Got Milk?

Photo by muffet

I posted a couple of weeks ago wondering if I should switch at least partly to powdered milk. I got some great comments and someone said that powdered milk prices vary by region, so I decided to price it at my local store (ok, it was Walmart).

What I found out was that powdered milk is actually more expensive than "real" milk in Wisconsin! I guess it makes sense since I live in the Dairy State, but I was pretty surprised. A gallon of milk here costs $2.79. A box of powdered milk is $6.98 and makes 8 quarts (2 gallons, per my husband!). That means that powdered milk would be $3.49/gallon.

I guess that decides that!

Milk and Miscellaneous

Milk
I wrote a post last week mentioning how much milk my husband and I go through. I received a couple of good comments about it. I thought I would mention that I do drink water, as well, though not as much as I should. I tend to drink more water in the summer when I often have an actual craving for it. In the winter, I crave the creaminess of milk. Still, I should work on this one!

Also, someone mentioned mixing half real milk with half powdered milk. I'm a little leery of liking that since skim milk is already so watered down. The comment did make me think, though, about mixing up powdered milk for baking. Does anyone do this? Can you taste the difference? Is powdered milk a lot less expensive than real milk?

Miscellaneous
The CVS and Walgreens rebates are finally paying off. I felt like I was spending a lot of money during the first month, but now I'm reaping the rewards by paying for everything with Extra Care Bucks and my Walgreens gift card. Check out the stuff I got today! I paid about $1 out of pocket, the rest was paid for with coupons, ECB and my gift card!

How NOT to Handle an Inheritance

After four years, she's finally done it. She's spent her entire inheritance.

Let me explain. I work at a financial services firm. A client of ours, let's call her Eunice, managed her finances well and left an inheritance of about $272,000 to her two children when she passed away four years ago. Both children were in their 40's and each received $136,000 when Eunice died. Both children also immediately began taking distributions from their inheritance.

The son started spending his inheritance money like it was going out of style. He passed away about a year after Eunice died. His wife received the inheritance and hasn't spent a dime more of it. She's saving it for her own retirement (very smart woman!).

Eunice's daughter, let's call her Jane, also began spending her inheritance immediately upon receiving it. About once a month, Jane calls us and says that she needs $2,000 (it varies every time she called, but probably averages out to monthly and $2,000 each time).

Jane also declares each time she calls that she needs the money "as soon as possible" for some bill or another that's due in 4 days. Because she needs the money so quickly, we have to wire it to her (costing her an extra $15 wire fee each time), and the process starts all over again in about a month. Jane never would agree to an automatic monthly withdrawal, which would have saved her the $15 wire fees.

Some of the inheritance money was in an IRA, so Jane has also had to pay taxes and early withdrawal penalties to the government on her withdrawals.

Well, Jane made her last withdrawal last week, just under four years after her first withdrawal. She's managed to blow through about $136,000 in four years, which averages out to $34,000 per year. Since Jane makes about $40,000 per year in her career, she has almost doubled her spending each of these past 4 years. And now it is gone. I have no idea how she plans on continuing her spendy lifestyle with the extra money.

Every time Jane has called "needing" more money over these last four years, I've wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake her. Didn't she realize that if she kept the money untouched, she'd have a really nice addition to her (probably nonexistent) retirement funds ($633,000 at age 65 with an 8% return)? Didn't she ever think that Eunice would be rolling over in her grave if she knew how fast her daughter went through Eunice's life savings?

I was actually glad when Jane called last week to take that last distribution (wired to her, of course). I'll no longer feel that frustration every month at her poor management skills, knowing what "might have been".

I don't know what the message in this post is, besides encouraging people to think about the future and not be idiots ;)

Do you know people like this, people whom you want to scream at for their stupid money decisions? I'd love to hear about them!

The Budget-Busting Meme

I've noticed that there's a meme going around asking people to list their top 5 budget busters, so I thought I should join in the fun!

