of the past 3 years as Swalec over-estimate our usage - another story)
Welsh Water dd £28.96
Council Tax dd £91
TV license dd £11.37
Groceries approx. £60 p/w or x 4.3 for the month=£260 (for 2 people incl. cleaning & packed lunches) will have to look at the OS board to cut back!
Gym membership £94 (we're loathe to get rid of this)
Sky Digital Plus TV £31 (trying to co-erce OH into free view, he doesn't want to miss his All Blacks Rugby, though )
Phone & broadband (NTL) £37 (OH needs high speed broadband for freelance work) & we also use Skype where possible, but we could investgate switching to another provider.
Car finance (Audi) £366.68@10.7% 36months to go (1st payment due end of month - sheer madness - stupid thing to do, but jolted my head out of the sand)
Petrol £55 - usually only 1full tank a month as we usually walk/ cycle to work (this used to be nearer £35-40, but now a larger tank)
Joint OD £100 limit, rarely used but for a pound or two, a day or two before the s/o's go in
Grand Total =£1650.98!! will now give us a deficit of upto £51 a month... hmm definitely need to cut back ...
Toiletries, haircuts & spending money are covered by our individual SOA's, as are savings for birthdays, Christmas, clothes, holidays, Professional membership fees (no membership=no job), etc.
Other annual things as follows - all are currently paid up, with renewal months as noted.
Car Insurance (Diamond) £650 due April
Roadside Recovery Audi (with RAC) 2 years with car so June'08
Car Servicing not included estimate £200+(annually based on low milage) June
Car Tax £165 June ... so another £1000+ willl be needed next year for the car
We used to take money out of 'Shared' for meals & takeaways, but after buying car(june'06), decided this had to stop!

OH's SOA is similar to mine in terms of outgoing items, but figures vary - the details are very sketchy so far, but i'm hoping to lead by example with the other two, just to pull his head out the sand...
His view is that if he can still pay more than the minimum, he can still afford to continue this way, although he is prepared to let me look at things & improve them!

We'll be collecting all receipts & noting EVERY penny - no more new things!

Thank in advance for any comments or advice
J

domestic_goddess

Hiya there. I am not an expert but got some great advice on here when i first posted. One thing I saved a lot on was my home insurance. Shop around cos I saved a tenner a month. Also use quidco to look at changing providers for any home/car/travel ins. Also look changing telephone/broadband/gas and leccy providers as you can get cashback on them all. You can also get some good flight deals on there with cashback so have a go!

Also I just wanted to say that I got married at Gretna Green, It was so romantic and my close family and friends were there. I also had a small reception at the Gretna green hall for 20 guests and spent no more than £250.00. We did it this way as we did not have much money to spare at the time but we told everyone it was cos we wanted to do something different and everytime I tell someone where I got married they are impressed.

Good luck

bikerqueen

The car insurance, car tax etc should be budgeted for now so that you dont have any nasty surprises next year.

Will your finances be any more joint when you get married? it must be really confusing working with 3 types of finance, and you will start to resent him if you're cutting back and he's not, so you still pay loads for joint stuff cause he wont compromise but you cant afford a new top for a night out AND a night out, iyswim.

Now, the car. You use one tank of petrol a month (bog all) so you cant be using it much. On that you pay finance charges, savings for the bubble payment, RAC, tax, servicing, tax, and you'll need more for things like new tyres etc than the average person as Audi tyres are mo' expensive. Is it really necessary? finances could be clear a lot quicker without the albatross...

Iriahm

hi, im a newbie too and have really sorted out my money since joining here. also started a diary to keep track of where my cash goes.

I work in finance and have to wear suits, smart shoes and look polished. I have long hair and used to get it cut/coloured etc every month. Now I go to a salon that the Princes Trust help set up (directory on their website) and my bi monthly hair cut costs £20. staff are fab and I don't feel like im skrimping! i'm hoping that this "luxury" can come out of piggy bank.

You will be able to radically cut your housekeeping budget, check out money saving old style. last week was my first week of shopping on a tight budget and we have eaten so well this week we have food left over (first time in a while!). shopped at farmers market, local butchers etc. spent £24 for week!

keep posting and good luck!