mrso2b's wedding diary

mrso2b

Hi there

I've decided to start a wedding diary – mainly focusing on saving for the wedding which is 6 months tomorrow. Payday was yesterday so today seems like a good day to start a diary!

Brief background:

Been engaged since 30th June, getting married 9th April 2011.

Venue booked – it's going to cost us £5875, £1,000 paid, want to pay the remainder by the end of the year to avoid the 20% VAT.
Registrar booked: cost us £403. PAID.
Dress brought: Cost £875. PAID.
DJ booked: £500, £150 paid so far, remainder to be paid on the day.

My wages £1,998.50
OH's wages £1,726.79

Total: 3725.29

Our outgoings are around £2,300 a month – this includes mortgage, phone bill, food shopping, credit card payments (all on 0%), student loan, council tax, etc.

So this should leave us with around £1400 a month.

We've given ourselves £50 a week each spends which is £400 a month and leaves us with around £1,000.

I had a no interest loan with work of £150 a month which has now been paid off and OH got a pay rise which gives us an extra £36.49 a month so that's £186.49. I rounded that up to £200 and have put that straight into a savings account.

Leaves us with around £800 a month which technically should be able to go towards the wedding.

After the wedding I want to start concentrating on overpaying our mortgage – we get charged £1000 a month interest currently! So it's good to get into the saving mode.

So here's day 1's rundown:

No money spent, brought lunch in from home and going straight home after work. Dinner will be leftover curry and rice.

sammr85

sorry to clutter ur thread, just thought I would say we're wedding twins

mrso2b

Yaay sammr! 6 months to go! Excited?! Are you sorted? xx

mrso2b

I was so pleased I had a no spend day on Friday, I was determined to start off on the right foot - I really wanted to go and buy cigarettes but I told myself no!

Saturday fiance's mum came to visit and gave us £100 towards the wedding which was great!

We then went out shopping - fiance brought trainers for £55 (his had holes in them, they really needed replacing) and we went to Pizza Express for lunch and used vouchers - still came to £45 though OUCH! Will take that out of the shopping budget.

Then when future mother-in-law was leaving she gave us £60 for fiance's trainers!

So the day didnt end to badly at all.

I had a night out planned with the girls and only spent £20. I got the tube instead of getting a cab and came home and ate instead of getting a mcdonalds. Currently got £30 of my £50 weekly budget left - not bad at all!

Sunday - been to my mums all day so no money spent apart from a £7 shop from Tesco to get some little bits in.

Quite a good MSE weekend!

mrso2b

Booked to go and give the council our intention to marry today! Booked for 30th December

On the money front spent 52p on a bag of crisps - I always start the day aiming to not eat crisps and then always sucumb! Should just bring in bags from home, hey?!

I also put the £100 OH's mum gave us straight into the wedding fund!

twirlypinky

Love these diaries, they're so interesting to read. I think we need more of them.

Thanks for doing this!

I do the same thing with crisps by the way. If you buy a multipack at home then you know you'll eat them. If you don't then you might buy some out, but there's always a chance you won't!

mrso2b

twirlypinky you should start one too!

twirlypinky

i have! xx

mrso2b

just read it

mrso2b

Only spent £11.65 in Nandos yesterday so that leaves me with £16.54 out of my £50 for tonight – going to La Tasca on one of those 50% off vouchers.

It's really hard not to go out in London cause you tend to live far from your mates so you can't just pop round after work for a cheapy dinner.

Our water bill came and we have been paying too much every month so from now on we are going to be paying £12 less a month! That's going straight into the wedding fund and after the wedding straight in to the mortgage overpayment pot! Every little helps!

New week starts tomorrow so can get my £50 out. I'm actually surprised how long £50 has lasted me. A real eye opener.

mrso2b

Dinner out tonight has been cancelled! Saves me money so I'm pleased!