1. Vacations
Being newlyweds, my husband and I are still working on "frugalizing" our vacations (I think I just made up a word!). So far, our biggest issue seems to be that we vacation where friends are living and then take them out to eat. This is going to be our big expense with the vacation we're taking this weekend to Raleigh, NC and Washington DC. We'll be staying with a friend for two of the nights (which saves money), but we'll be going out to eat a lot more because of that. We're going to try to be a little more frugal than the last time we visited this friend. I'll let you know how it turns out!
Also at issue has been the number of vacations we've taken. We're working on that one, too. :)

2. Milk
My husband and I love milk, and we drink a lot of it. I buy about 4 gallons of milk a week just for the two of us! The good thing is that we drink less soda because of our love of milk. The bad thing is that milk is more expensive than soda. This is a budget buster I can live with since I'm pretty sure we'd drink more sugary drinks if we didn't give ourselves free rein with the milk.

3. Bath and Body Products
This one is all me. I like the Bath and Body Works shower gels, lotions, and hand soap that have the same scent, and Bath and Body Works isn't exactly the cheapest option out there! I combat this budget buster by trying to only buy what I need when I need it, and to watch for sales and coupons. I also add some water to the products when they near the empty mark to help them last longer.

4. Scrapbooking Supplies
Another one that is completely my fault! If I could own every scrapbooking sticker that Hobby Lobby sells, I probably would :) I try to keep this one under control by only going to Hobby Lobby when I need something in particular. I also try to go when the scrapbooking supplies are on sale.

5. Tools
Like many men, my husband loves his tools. We're working on a bathroom remodel, so we've bought quite a few tools since we've been married. The nice thing about tools is that once you have them, they should last a long time. I feel like we're in the "acquiring" stage now. I'm hoping we'll soon move to the "maintenance" stage of tool ownership. Considering the look of awe and wonder on my husband's face every time we walk past the tool section at Home Depot, that might be wishful thinking. ;)
I'm a very strong proponent of quality when it comes to tools, though. I always encourage my husband to buy the high quality tool once he's informed me that he can't possibly live without *insert tool here*. We also agree to have a large tool purchase (like a power tool) become his birthday or Christmas present to save some money (and frustration on my part). It works for us!

Here are some other answers to the budget-buster meme:
What Busts Mrs. Micah's Budget
Mommy Gets PAID's Budget Busters

Now it's your turn!

...Ok, So I Lied

It's confession time! I told you two weeks ago that I was giving up on CVS Pharmacy. That was before I read about this deal at Money Saving Mom. I couldn't help myself, I had to check it out!

I stopped by CVS on my way to the grocery store and, what do you know, they actually had the deals I was looking for!

Here's what I got:

This is how it worked:

2 Covergirl Foundations: $18.98

1 Pepcid EZ Chews: $7.99

-$1.00 Covergirl coupon

-$9.49 Buy one, Get one free Covergirl coupon

-$2.00 Pepcid coupon

-$5.00 CVS $5 off $15 coupon

=$10.58 with sales tax

In return I got $17 in Extra Care Bucks plus I have a mail in rebate for the Pepcid EZ Chews that will net me $5.09 after postage. I spent $10.50 and have $22 to spend later.

I couldn't resist!

A Gambling Lesson

No, I'm not going to teach you how to gamble!

As I mentioned last week, Dave Ramsey was interviewed by Dr. Dobson on the Focus on the Family radio show last Thursday. Toward the end of that broadcast, Dr. Dobson and Dave went off on a little tangent about how gambling in the US, specifically the lottery, is an exploitation of the poor. They had a lot of neat statistics and stories to back this up, but one statistic really stood out to me.

The Claim

The average lottery player spends $35.84 per month on the lottery. Dave went on to say that if you invest that $35.84 in a decent growth stock mutual fund from age 22 to age 72, you'd be a millionaire.

How funny is that? People are willing to spend $35 a month trying to become a millionaire via the lottery and only one in about a billion will succeed. If you take that same $35 a month and invest it instead, you're practically guaranteed to be a millionaire!

Checking It Out

I was a little skeptical of Dave's math, so I decided to look into his claim. Since I work for a financial services firm, I randomly chose two funds I knew had been around for 50 years, which is the number of years Dave's calculation of ages 22-72 would work out to.

