Saving on a Wedding, Pt. 1

This is post one of a three-post guest series by Ali of Tattered, Tagged, Treasured on how she saved a ton without cutting anything they valued on her wedding:
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Okay, my husband, Eric, and I are very into music and that meant we were getting the band of our dreams for our wedding. The only problem? They cost 30% of our whole wedding budget. We didn’t care. That was the single most important thing for us to have at our wedding.

That meant a heck of a lot of skimping everywhere else. And it’s a wedding, so that meant skimping without looking like total crap.

So, some big expenses we had to cut back at my wedding were:
–the invitations
–the site
–the food
–the decorations

The Invitations
Invitations are incredibly costly. I get it. They’re doing some very amazing things very professionally. It’s just not something I was willing to afford. So I made my own.

Our theme was a sort of neo-Victorian masquerade, so handmade Valentine-style cards actually fit in very well. There’s no reason you couldn’t do something yourself, even if you want a more perfect look than this. The paper is mulberry and I got enough of it (on eBay) to do my invitations, my response cards, my place cards and my dance cards. Unless you live somewhere with a lot of inexpensive paper stores or you know how to make the kind of paper you want, eBay is going to be your best bet. The stencil is from Michael’s. I wanted a brass stencil because of the metallic paint I was using. I threaded ribbon through two punched holes on the side and tied them in a bow to attach the eggshell-colored paper I used on the inside. Same basic deal for the response cards.

I chose quarter size to save on stamp costs. My envelopes came from envelopemall.com, a total lifesaver. For my thank you notes and guestbook pages, I actually chose origami paper. The origami guestbook concept is actually something I saw on Martha Stewart’s site and really liked. After all is said and done, it cost me less than $100 for envelopes, stamps, invitations, response cards, thank you notes, dance cards, place cards and guestbook supplies.

A Glass Half-Full. Of beer.

I feel like all I post lately is how poorly I’m doing at sticking to a budget and my goals. This has also made me more reluctant to post.

Lately I have spent a bunch of money eating out and traveling. I feel bad about it. It’s not that I haven’t been having a good time so much as that I would prefer to do these things in a plan, budgeted manner. So, I will keep working on that.

In the mean time, I was frustrated because I had no food in the house. But of course, this is almost always a lie. Yesterday I made beer bread, and the best part was that I made it entirely with things already in the house. And because they were all ingredients I just had around for other things, it felt like it was basically free. I also tend to forget that I like cooking and baking. It’s really nice, especially when I share with other people. That’s why I want to do this cooking rotation thing, although I have figured out the blog is not actually the best [place to figure it out. Because of the number of variables, I just need to ask people. But if you'd be interested in cooking & sharing food, let me know and we can talk and work out the details.

I made this delicious beer bread. You wish you had some.

For now, a beer bread recipe. This is incredibly easy to make and is good with soup, goat cheese, or just straight up. It’s also really cheap, depending on what kind of beer you use. My favorite kind is the kind that is leftover when people came over.

Beer Bread

1 stick (1/2 cup) salted butter
3 cups self-rising flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 12 oz bottle dark beer (Guinness)

In a stand mixer-with bread dough attachment- mix the flour, sugar and beer until well mixed. Or, knead it together. if you use a mixer, be sure to scrape down sides and bottom to make sure there are no flour pockets.

Scoop it out into a greased loaf pan.

Bake 350F/180C for 30 minutes

Melt half the butter.

At 30 minutes of baking, split the top of the loaf and pour half of butter on top. Bake additional 15 minutes or more. For me, it usually takes another half hour or so to be done.

Remove bread from oven.

Pour the rest of the butter on top of the loaf.

Set aside to cool 10 minutes. Serve hot or cold

Food swap

So, I was thinking of trying to do a food swap, since clothing swaps and book swaps have been so great, and food is the main area I spend money besides rent these days.

We had discussed planning an event where people did some large batch cooking, had people sign up for what they would want, and everyone take home freezable food. In addition, everyone could bring any non-perishables they had around and weren’t going to eat and see if anyone else wanted them. This would have to be a NYC-based event. You’d be welcome to participate if you aren’t in NYC, but you’d have to come here. If you are interested, please comment. I was thinking maybe we could do sign-ups this month and then exchange food in the beginning of December if enough people are interested. And feel free to invite other people to join.

