Mid Month Accountability

I'm half way through the first month of a real budget. I'm still on budget, and that makes me really happy. It's not exactly the easiest thing, but it's not too difficult either. I sent my budget planner excel to my coworker and fiance, who both said they really like it. I find that I keep wanting to buy books and magazines, that's my vice it seems. I think my groceries budget can be cut in half, might be on the list of things to do for February. Unfortunately, my car is having some problems so I might have to reconfigure my budget entirely. I'm thinking I can change expenses around to afford a car note and better insurance, but I'll get to that if I have to. Hopefully my car will survive until at least May. This is what I'm looking like mid month:

Groceries - $161 left from $200
Wedding Fund - $250 left to save from $300 (contract with location was $50)
Extra - $36 left from $100

The Extra funds have been spent on:
Books - $25.40 (Not bad!)
Going Out - $22.91 (Not bad either!)
Random - $15.49

I'm thinking what we're going to do for our wedding expenses is create a separate joint account that is only used for wedding expenses, clearly. Every month the money we save can be switched to that account and it will create a better way to keep track of the wedding expenses and see exactly where we are at.

Do What You Want

"so you were born in an electrical storm, took a bite out the sun saw your future in a machine built for two now your rays make me kind of go crazy"

Offbeat wedding planning at it's finest happening today. We've slowed down quite a bit after we booked our place, because we really do have a lot of time between now and then. I am beyond proud of my engagement photo ideas. Those sweet, standard pictures in some random location are great....but I'm planning a mad tea party. That's right, a Mad Tea Party. We both like Alice in Wonderland; Alice in Wonderland is my "thing." The books are a riot to read, I've been to Oxford and admired everything related to Alice, and I have a ridiculous amount of things I bought at Alice's shop. What could be more fun than Mad Tea Party engagement photos this spring!? I never seen such a thing and I can't wait. The idea and inspiration came from this photo:

Six Years

I have been together with my fiance six years this week. The time has flew by and it's hard to wrap my head around meeting in high school to planning a wedding now. On our six year anniversary we officially picked a wedding date and booked our location. It was all a little surreal, but an evening at the local Italian place cleared a little of that away. A glass of wine, some amazing pasta, and tiramisu can cure any ailment.

I got the Miss Dior perfume on our anniversary and I feel the need to tell you how great this perfume smells! I don't like a lot of perfumes, because they very often give me a headache they're so strong. On the flipside the bath and body works type perfumes never last more then an hour or two which is frustrating. This perfume lasts ALL day and is wonderfully subtle. It's sweet, but has a sort of spicy hint. I'm in love with it and the bottle is rather cute.

No body is gonna rain on my parade

I'm sure most couples deal with some sort of family complication in their wedding planning. I don't mean to turn this blog into some sort of wedding blog only, but I can only think this type of situation comes up consistently.
My family and I have never really seen eye to eye and I've always accepted that in a sense. Currently my mother and I are in a bit of a disagreement regarding my wedding. The wedding ceremony and celebrating with my family and friends means a lot to me. I am spending a good deal of my money on the ceremony and reception, my hard earned personal money. My mother feels I should do this as cheaply as possible and take of on some extravagant honeymoon. Both of these viewpoint I think are okay, but it's extraordinarily irritating to have someone else's will imposed on your wedding. It's all those random comments and sideways glances. My mother decided she didn't want to go with me to a bridal expo because we already went to one. She's under the assumption that we won't use anyone from this region, and she is mistaken on that, well she never really asked. I figure, how many times does one get to go to bridal expos? And a photographer we're interested in is going to be there, a perfect chatting opportunity.
So my question is what is better? A great ceremony and reception for ourselves, friends, and family and being indifferent about a honeymoon as long as we're happy and together, or going cheaply and having some crazy honeymoon who knows where?

My year without spending!

It's 2010 and it's back to work and real life. I went to my first Bridal Expo yesterday and that really blew my mind. I know weddings can be a pretty penny, but having to numbers in front of me made quite the impact. Especially considering a lot of this wedding is being payed for by me. I make more money than my fiance at the moment, he finishes his Masters in December and hopefully then will be making much more money than me. My family does not have a lot of extra money, so the pressure is on! The best thing was that the expo was at the place I have my heart set on for our wedding. I was at this place on nearly a weekly basis as I grew up and it really holds a special place in my heart. We had one of our first dates there and got engaged there as well!
I got a really good idea of what this is going to cost and I had a fair amount of planning to make sure I can afford it. At the moment I can, I can make my dream wedding happen, paying for it myself on a public servant's salary. I needed to ask myself what I really wanted. Did I want a wedding very cheaply and continue buying random stuff that I like, or did I want the wedding that expresses who we are as a couple and what we value. I don't need the things I've been buying recently. I don't even know what I blew my money on the past six months, but it's ending now. I am making this wedding happen; I only plan to do this once.

This is really turning into my year without spending. My first full year having a job in education, my year without spending, and my year appreciating what I have is what 2010 is turning into. I'm comfortable with that. I've never had an opportunity to save money like I can now and I am kinda looking forward to doing this.

This is the budget:
(Continuous)
Rent- 300
Cable - 60
Prescriptions - 30
Car Insurance - 40
Health Insurance - 145
Student Loans - 200
Groceries - 200
Gym - 31
Extra - 100

January through May
Credit Cards - 300 for 5 months than credit card debt free
Wedding Savings - 300 for 5 months

May through December
Wedding Savings - 500



Pretty Tough, but this is worth it: