Weddings are expensive. According to The Knot, the average cost of a wedding in 2017 was $33,391, and that doesn't even include the honeymoon. Though many couples have the benefit of family to help pay for their nuptials, others go into debt planning their perfect day. However, there is a third option for the big day: saving up and paying for the whole thing in cash. This is what I am choosing to do. This past holiday season, my boyfriend (or fiancé, I suppose) proposed. After enjoying some time being newly engaged and wonderfully happy, we started wedding planning by choosing our budget ($30,000). Given each of our family's financial situations and our dislike of debt, we decided the best route was saving up the cash ourselves, meaning we each had 12 months to save up $15,000, or roughly $1,250 per month. Thanks to a generous bonus structure and the nature of his work (loosely commission-based), my fiancé is saving his portion simply by reprioritizing his current savings goals and spending a little less each month on fun stuff. For me, the process is a little more difficult. But I have a plan! I will be cobbling together my half of the wedding funds from a couple different sources. I happen to be an hourly worker with a weekly work requirement of 37.5 hours (7.5 hours per day); however, my workplace is actually open 10 hours a day. I usually take advantage of this flexibility to sleep in or run errands on my lunch break, but now, I am planning to use these extra hours to work a little more for some extra cash. After taxes, working an extra 5-10 hours per week will net me a little under half of my $15,000 savings goal over the next 12 months. These extra hours have the added benefit of making me look better at work, so it's totally worth it just to wake up an hour earlier each day. I plan to move $100 per week into my savings account for the wedding and then any extra beyond that once a month after all of my bills are paid. Money earned: An extra $100-$200 per week, or about $7,000 total Did you know that there are four months in 2019 with five Fridays? For someone who gets paid weekly (aka me), this means there are four months in 2019 where I will receive five paychecks instead of my usual four. Since my monthly budget requirements are met with four paychecks, I plan to save my whole fifth paycheck towards my wedding savings fund instead of spending it. Money earned: $4,000 Two years ago, I started coaching a local high school's field hockey team. Though I applied for the job because of my love for the sport and working with teenagers, my head coaching position actually comes with a small stipend. (I thought it was a volunteer position when I signed up!) I have been putting these extra funds towards my retirement the past two years, but this year, it's all going to the wedding fund. It's also notable that my stipend is paid as one lump sum at the end of the field hockey season, which makes it even easier to save it all for the weddi
How I plan to save $15,000 in 12 months to pay for my wedding in cash this year
Weddings are expensive. According to The Knot, the average cost of a wedding in 2017 was $33,391, and that doesn't even include the honeymoon. Though many couples have the benefit of family to help pay for their nuptials, others go into debt planning their perfect day. However, there is a third option for the big day: saving up and paying for the whole thing in cash. This is what I am choosing to do. This past holiday season, my boyfriend (or fiancé, I suppose) proposed. After enjoying some time being newly engaged and wonderfully happy, we started wedding planning by choosing our budget ($30,000). Given each of our family's financial situations and our dislike of debt, we decided the best route was saving up the cash ourselves, meaning we each had 12 months to save up $15,000, or roughly $1,250 per month. Thanks to a generous bonus structure and the nature of his work (loosely commission-based), my fiancé is saving his portion simply by reprioritizing his current savings goals and spending a little less each month on fun stuff. For me, the process is a little more difficult. But I have a plan! I will be cobbling together my half of the wedding funds from a couple different sources. I happen to be an hourly worker with a weekly work requirement of 37.5 hours (7.5 hours per day); however, my workplace is actually open 10 hours a day. I usually take advantage of this flexibility to sleep in or run errands on my lunch break, but now, I am planning to use these extra hours to work a little more for some extra cash. After taxes, working an extra 5-10 hours per week will net me a little under half of my $15,000 savings goal over the next 12 months. These extra hours have the added benefit of making me look better at work, so it's totally worth it just to wake up an hour earlier each day. I plan to move $100 per week into my savings account for the wedding and then any extra beyond that once a month after all of my bills are paid. Money earned: An extra $100-$200 per week, or about $7,000 total Did you know that there are four months in 2019 with five Fridays? For someone who gets paid weekly (aka me), this means there are four months in 2019 where I will receive five paychecks instead of my usual four. Since my monthly budget requirements are met with four paychecks, I plan to save my whole fifth paycheck towards my wedding savings fund instead of spending it. Money earned: $4,000 Two years ago, I started coaching a local high school's field hockey team. Though I applied for the job because of my love for the sport and working with teenagers, my head coaching position actually comes with a small stipend. (I thought it was a volunteer position when I signed up!) I have been putting these extra funds towards my retirement the past two years, but this year, it's all going to the wedding fund. It's also notable that my stipend is paid as one lump sum at the end of the field hockey season, which makes it even easier to save it all for the weddi
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