In the meantime, I’ve had a food swap idea I like better. Some friends of mine in college had a summer cooking collective that I got to take part in one summer. Everyone would put in a set amount of money, and then that money was used to buy groceries. People would cook in pairs four or five nights a week and everyone would get to eat the food. It was great. That would be hard to do now, since only a couple of my friends live close by and schedules are pretty variable. I was thinking it could be translated, though. Everyone would host a dinner once (or once per rotation) and we could have group dinners somewhere around once a week. Part of why I spend a lot on food is because I love eating out with friends. If I could do this instead, I think I’d save money, have fun, and maybe learn some new recipes. Does it sound good or workable to anyone else? We could keep the cooking in pairs thing-it made cooking a bit more fun and easy, and it meant you didn’t have to have experience cooking to participate.

So, please comment with answers to the following questions:
1. Would you be interested in a food swap as described above (large batch cooking & non perishables)?
If so:
1a. What days between now and Dec. 15th would be best for you?
1b. Do you have any food restrictions?

2. Would you be interested in taking part in a cooking rotation?
If so:
2a. What food restrictions do you have? I don’t eat meat, and since I am planning this, I call no meat.
2b. What days of the week and times work best for you? Once I get a decent number of responses I will work on setting dates that work for everyone, but for now let’s just look at days of the week.
2c. Would you want to cook with a partner?
2d. Would you prefer to cook at your own house, or someone else’s?
2d i. Would you prefer to always gather at the same house, maybe in a central location ro with a big table or something, or rotate?
2e. Does $5 a person per meal seem good to you? Can you afford that/do you think you could cook with that budget? This may depend in part on how many people are interested.

October & November Goals

So October was slow month, blog-wise.  I only made 7 posts.  However, that’s because it was an awesome month, life-wise.  As I mentioned, two of my favorite people got married, I went to visit my boyfriend for his birthday, and I went to Hawaii.

All of this sounds like it should be really expensive, but it wasn’t.  Well, the wedding was really expensive by my standards but I think as far as weddings go, it was cheap.  For Hawaii the expensive part was the plane tickets, which  my mom paid for.  While we were there we kept it cheap by staying with family, buying groceries and eating at home & bringing snacks with us, and trying hard not to go crazy on souvenirs.

I also managed to spend $0 on my costume and still, I think, do a pretty good job, so that was a plus, and I did a freelance job and got paid which helped balance out all my crazy spending. I also set up my first C.D., at ING. I have a road trip fund that has been sitting around in cash. It is only $150, but it is better earning interest than not and I know the trip won’t happen in the next 12 months.

Here’s how I did on my goals:
1. Implement my new weekly budget system and stick to it. Poorly. To be honest, I entirely lost track of my budget. I started using mint.com, which I like, but I can’t keep track of my cash or weekly totals the way I am used to. I think I should stick with using my spreadsheet from now on. As I mentioned, I got kind of bored with entering things but if I do it every day it didn’t too bad, and I really do a better job when I write everything down. Because I was so lax, I am not even sure how I did. I just know I spent way too much money and didn’t allocate enough.

2. Use images in my blog. Of my 7 blog posts, 3 have images. However, it’s a better percentage than before. Should I keep working on this one? Do you guys like reading better when I use pretty pictures?

3. Make things new. I was very excited about this and started working on my dresser the first day. I got a bunch done, and then, well, that was it. This month should be a LOT calmer for me, so I am going to keep working on this.

I think, since October was so out of the ordinary, I am going to try again with the same goals for November. I hope that isn’t cheating

How did you do?

50 Percent

I was trying to lose weight for a bit.  I started eating about half of what I had been eating at meals.  Then, if I was still hungry, I’d eat more.  It worked really well, and I discovered I felt better when I did it, because I wasn’t overeating and feeling sluggish.