I entered two American Funds into my calculator, Investment Company of America (AIVSX) and the Washington Mutual Fund (AWSHX). I tried to enter in everyone's favorite, the Vanguard 500 Index, but it's only been around for about 30 years. Also noteworthy is that AIVSX and AWSHX are actually growth and income funds, so a growth fund like Dave mentioned should perform even better!

$35/month invested for 50 years with dividends and capital gains reinvested brought AIVSX to a value of $1,079,117. Investing into AWSHX would also make you a millionaire at $1,078,581.

The Conclusion

It works! I found it to be completely amazing that a mere $35 can get you to a million dollars eventually. This information should be posted at all locations that sell lottery tickets. Do you think it would make a difference?

Saving Money on Your Wedding: Wrap-up

I've come to the end of my "Saving Money on Your Wedding" series. Today I'll mention a couple of miscellaneous ideas that I didn't cover in previous posts. I'll also link to each article in the series so that it's all in one spot.

Miscellaneous Ideas
-Keep the guest list small.
-Skip the party favors.
-Involve relatives and friends who have skills in needed areas (cake making, photography, decorating, etc.). Either pay them or let it be their wedding gift to you.
-Have your wedding on a Friday evening or Sunday afternoon.
-Make sure you get the negatives and/or the rights to your photos.
-Elope ;)

Check out this post at Unclutterer for more ideas. There are tons of them in the comments!

Do you have additional "miscellaneous" wedding-saving ideas? Leave them in the comments :)

Saving Money on Your Wedding Series
Introduction
Bridal Gowns
Bridal Accessories
Hair & Make-up
Groom's Attire
Invitations and Stationary
Flowers and Decorations
Attendant Gifts

I'm Giving Up On CVS

For the past couple of weeks, I've been checking out a lot of blogs on saving money and getting good deals on my household shopping. I've discovered that drug stores like CVS, Rite-Aid, and Walgreens can provide some nice free-after-rebate items and other good deals if you do it right.

There are a ton of Walgreens in my area, so I've been having a lot of fun finding all the freebies and other good deals at Walgreens. There are, however, no Rite-Aids in my area and only one CVS.

After reading sites like Be Thrifty Like Us, I *heart* CVS, and Money Saving Mom, I decided last month to check the local CVS out. It's on the other side of town and not very convenient for me, so I went there when I was in the area for other errands. I went in the middle of March and noticed that all of the "freebies" were gone. Not too surprising, I guess.

I went back to CVS this past Saturday because I had found out that Extra Care Bucks on Softsoap were printing early. I was able to find and buy some Softsoap and got $9.98 in Extra Care Bucks! I was pretty excited.

Today, the April freebies started. I went to CVS after work and they were completely out of everything that was a really good deal. I was pretty bummed. I guess that's what happens when you have one CVS for about 150,000 people. I used up my $9.98 in Extra Care Bucks on some groceries and went home dejected.

So, that's my story and that is why I'm giving up on CVS, for now at least. If I find out about any more good deals that are printing out before being advertised, I'll still probably head over there to pick them up. I'll stick to Walgreens, though, for my monthly fix of freebies :)

A Coupon Code Saved Us $500

Before I get into my story, I want to assure you that this is not a paid post. I am not affiliated in any way with the website I will tell you about. I'm just sharing about how I saved some cash!

I love to save money, whether it's 10 cents at the grocery store or $500 on a laptop :)

My husband has been pushing his employer for quite awhile now to get him a laptop for his work as an engineer. A few weeks ago, he was finally informed that a laptop wouldn't be supplied to him for at least a year. We discussed it and decided to buy one ourselves for my husband to use at work.

We did some research (ok, my husband did some research while I blogged on our other computer!) and decided on a Dell laptop. By the time he customized the laptop for his engineering needs, we were looking at a cost of over $1300. It was definitely more than we had planned on spending, so we decided to take a couple of days to think about it.

The following Sunday, we visited my husband's family and mentioned the laptop we were thinking about buying. My brother-in-law asked if we had checked out Got Apex?. My husband looked the website up as soon as we got home and found a deal for $500 off a Dell Vostro laptop purchase over $1249. We immediately ordered the laptop. Final price: $850!

