How are you coping? Finances!

[plutosblue]

Hi guys!! :wave:

Well the days are a tick-tick-tickin by, not long now until the big day, invites are being made and going out next week, everything is booked..

But our finances are in chaos

Me and OH were doing fine and a lot of my family are helping, but his car just died, replaced the head gasket and cambelt for 400 smakers last week and then driving to see my parents the other day and the car died a death on a roundabout! It now needs the battery and alternator replacing.. (I think my wedding is jinxed!! as my car needed fixing just 1 month before which set us back another 400)

I try to take a positive mental attitude, but in all seriousness I am wondering how we are even keeping afloat - we haven't taken out any loans and the majority of the bits we have paid in cash (although admittedly my credit card has seen better days.. ) We are paying everything off sloooooowly.. but we are seriously running out of funds and there is still half of the reception to pay for!

To cut a long story short we still have a good chunk left and my limit on the plastic is getting closer and closer!!

So how are you paying for everything - how are your finances doing, for those struggling how on earth are you coping??? Any tips and advice greatly appreciated!!

 

[pinkmummy]

TBH no we aren't doing too good

We are getting £500 more off my dad (he's already paid £500 and was paying £1000) and my nana and granda are giving us £200 to go towards it too.

We still have £1840 to pay and have 3 months to pay it off! which means over £600 a month we have to pay and we only have £400 MAX! Its coz I'm not working anymore But we are hoping that OH parents and my parents may help us out as we get paid on the 25th so will have £400 then too its just that payday falls on the wedding day and we need to pay everything by 2 weeks before.

So technically we will need to borrow money for about 2 weeks and then pay them back the day before we get married when OH gets paid LOL xx

 

[booflebump]

We are ok at the moment, apart from feeling a bit sick at the total price! x

 

[24/7]

Were doing ok, but there are lots of little costs cropping up now we are so close, but we are just about managing. xx

 

[buttonnose82]

We are ok at the moment, apart from feeling a bit sick at the total price! x

ditto!

We made a spread sheet at the start, assigned a cost to everything then stuck to it, we over estimated everything at the start by a little but the money we saved was based on the over estimated cost so thankfully we are currently below budget.

We kept all wedding money in a separate account too, that the only way we can access is online, think this has helped alot as you can't just dip into it, every purchase has to be planned so we can get access to the money, providing nothing goes wrong wedding wise our parents might both be in for a little refund too lol

 

[QueenMummyToBe]

We are doing okay but like you we kept having month after month when something would go wrong, we had the car, the fridge/freezer, Amelias pushchair and it drove me crazy.

Most of our wedding will be paid off in two months time and we have the money for it, we just need to keep saving for our honeymoon and pressies for the wedding party.

Everything is on a budget and has been all year, if I have to I will survive on the cheapest meals possible for the next three months and so will OH (amelia will eat like a queen like always though)

I would sit down and work out your monthly incomings and outgoings and cut back where ever possible.

I know as a last resort I have my overdraft but it would be an absolute last resort!!

xXx

 

[katieandbump]

We're just saving as much money as we can and are going to get things as late as possible so none of it is on credit iykwim it's so hard finding nice dresses in candbury's purple guess i'm fussier than i thought.

We've put everything on spreadsheets spending and saving so have worked out a rough guide of how much money we will have to play around with but that's providing we save what we hope hence the reason we're not rushing around to get things i'm hoping i'll be able to get bridesmaid dresses in january sales next year.

Queen mummy to be i know exactly what you mean you allocate an amount and put it aside and then something crops up so annoying, it's hard not to put too much pressure on yourselves with the saving. We also have overdraft as a last minute resort. xxx

 

[polo_princess]

Im pretty much on or around budget i guess, havent added it up if im honest, but im a frugal shopper so i know i havent gone silly, ive spent what i had saved so now the last few bits will be paid for with the final 2 or 3 paypackets each month

Big things are done and paid for with the money that i saved though

 

[buttonnose82]

I am panicing thanks to this thread lol

I just went and worked out what is left to pay and then checked out 'wedding fund' account and seem to be £3000 under budget! ...... now I have a horrible feeling we have forgot something! HELP! what could we have forgotten!

 

[pinkmummy]

Venue? Registrar? Car? Photographer? Suits? Food?

 

[buttonnose82]

Venue? Registrar? Car? Photographer? Suits? Food?

nope they are all sorted

seriously i wanna cry because i am now sure we have forgotten something and the dr was only telling me this morning that i need to relax and try destress!

Will get future hubby to look through it all when he gets home and see if he spots anything

 

[booflebump]

I'm sure you havent sweetheart - and if you have, if people are expecting money, they will soon shout for it! x

 

[polo_princess]

Hope you havent missed anything and its just your awesome shopping technique

 

[plutosblue]

Thanks guys - OH's brother is chipping in for the church as our gift so that saved us a little So theres about 280 left on the bridesmaid dresses, 1600 reception, DJ 100 and whatever is left of the church left to pay now until the day

2000 Oh dear god I think I shall start selling myself on street corners!!! OH is doing lots of overtime and I am resorting to selling old things for some cash

I will do this!!!

 

[pinkmummy]

Well just had a look today after commenting on the thread and we are down more than I originally thought we are about £600 short!!

ETA: Actually no were not just realised I worked some of the bills out wrong so we are around £300 short which isn't too bad as we can easily borrow that from family until October when OH gets paid again! pheww, was having a panic on there!

 

[CandJ]

We've been lucky that its not cost us too much to get married and what we have spent was money that we'd saved from OH's time in Afghan

 

[chelseaharvey]

I am not getting married until 2012 so ages yet but have set the wheels in motion

I have already set up a spreadsheet of everything that i will need/want for my wedding & know rough prices of what things cost... I have in my head the kind of budget i am working on.. I am going to try & save money where i can.

We have provisionally set a date - going back to the venue on the 18th july to see it set up for a wedding & if we still want to go ahead we have to pay the deposit.. We will then set up a seperate bank account just for the wedding & every month put money in there of what need to have x amount by 2 years time...

We will then buy bits as we go along

 

[mrsraggle]

We ended up getting a £1k loan about 2 months before the big day and paid it off over the following year. It wasn't ideal but it helped the stress!