There's still time to elope and pocket the difference
November 4, 2013 12:18 PM Subscribe
It's time for us to start spending money for our wedding. How do we do this?
We’re in the midst of wedding planning and we’ve reached the point where we need to start spending some serious cash. Right now we have roughly $15k earmarked for wedding expenses with more expected within the month and I have some questions about how to properly manage the money.
It seems like the most obvious thing to do is open a joint savings account, deposit all weddings funds into there and handle expenses via check / debit card. I would also like to get some kind of credit card that offers rewards or cash back for smaller purchases. I don’t expect to rack up a ton of rewards but something is better than nothing.
We already have a budget with estimated costs and I plan on updating that with actual costs once we cross things off our lists.
Does this sound like a smart plan? Is there a better way to do it? Are we missing anything important?
We’re in the midst of wedding planning and we’ve reached the point where we need to start spending some serious cash. Right now we have roughly $15k earmarked for wedding expenses with more expected within the month and I have some questions about how to properly manage the money.
It seems like the most obvious thing to do is open a joint savings account, deposit all weddings funds into there and handle expenses via check / debit card. I would also like to get some kind of credit card that offers rewards or cash back for smaller purchases. I don’t expect to rack up a ton of rewards but something is better than nothing.
We already have a budget with estimated costs and I plan on updating that with actual costs once we cross things off our lists.
Does this sound like a smart plan? Is there a better way to do it? Are we missing anything important?
read "if you've got the credit" with "If you've got the credit ability". We used a charge card with rewards, not a credit card - none of the wedding/honeymoon debt was held over on an interest bearing credit card, but we were coming off the not too horrible bounce of the end of the Clinton era.
posted by tilde at 1:27 PM on November 4, 2013
posted by tilde at 1:27 PM on November 4, 2013
I am already an avid budgeter, so the bookkeeping part is not a problem. I also have the good rewards credit card. So everything is getting put on my card, and I write the checks for everything. I keep a running total of how much my partner owes me since we have separate finances. Once in a while, he buys something expensive for me (at my request) or writes me a check to bring the balance back to zero. (We are also currently doing the same thing holiday gifts, so our plan is just to "zero out" his account after the holidays/wedding/everything.
posted by ethidda at 1:59 PM on November 4, 2013
posted by ethidda at 1:59 PM on November 4, 2013
we're at exactly the same place as you in our wedding planning. we have a joint account where we put all the wedding money, (and it also happens to be our general joint account - we each put the same amount in there each month to cover rent and groceries and other things we buy together, and temporary savings before we invest it). of course we still have our own accounts, but it is fun and couple-y to buy stuff with that account - we use it for pretty much everything (flights, groceries, house stuff, wedding paraphernalia, eating out...)
when we have to pay for things, we just use that account - so for instance, we just paid for the venue on our joint debit card (we each have one so it's not a hassle). if the flower people (or whoever) need a credit card for some reason, we just use one of ours and then transfer the money over.
we don't have a specific card for rewards for the wedding but that sounds like a smart idea. (our budget is a bit smaller than yours. i hope.)
i wouldn't try to keep the money separate and figure it out at the end, but that's because i am not organized like that and i would feel anxious that one of us was paying way way more than the other one, and that feels bad to me.
posted by andreapandrea at 5:39 PM on November 4, 2013
when we have to pay for things, we just use that account - so for instance, we just paid for the venue on our joint debit card (we each have one so it's not a hassle). if the flower people (or whoever) need a credit card for some reason, we just use one of ours and then transfer the money over.
we don't have a specific card for rewards for the wedding but that sounds like a smart idea. (our budget is a bit smaller than yours. i hope.)
i wouldn't try to keep the money separate and figure it out at the end, but that's because i am not organized like that and i would feel anxious that one of us was paying way way more than the other one, and that feels bad to me.
posted by andreapandrea at 5:39 PM on November 4, 2013
I just got married last month. There's still time to elope!
We have not yet commingled our finances for reasons of laziness and lack of necessity, though we've been adding each other as joint owner and lately working on refinancing paperwork to get me on the mortgage.
I had significant savings in cash and used it for the wedding/honeymoon. As I handled the lion's share of the planning, I wrote most of the checks and moved money around as needed between savings and checking. I also used a new credit card with rewards (the Amazon card) and paid it off every month. It worked out very well. When he did have to pay for some things, it mostly came out of his own savings and I did not reimburse him because they were mostly incidental.
I had the cash and he had several years' of equity in a beautiful house. He gets a wedding and a honeymoon, and I get half the house. So it was a wash, financially. How we'll handle things going forward, I don't know yet.
We leave for the honeymoon on Saturday. Good luck with planning!
posted by aabbbiee at 8:52 AM on November 5, 2013
We have not yet commingled our finances for reasons of laziness and lack of necessity, though we've been adding each other as joint owner and lately working on refinancing paperwork to get me on the mortgage.
I had significant savings in cash and used it for the wedding/honeymoon. As I handled the lion's share of the planning, I wrote most of the checks and moved money around as needed between savings and checking. I also used a new credit card with rewards (the Amazon card) and paid it off every month. It worked out very well. When he did have to pay for some things, it mostly came out of his own savings and I did not reimburse him because they were mostly incidental.
I had the cash and he had several years' of equity in a beautiful house. He gets a wedding and a honeymoon, and I get half the house. So it was a wash, financially. How we'll handle things going forward, I don't know yet.
We leave for the honeymoon on Saturday. Good luck with planning!
posted by aabbbiee at 8:52 AM on November 5, 2013
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If you've not co mingled the accounts yet, it's a great way to get started.
Be advised that "rewards" don't come from nowhere - higher fees in some cases are charged to the merchants, etc. With local or small vendors we stuck to checks.
Another aspect of a joint account is you can put wedding gift money in there, and eventually start putting in some paycheck money and build the household revolving fund out of it.
What does future spouse want to do? How does this roll into previous discussions on handling household finances? Are you on the same page of how much to spend for both the whole wedding plus overage, and how to handle post-marriage finances?
Been comingled about a dozen years and pretty much just have joint accounts at this point, except for retirement accounts and my paypal-tied Ally account that I also deposit "found money" in for saving.
posted by tilde at 1:07 PM on November 4, 2013