Got Apex? is set up like a blog (does that mean it is a blog?) with each deal being it's own blog post. This makes it easy to check the site every couple of days to see what the latest deals are, as the most recent are always at the top of the page. Of course, if you do that, you run the risk of finding deals on things you don't really need :) Still, I'm very happy about saving $500 and will definitely check this site out before our next computer or electronics purchase.

Do you have a website that you always check for deals before you make a big purchase?

Saving Money on Your Wedding: Attendant Gifts

I am doing a series of posts on saving money while planning a wedding. Today I will talk about buying your attendant gifts. My total amount spent in this area was $70.

Attendant gifts is an area of weddings that I really just don't "get". Don't get me wrong, I totally understand the idea of thanking your attendants for being willing to stand up in your wedding (and spend lots of their own money doing it, in many cases). What I don't understand is who decided that all men need numerous personalized flasks and all women need multiple necklaces that they may not even like ;)

My number one recommendation for buying attendant gifts is to purchase something that you would otherwise ask them to buy/pay for as part of your wedding. For example, I paid for my bridesmaids' pedicures the day before the wedding. If we hadn't gone out together to get pedicures, I would have paid for their hair or their ($35) dresses. My husband and I decided the best gift we could give our attendants was to keep our wedding inexpensive for them to be a part of.

Another good idea is to buy them something they'll actually enjoy, the gift being different for each person (along the same lines as a birthday or Christmas gift). One of my friends gave me a lightweight backpack I'd been eying up. It was an excellent gift!

The previous two ideas focused more on getting good gifts than on saving money (though the first one will save your attendants some money). Some ideas that would save you some cash include making something personal for your attendants or giving your time as a gift. Giving time might include a day at the disc golf course or some quality time on the beach. I would suggest making a homemade certificate to give the night before the wedding and do the quality time after the wedding. This lets your attendants know that you're not planning on disappearing into the land of newlyweds after the wedding day!

I hope these ideas get your creative juices flowing :)

What is the best gift you've received for standing up in a friend's/relative's wedding? The worst?

We Got Rid of Our Escrow Account!

My husband and I are not big fans of giving companies free loans. For example, we keep our tax withholding low so that we're not giving the federal government a free loan every year. Along the same lines, our escrow account on our mortgage has always bugged us because our mortgage company gets to earn interest on our property tax money all year long instead of us. Not anymore!

For quite awhile, I had been considering refinancing to get rid of our escrow account, but our fixed interest rate is as low as, if not lower than, any current rates out there. I wasn't convinced it would make sense financially to refinance.

Then, about a month ago, I read Prime Time Money's article about Saving For and Paying Your Own Property Taxes. PT suggested that his readers try calling their current mortgage company and asking them to remove the escrow account. It sounds silly, but I had never thought of that!

I was a little skeptical about my mortgage company, Wells Fargo, being willing to give up what was for them an easy money-maker. Nonetheless, I sent them an email asking about removing our escrow account. They sent a message back saying that we could do it if we qualified and that they would only close it out via a phone call.

About two days later, I received a letter in the mail stating that we qualified to have our escrow removed! My husband called Wells Fargo and asked them to remove the account. They said we should received a check for the balance in the escrow account within a week.

A week passed and our online information still showed the escrow account. Hmmm. I sent Wells Fargo another email, to which they replied that it was "processing". I'm pretty sure that meant that they had forgotten about it because the very next day our account showed that the escrow had been removed. Woo-hoo!

I did some math on the check we should be receiving this week, and the mortgage company was keeping about a $500 "reserve" in the escrow account. The amount I need to have saved for our property taxes (and insurance) at this point in the year is about $500 less than the amount of the check we're getting. That $500 will be going right into our new siding fund.

Thanks for the idea, PT. I owe you one :)

Has the personal finance blogosphere given you an idea that was able to save you money? I'd love to hear about it in the comments or, better yet, write a blog post about it!

Saving Money on Your Wedding: Flowers and Decorations

I am doing a series of posts on saving money while planning a wedding. Today I will talk about the wedding flowers and other decorations. My total amount spent in this area was $410.

Here are some tips and ideas to save money on your wedding flowers and decorations:

-Keep it simple. This one seems obvious but can manifest itself in many ways. For example, BankerGirl is planning on buying her flowers at the local farmer's market on the morning of her wedding, which I think is an awesome idea! For my wedding, I kept all of my bouquets small and limited who got flowers.

-Skip the roses. This was a huge money saver for me. Instead of dark red roses, I had dark red carnations in my bouquet and the bridesmaids' bouquets. All of the boutineers featured one single carnation. Carnations are so cheap and nobody will even realize the roses are missing. The funny thing is, my florist still put a few roses in the bouquets and the ring surrounding the unity candle. I just didn't have to pay for them!

-Use what's there. My husband and I got married at a wedding chapel, which was already tastefully decorated. I didn't spend a single penny on decorating the chapel. Their decorations were just fine for my non-detailed, non-picky tastes!
I also didn't decorate the restaurant we had our reception at. They already had candles on all of the tables. After all, do you remember what the centerpieces looked like in the last wedding you went to?
If you're more picky than me, you should still ask your church and reception site if they have decorations available to use and see if you can make at least some of them work. It will save you decorating time and money.
You might want to also see what Make Love, Not Debt had to say on the matter.

As you can see, there are plenty of easy ways to save money on your flowers and decorations. Feel free to leave additional ideas in the comments!

Raises and Bonuses

My annual review at work was last Friday, and I was pretty happy with my raise. I got a 6% raise, which is better, percentage-wise, than any of my previous raises in the five years I've been working for my boss. I was pretty happy with that! The extra money will be going towards our siding fund, of course!

My employer also decided to add a bonus program for my position. It's based on a combination of individual performance, company profitability, and tenure. I will be getting them three times a year (providing that my company is profitable) and my first one, which I got last month, was about $300 after taxes. That went toward our 2007 ROTHs, and future bonuses will probably also go towards either retirement or savings goals.

Yay for raises and bonuses!

What's the best/worst raise you've ever received?

Getting the Best Deal on Airline Tickets

I'm fairly new to the world of buying airline tickets, and I finally have a system down. I'd love to share it with you and hear back if you know of a way to get a better price.

Step 1
About four months before a trip (provided I know about it four months in advance), I start to watch airline ticket prices for the trip I plan to take. All ticket search sites seem to find the same results, so I just use Yahoo! Travel since Yahoo! is my home page.
I keep a record of the date I checked, the price, and the airline. I'll do this at least once a week for a couple of weeks to get a feel for ticket prices on the trip I'm taking.

Step 2
I check Farecast.com. This is actually a new step for me. I just used it last week before buying plane tickets for an upcoming trip to Arizona. The site is pretty neat because it tells you whether ticket prices for your flight are likely to go up or down in the next seven days and how sure it is of that prediction. There's also a little chart that shows the ticket price history.
This website came in handy because I had been watching the price of the Arizona tickets continually go up over the past couple of weeks. Early last week, they hit a new high and I got really nervous. I checked Farecast, which told me that prices were expected to drop back down. Whew! Sure enough, three days later, ticket prices were back down to their low since I'd started recording them. I checked Farecast again, and they predicted prices would go back up. I decided it was the right time to buy!

Step 3
I went to the airline's website to order the tickets. I have yet to find a website that can give me a better price than the airline itself. It's usually exactly $5 cheaper per ticket when I buy through the airline directly. I'm assuming that $5 must be the "finder's fee" other websites get for booking flights.
I also like the sense of security I get from knowing that there's no middleman to mess things up between me and the airline.

Step 4
Last, I relax and wait for my vacation to begin!

Have you found somewhere to get a better price than directly through the airline? I'd love to hear about it!

Saving Money on Your Wedding: Invitations and Stationary

I am doing a series of posts on saving money while planning a wedding. Today I will talk about your invitations and other stationary. My total amount spent in this area was $111.82.

