Thursday Trim the Trash Time: June 8, 2017
Weddings
Welcome back to my weekly budget cutting post called “Thursday Trim the Trash Time.” Today’s victim is another one that might rub you the wrong way. I will start off by saying sorry to all the ladies out there, but weddings are a massive waste of money. When I think of all the things needed to have a full functioning wedding it boggles my mind. The venue, catering, photography, DJ, the dress, the tux, it just never ends. It is not completely uncommon for weddings to run up to $30,000. Cough, cough….are you kidding me? I can think of at least 50 better ways to spend 30 G’s. In this post, I am going to come up with 3 alternatives to the fancy, 7-course dinner, and wastes of your hard earned money weddings.
1) Elope
Now eloping does cost money, but definitely not as much as a traditional wedding. You and your partner can go away for under 5K if you really plan it out. Some resorts will even reward you for having your wedding there. It also doubles as the honeymoon so no need to waste money on that. Think of the savings on wedding attire as well! Khaki pants and white dress shirt with Ray-Bans for him and a cute sundress for her. Boom, $200 bucks! I hear you already: But what about all my friends? Your true friends will make it and if they don’t its completely understandable. You can’t really get that mad at them, it is a lot to ask. The friends that do make it will be so happy to be there. You will also make a ton of new friends on the resort. Invite everyone you meet to your wedding and watch they will show. It will honestly be a blast and you won’t regret it. My kind of party!
2) City Hall
My Parents got married at City Hall in downtown Brampton, Ontario. That was over 30 years ago and guess what, they are still together. They own a beautiful home in the country together and raised 2 kids together. I guess starting it off on the wrong foot with no big fancy wedding really hurt in the long run. They got the rings, good enough. Back to work on Monday baby. These days they spend their time at their 7 acre home relaxing and enjoying themselves. What did they do with that money they could have spent on a wedding? They were stupid and bought their first home. Weird eh?
3) Ummmm, just don’t get married?
With over 50% of marriages ending in divorce, does marriage really mean that much anyway? Okay please don’t hate me, I’m coming from a place of love, love for your money in your pocket. We have basically stripped away all the religious and social aspects of the necessity of marriage anyway. I think a more valuable ceremony would be a 25-year anniversary celebration. Imagine the great party you can throw and everyone will pretty much know that you will stay together. The good thing is that all your friends will be older and probably more successful than when you were younger, so the gifts will be amazing. It’s a win-win. If you had kids together early on they will be out of the house as well. Then you can really let loose.
I know this post kind of sucks, but let’s be honest, I’m kind of right. Seriously, even just partially right. It is really hard for me to justify spending a ton of money on a wedding when I don’t have many of the things I want and need in life. Many others seem to be able to make this justification easily. You wouldn’t believe how many people I have met that are blowing absurd amounts of money on weddings and still have other debts. I will end this post on this note: I am not saying don’t get married, sort of. What I am saying is make sure you plan it very carefully. Look for ways to save. Don’t rush into it. Take care of other more pressing priorities first. Waiting a year to save or pay off other debts won’t kill you. Hell, you might even be single by then anyway.
Thanks for reading my post today and you can direct your hate mail to joe@budgetboss.ca. Tune in tomorrow for my final reflection on the week. Take care of yourself, and each other.
“When people divorce, it’s always such a tragedy. At the same time, if people stay together it can be even worse.” – Monica Bellucci
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Joseph James Francis is a Financial Advisor. You can find him on various social media platforms and at budgetboss.ca.