Make Strategic Money Moves

Before you can truly start researching ways to save up for your wedding, you must take a seat and examine your finances. That’s not an exciting thing to do, but it will help you see your entire financial picture. It’ll allow you to be realistic about ways you can save and what your wedding budget should actually be. Start by looking at where you have your savings account. Is there another bank you can move that money to that offers a higher interest rate? That way, you can make passive money just by having your money in that savings account.

Reward Yourself for Sticking to Your Budget

Creating a budget is easy. Sticking to that budget is the real headache. Set weekly budget goals so you can accumulate more money to add to your wedding fund. If you hit that goal, find a free way of rewarding yourself. That way, you can incentivize yourself to meet your savings goals. Some free incentives might be bingeing an extra episode of your favorite show, taking a Sunday afternoon nap, or even heading to a local park for a picnic.

Cut Out a Frequent Spender Once a Week

Eyeball your weekly spending. Is there an item you frequently purchase that starts adding up? It might be uncomfortable or frustrating to cut that out completely. Instead, you could work on cutting back. If you’re spending $5 a day on coffee, that’s close to $2,000 a year! Try cutting back one or two times a week and funneling those savings into your wedding fund.

Start a Daily Saving Habit

When we talk about saving money, we usually discuss setting budgets and working hard at sticking to them. A quicker way to do this is to set a daily savings goal, so you can put that unused cash into your wedding fund. Let’s say you pick a goal of saving $10 a day. Try to find places where you can save that $10 from your daily routine. Maybe it’s skipping a mid-day latte or deleting that item sitting in your shopping cart from your favorite online store. If you save $10 a day for an entire year, you’ll be able to pay for a major vendor (like your DJ, florist, or wedding planner).

Put Aside Money from Wedding Celebrations

Once the pre-wedding events begin and the gifts start rolling in, it can be easy to spend the money on fast purchases, or even put them toward bigger purchases you hope to make later on (such as your honeymoon or a house). Instead, add a percent of any gifted money that you receive before the wedding to your wedding savings fund. Start with 25% and after the wedding is over, increase the percentage based on how much more you have to spend to pay off the celebration.

Try the Envelope Saving and Spending Trick

If you’re having trouble parting ways with your credit cards and you’re not meeting your savings goals, try the good old envelope trick. Set aside a series of envelopes, each with a label for a category of your monthly spending (like groceries, household goods, clothing, entertainment, activities, etc.) and allocate a certain amount of cash into each envelope. When it’s time to make a purchase, use the cash from these envelopes instead of swiping your cards. It will help you be more intentional about your purchases and your saving. You can even create a wedding envelope for cash that you don’t touch at all. That way, you’ll be able to save ahead of time that month and stick to your planned budget.

Collect Spare Change and Cash

At the end of every week, round up any loose change from your pockets, purse, or other places around your house. Go through your wallet and take out some loose dollar bills. Add all of this to your wedding fund. While it’ll start off as small contributions, it will add up over time. Plus, it’ll be a good way to keep track of the money you might have floating around the bottom of your bag—or inside your coat pocket—that might get lost for good.

Try a Coupon Only Challenge

Want to challenge yourself to rack up extra cash for a month? Make it your goal to only purchase things if a coupon is available. If it’s not, ditch the item or find something similar (only if you actually need it) during a sale or when a coupon code is offered. Put all the money you saved using these discounts into your wedding fund. How’s that for hunting high and low for that 25% coupon?