Here are some money-saving ideas for saving money on your wedding stationary purchases:

-Make Your Own. You can do this either by literally making your own invites and programs from scratch, or you can print your own on blank invites purchased at an office store. This works best for small weddings, but can also be done for large ones if you have the time and desire.
I did the second option. I stopped at a couple of office supply stores and at Walmart (their wedding section is actually pretty decent). I picked out the invitation that I liked, bought it, and brought it home to print on from my home computer. It was really easy to research proper invitation wording online.
The wedding programs were super-easy. They cost about $10 at Walmart and took one evening to write up and print out. You can't beat that!

-Order Online. My best friend did this. The nice part is that you can quickly and easily check multiple locations for the best price. This probably works better for a larger wedding as many websites have a minimum order requirement.
You can also combine the two above options to find an invitation online that you like and then create your own based off of the one you like. I have another friend who did this.

-Local Printer. Don't forget to check your local printer. You can even take an invitation that you find online and bring it to your printer. Ask him to beat the online price!

As you can see, you have many options for getting the perfect invitation and program without breaking the bank.

How did you do your wedding invitations? Do you think you got a good deal?

Saving Money on Your Wedding: Groom's Attire

I am doing a series of posts on saving money while planning a wedding. Today I will talk about the groom's attire. I think it's kind of humorous that it took four posts to get through the bride's attire and accessories, but I can get everything about the groom into one post! My total amount spent in this area was $120.

Groom's Attire

Men are simple creatures (no offense meant), so it's no surprise that getting them properly attired to be married is pretty simple as well.

Tuxes

Tuxes are probably the most common thing for a groom to wear to his wedding. Besides shopping around for the best price, here are some ways to save money:

-Get One Free. There are frequently promotions out there for the groom to get his tux rental for free when the groomsmen all get their rentals at the same place.

-Buy It. If a tux is only going to be worn once, it doesn't need to be high quality. You might want to check the rental cost against buying a cheap tux at JCPenney or the like.

Suits

Suits are my personal preference and what we did for our wedding. Some of the groomsmen already owned black suits, so that saved them a ton of money. We bought a cheap black suit for my husband, knowing that he would be able to use it again at a future wedding or for a job interview. We then bought matching ties for all of the men to go with our theme and the girls' dresses.

Other

Of course, the groom doesn't need to wear a tux or a suit. Feel free to break from tradition and wear something out of your closet. That wouldn't cost you a dime!

Do you have any additional tips?

The Refund We Didn't Think We'd Get

We just got a refund of $250 onto our credit card, and I have my husband to thank. Here's the story:

As I've mentioned numerous times, my husband and I went on our honeymoon last month. Since we had never done an all-inclusive resort before, we decided to use a travel agent to book our trip. The travel agent told us that there was a promotion going on where we got a $250 spa credit to use at the resort's spa. We booked the trip and signed the paperwork.
Fast forward about 5 months to my husband and I standing at the front desk of the resort (we're in our swimsuits and sandals, of course!). After talking to about four different people, we're informed that the travel agency shouldn't have told us that we had a spa credit because the promotion expired before our trip was even booked.
I was really bummed. I hadn't painted my toenails before leaving for this tropical paradise specifically because of the spa credit. I had imagined myself relaxing amid palm trees with a strawberry daiquiri in my hand and a friendly lady giving me a wonderful pedicure. Now I was stuck with old, half-worn-off nail polish for the duration of my vacation.
I hate complaining to companies and my husband doesn't mind at all, so he called the travel agent when we got home. We expected to get a lame excuse and for someone to hand us a gift certificate to use on our next expensive tropical vacation (which would be completely useless to us). The travel agent didn't sound very hopeful and wanted my husband to call the company that the trip was booked with. He let her know that she should call them on our behalf (jeez, what were we paying her for?).
We were both extremely surprised when the travel agent called a few days later and said that the company would credit our credit card $250!
Despite the travel agent coming through for us in the end, we will probably never book a trip through a travel agency again. They didn't provide us with any better information than we had access to ourselves over the internet. It was a good lesson learned.
Oh, and by the way, I plan on using a little of that refund to finally get that well-deserved pedicure :)

I'd love to hear about any travel-related lessons you've learned the hard way!