It took me about two months to realize I could do this with other things.  I read a bunch of suggestions at Get Rich Slowly recently about making do with less.  What a lot of it summed up to was something very similar.  Try using half of what you normally would.  if that’s not enough, use more.  Try using half as much shampoo, dish soap, laundry detergent, etc.  Try getting have the subscriptions or paid services you have now maybe.  Then, if it isn’t enough, use more.  People tend to default to certain portions of things without considering that portion.  I know that every time I have gotten my hair cut after growing it long I have taken a day or two to adjust how much shampoo I need. You can also use 50% (or maybe two thirds) of things in recipes, assuming you know what you are doing.  I know a lot of people do this with sugar, and it can help with both health and budget.

So I am going to try using 50% of things for a bit and see how it goes.  If anything (including me) is less clean, I will up how much I am using.  This is going to be a goal for November.  Monday I will see if I have any more, and post how I did with October.  I think the answer is: not very well.   You?

Neglecting the blog

Sorry I haven’t been posting much lately. First there was the wedding, then a super busy week, then I’ve been away.

My super busy week was great though-I got up-to-date with everything at my job, so I could leave for vacation guilt-free. I am sure I will be swamped when I get home, but for now I can pretend everything is in order. And if I am not swamped when I get back I can finally do some work on some big reorganization projects I’ve been wanting to do. Yes, I love to organize. Yes, I am a big dork-I think you had that figured out by now.

I also did some freelance work and will be getting paid for it. If I can be careful with money next month I can take that whole amount and put it in my savings, which will put me less than $1000 from my initial goal. I can’t believe how close I am so quickly, it is really motivating me to try and save even more in the next few months.

In addition to getting paid for that, I made my first paid cakes! I have turned a hobby into a money making venture! Er, sort of. I actually only charged the cost of the cakes, because they were for a friend’s birthday and they were my first hired cakes. But I can use that experience in the future to make money, and at least I didn’t lose anything. On the down side (maybe) I’ve decided that since I no longer have to practice I can’t do that many cakes for free. The big cakes really cost a lot to make. I don’t mind doing it for cost, and of course my family are still going to get free cakes, but I can’t just make them all the time for whatever anymore-it really is more expensive than you’d guess.

So that was a good, productive week. And at the end, I got to go see my boyfriend and celebrate his birthday and now I am in Hawaii! Which is the most recent reason I’ve been neglecting the blog-I’m on vacation. It is very beautiful, and way too warm for me. If you’re wondering how I managed to afford going to Hawaii, well, I am a spoiled brat. My mother paid for the trip. In my defense it is a trip to visit family and she used frequent flier miles. But yes, I know how lucky I am.

I saw big turtles today. It was awesome. I took a photo. True story.

De-slumpifying

So the wonderful Cris of www.queenofthecatpeople.com posted suggestions of ways I could save more. And I realized, I am doing these. Well, I don’t do once a month grocery shopping-I keep an eye out for coupons, buy my staples when they are on sale if I can, and then just pick up things as needed to supplement them. Since I’ve started tracking my expenses I’ve been very good about not making unplanned purchases at the grocery store unless I see a sale, so it doesn’t matter how often I go. If I try to plan too far ahead I always end up wasting something.

My favorite shot-the cake I made. Photo by Steph Flanders.

And then I realized, go me. I am already doing a lot. My close friends got married, there was bound to be some expense involved. I had to pay for cake things, part of a car, part of a hotel room, and shoes. These were all optional (well, the cake really wasn’t at this point)-I could have taken a train I suppose, and not stayed in the hotel, and worn shoes I own or borrowed some. But this was not just one of the biggest days of their lives, it was one of the biggest of mine, That’s what having money is for. Ten years from now I am going to value the memories of the weekend far more than what they cost. In the meantime, most of the point of being so careful with my money is so I can spend on what I care about most, which these people certainly are.

But I knew that, and it is okay. That’s not something that’s going to set me back on a regular basis, and I won’t have to budget so tightly to make things come out okay in months where that isn’t happening. I have already planned for holiday gifts and I think my expenses shouldn’t be too bad, except for a couple people I don’t have gift ideas for yet.

I also now have cat supplies for the next several months because I decide it was more important to get the best possible price overall than to fret about my weekly budget, and buying in bulk is cheaper.

So next month I am going to try week-to-week budgeting again, but I’ll be able to give myself more leeway while staying within my overall monthly budget. And this month, I am just going to do the best I can in the remaining weeks.

I just need to focus on the good, and remind myself that big expenses happen.

Sick Of It

The wedding was fantastic. It was beautiful and fun, and the food was delicious. Most importantly, the couple was perfect.
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I am sick of worrying about money. I am sicking of freaking out about whether people will pay me back for things I buy, or making a point of ten dollars between friends. I don’t like saying no and having my friends worry I can’t afford it and feel bad, or feeling awkward about that.

My budget is shot, there were a couple large expenses for the wedding that I did not take into account, and some for my cat. I am sick of entering numbers and have not been doing my old totaling up that I used to see how much I was spending on each category of thing.

I still love buying things discount, spending less, reusing things, and finding things for free. I am just burned out on keeping track, and still don’t know how to handle social expenses. I need some new motivation, or a better way to do this.

Five Days

I am going to be in a wedding in five days, and I am making the cake. I think I will be a bit preoccupied with that.

This week is also Yom Kippur. Traditionally the days between the Rosh Hoshannah and Yom Kippur are a time of forgiveness, apologizing, and paying off debt. What a great idea. Once a year, you go thorough and you put things in order. Of course, a lot of us are trying to do this all the time, but it is good to have the extra impetus. For me, maybe strangely, this is best for forgiving other people. It’s a good reminder to let go of grudges. Even if I’m not happy with someone, I don’t have to remain angry. I can move on. It won’t mean all is forgotten, but it does mean I won’t be dwelling on that anymore.

This year is about forgiving myself, and a large part of that is forgiving my past money mistakes. I know I spent on things I didn’t need, ate out too much, failed to gain interest by putting my money in savings and other stupid actions. But that was the past. Even if it is that drink I shouldn’t have bought last weekend it was the past. Right now I am saving, I am planning for the future, and I am watching where my money goes.

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On another note, the in-person clothing swap was great. Not only did I end up with awesome new clothing, I also got supplies for making my Halloween costume-a sweater I can turn into a bag and a sweater I can wear, as well as an offer of paints I can use. I think at this point my total cost for my costume should be between zero and five dollars, unless I go and spend money on a new pair of sneakers. The sneakers I own aren’t right, but new sneakers could be $30 or more, and I already own five pairs of Chuck Taylor’s. So I have to be strong.

The clothing swap also went well in terms of people taking stuff. People took a ton of clothing, and I think everyone was really happy with what they got. I also had some old key chains that I was getting rid of in an attempt to de-clutter, and a futon cover. Some key chains were taken and so was the futon cover. The most exciting part was the furniture. My mom has some furniture she’s been meaning to get rid of, and I have some in my room at her house. We worked out for people to come take it next weekend. We probably could have sold it on craigslist, but this way we know it will be out soon and the people who are taking it are going to help rearrange the other furniture into new rooms for free, so that’s really exciting. The place was looking way too busy with way too much in the living room, and now this old furniture we love but don’t need will be put to use, like a dresser I don’t need because I keep my clothing at my own place now. So that was awesome!

Next up, the food swap! That will probably happen in December. In the meantime, I am wearing a new to me shirt today and it is quite comfy!

Free to Be

Day 1 of the new budgeting system. Wish me luck!

The Naked Cowboy

Yesterday I saved by getting a free “naked burrito” for lunch. Outside they had the naked cowboy singing to promote it. I think I live in a bubble, because I had never heard of the naked cowboy. If you haven’t either, the name is misleading. He wears underwear. For which I am pretty grateful, really.

Tomorrow I am saving by taking some stuff from a friend who is trying to clear the clutter. But not taking too much, because I need to fight the clutter myself.

I also ate a free Kashi cookie last night. It was pretty tasty, but I was not wild about the texture.

Sunday we may be doing the in-person clothing swap. Hopefully I can get more new (to me) clothing and keep getting rid of things. There’s a slip I claimed in the last swap that doesn’t fit, so it’s coming back, and I have some shoes to get rid of that I forgot to include.

I’m also getting free dinner Saturday night, in that I am invited to dinner. It’s pretty clever of me! Really though, I am such a dork and totally excited about all this getting of free things. Again, as long as they are free things that are actually useful and not just more clutter.