Wedding Day Budget

With Chime, which is an online bank account, if you have a savings account with them too, you can turn on a feature that will round up to the dollar for your debit card purchases and put that in your savings account. So if your total is $6.50 for something, it’ll take the extra 50 cents and add that to your savings account. It’s a great way to put money aside if you use your debit card for groceries or gas or something cause it adds up quickly! That’s my main bank account and I love it. Hope that helps some!

It really comes down to how much you want to be paying for a wedding. Along with your finances and income. If you’re trying for a budget of 30k then yikes, might take some effort. If it’s like a 10k budget, it’ll be more doable.
Anything that is not a necessity for you, you can cut out. Any extra money left over from your income should be put towards you wedding then. (If you plan on paying for it)
You can definitely look into some of those savings accounts but in the end you wouldn’t end up getting much because the intro rate could be like 7.5% interest, but after a few weeks it’ll drop down to like 2%. It’s definitely a tactic to get people to create savings account with those banks.
To give you perspective: as a teacher with a limited salary, it took me about 5 years busting my butt, scraping every time I could, to save up for my budget of roughly 20k. Then of course, our budget went up so I had to find more ways to save up. Just save up what you can each month! Once you have an idea of how much you’re saving, then you can start developing your ideal budget. Good luck to you!

I have a “Vacation Account” through my credit union. Ultimately, it automatically takes a certain amount from my direct deposited paychecks and puts it in that particular account. In order to access that money (or transfer it out of that savings into checking, etc.), I must go to the credit union and do it in person. I’m not sure if it collects interest, but it has made saving much easier for me because the allotted money is put in there each pay and cannot easily be spent!

My local credit union does a "Christmas Club." Essentially, it's a savings account but your money stays in until October each year. Ideally, it's created for saving money for Christmas gifts. So let's say you start saving after Christmas you can put a large amount in or a little a time, then you get the option of getting a check in October, or leaving it to continue to accrue interest.

You can also look into CDs (Certificate of Deposit). The interest rates are better for longer terms, but there are some one-year options!

I know it sounds silly, but consider sitting down with a financial planner. They are excellent when it comes to showing you where you are spending extra. It could even be small things like buying produce for dinner: Esparagus: $4 for a bundle, but Broccoli is $0.77 per lb.

Maybe consider a small part time or seasonal job (if it doesn't strain your sleep, diet, or relationship).

Look up stories about penny pinchers, and also read books like, "Budgeting a Wedding for Dummies" or "Priceless Weddings for under $5,000" by Kathleen Kennedy.

*A word of caution: While you may be inspired by DIYs or maybe taking another job do NOT do it if it could turn into a time-consuming endeavor that you are not familiar with. You should have time to relax while wedding planning, and going full-steam will burn you out, and be an unnecessary waste of money (with weight gain).

If you have a credit union, they sometimes have programs running for short term savings programs, at a good return rate.

I was talking to a friend about this the other day and i told her sometimes it's too intimidating to think of a purchase so large. like $10k for a wedding is really intimidating but if you break it down to days and smaller increments it's a lot easier! for instance it's about $27 a day if you break $10k into a year. saving $27 a day for many people is a lot easier to think about saving right?