Saving Money On Your Wedding: Hair & Make-up

I am doing a series of posts on saving money while planning a wedding. Today I will talk about the bride's and bridesmaids' hair and make-up. My total amount spent in this area was $48.

Hair and Make-up

I got really lucky in this area. My future sister-in-law did my hair (Since she's a professional stylist, I paid her) and one of my bridesmaids did my make-up. Here are some tips for you:

-If you know someone who does hair or make-up, ask them. I had my future sister-in-law and a friend of one of my bridesmaids meet at a friend's house and they did everyone's hair for a really decent price.

-Ask a friend who's hair or make-up you admire. One of my bridesmaids always has perfect-looking make-up, so I asked her to do my make-up for me. This could easily also work if you have a friend who like to play with hair.

-Do it yourself. I am a huge proponent of being nice (financially) to your bridesmaids. Even if you want your own hair and make-up done professionally, you can give your bridesmaids a break and not force them to spend that extra $50-100 to get their hair done. Nobody's going to be looking at them anyway. They'll be too busy admiring you!

As always, please add more ideas in the comments!

Saving Money on Your Wedding: Bridal Accessories

I am doing a series of posts on saving money while planning a wedding. Today I will talk about bridal accessories (veil, headpiece, shoes, etc.). My total amount spent in this area was $47.38.

Bridal Accessories
This is a part of your wedding budget where you can really save a lot of money.

-Free with purchase. As I said last week, ask if the bridal shop will give you an accessory free or deeply discounted with the purchase of your wedding dress.

-Make it. If you know anyone the least bit crafty, this could work really well with a veil. Take a look at a veil at the bridal store and you can see how simple they are to make. Tulle costs only a few dollars at a craft store and you can get a comb for under $10 just about anywhere.
My mother-in-law actually made my veil out of lace from my mom's wedding dress. Not only did it turn out beautifully (take a look!), but it has a lot of sentimental value as well.

-Borrow. This works really well with veils and headpieces. I had two friends offer to lend me their veil if the one made by my mother-in-law didn't work out.

-Get out of the bridal store! These places have a huge mark-up. Check your local hobby or craft store for a bridal department. The Hobby Lobby near me had veils, combs, headpieces, and lot more for under $10 each. I ended up finding my tiara at Claire's Boutique for under $15.

-Look for shoes everywhere. A good friend of mine got the shoes for her wedding on clearance at Walmart. I've bought bridesmaid shoes at Goodwill before.

I hate to admit it, but most of my $45 spent on accessories was blown on lingerie. *blush* I'm such a sucker for Victoria's Secret!

Feel free to add your stories and tips in the comments :)

Saving Money on Your Wedding: Bridal Gowns

I am doing a series of posts on saving money while planning a wedding. Today I will talk about the bridal gown. My total amount spent in this area was $824.86, including alterations.

Bridal Gown

My biggest tip in regards to buying a wedding gown is to not let the dress shop salespeople scare you into rushing into your gown purchase. I have a friend who is currently planning a November 2008 wedding. She was in the dress shop and had found a gown she felt "so-so" about. The salespeople tried to get her to order the gown that day, saying that dresses can become discontinued at any time. She had eleven months before her wedding, and she wasn't even in love with this dress! Why on earth would she rush into ordering "just in case" the gown became discontinued?
I planned my entire wedding in 2 months. Yes, you read that right! I can tell you for a fact that you don't need to order your wedding gown eleven months before the wedding. Six months is plenty of time to get a wedding gown and have it altered and pressed. Take your time and find the right dress.

Some other money-saving tips:
-Ask to have your shoes (or veil, headpiece, etc.) thrown in for free with the purchase of your dress. These items have a really high mark-up, so the dress shop can afford to part with them if you're making a big purchase (like a wedding gown!). I got my shoes for free!
-Look at the sales and discontinued racks. I tried on two $100 clearance dresses at David's Bridal. Either would have worked well if I hadn't come across my "dream dress".
-Call around. Once you find the perfect dress, go on the dress company's website and find out all the bridal shops in the area that carry that brand. Make a few phone calls; one of them might offer you a better deal to get your business (that's how I got my free shoes).

Feel free to add additional ideas or stories in the comments!