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40 Frugal Ideas to Have Fun These Holidays

Being on holidays doesn't mean that you have to choose between fun our your budget goals. Check out these 40 Frugal Ideas to have fun on your holidays! Photo: Vicko Mozara (Unsplash)

With the holidays approaching it can be a great time of year to plan all those fun activities you’ve been wanting to do. Those ones you keep putting off because you didn’t have the time or money. Sometimes, maybe even the energy. Don’t let your holidays disappear before your eyes without feeling like you made the most of them. I’ve found that in the past, even when I’ve have a free day, it can be hard to think of fun things to do that won’t take up an entire weeks entertainment budget. All you need is a little creative thinking, you don’t have to make a choice between fun and your budget goals!

Being on a budget should not impede you from enjoying your break and having fun. When you put your mind to it, there are really a huge list of things that you can do for fun over the holidays, and they can certainly be done without spending a lot of cash! Plan ahead and rethink your entertainment options, they really are unlimited.

If you have particular interests not mentioned, this list could be even longer! Here are 40 Frugal Ideas to Have Fun These Holidays to get your started! Most of these are free or can be done with very little cost. 🙂

  1. Have a Movie marathon day/night. Select a theme such as 80s movies, or your favourite actors films. Invite friends or family over and have a poll on what to watch. 
  2. Sit down with a partner or friend and listen to an album from start to finish reading over the lyrics. In today’s world of Spotify, Netflix and Social Media, this activity really does get pushed to the back burner. 
  3. Go star gazing. Go on a road trip out of the city and watch the night sky. 
  4. Colour. Grab an adult colouring book and some pencils and get colouring. 
  5. Read a book. Start a new book or read an old favourite. 
  6. Start to learn an instrument or if you already play one, learn a new song. Learning one with a friend – even better.
  7. Cook a nice meal or learn a completely new recipe.
  8. Bake dessert or a cake. Make something special like creme brulee or waffles. 
  9. Play a video game – if you’ve got your old Wii or N64 crack it out. Invite a friend or two over. 
  10. Invite friends over for a board game night. Ask your friends to bring over one game each. Ideas include Chess, Pictionary, Monopoly, Cards Against Humanity or Uno. 
  11. Watch a documentary about a topic you are passionate about. There are stacks on Netflix to choose from.
  12. Watch a stand up comedy show, again there are heaps on  Netflix. Or better yet find a free comedy night in your city.
  13. Binge watch a new TV show that you’ve been dying to watch. 
  14. Have a picnic.
  15. Go for a walk. Drive to a new area for a change of scenery.
  16. Go out for coffee with a friend or relative.
  17. Do something artistic; draw, paint, or get crafty.
  18. Write something a poem, short story, or try your hand at writing song lyrics.
  19. Go to a local BBQ area with friends. Bring some sporting equipment and have a few games. 
  20. Attend a free local event or festival.
  21. Check out the library and read some new books.
  22. Go to a free Museum or Art Gallery you’ve been wanting to go to for ages.
  23. Take a drive to a national park for a hike or bush walk.
  24. Grab the bikes and go for a ride with your partner or friend. 
  25. Swim at the local pools or go explore a new beach. Don’t forget to check out the rock pools!  
  26. Hire a kayak for an hour and explore on water whilst getting some sun and exercise.
  27. If it’s a hot day, have a water fight. Hit up your local Kmart or cheap shop for water guns or water bombs. 
  28. Find a local pool-hall and play a few games.
  29. Check out online event guides for free (or affordable) gigs.
  30. Invite friends over for a cocktail party. Get everyone to bring a bottle of alcohol and juice/soft drinks so you can make a few different drinks.
  31. Go to a botanic garden and explore the different gardens.
  32. Take a trip to the city and bring your camera. Take photos.
  33. Try and find cool cinema playing some unique movies. A foreign film, premiere film or old fave.
  34. Check out Things To Do on Trip Advisor in your city and do what you haven’t done yet.
  35. Go camping for the weekend. Or camp in the backyard.
  36. Go to a Drive in Movie.
  37. Redecorate your home. Shop your home for decor items to freshen up your home. Bring out a new quilt cover and sheet sets, put a new photo in your frames, put on a nice smelling candle and swap your decor items around.
  38. Have a pamper night. Get in your favourite robe, make a DIY face mask & put a hair treatment in. Run a warm bath with some candles and chill out music.
  39. Teach yourself a new skill you’ve always wanted to learn. How to sew, sing, dance, take photos. Look up videos on YouTube and start learning!
  40. If you’re feeling extra motivated, get organised. Declutter the items in your home that you no longer need. Scan any old photos, or cards you want to let go of. Go through your wardrobe and cull anything you no longer wear. Tackle the kitchen cabinets and donate anything that’s not needed. You will feel amazing after all that excess is gone!

What Frugal Ideas For Fun These Holidays do you have? Share them in the comments below so we can grow this list even further 🙂

Need some tips for gift ideas this Christmas? Check out 10 Minimalist Gift Ideas that Add Value to Your Life – Not Stuff! 

Budgeting

13 Effortless Tips to Save Money on Your Travel Budget

The best part about travelling is preparing the travel budget… eh… said no one ever? Even I, a self-confessed budget-lover can feel overwhelmed trying to get the best prices and deals and attempting to not go spend-cray when we are living for the moment on holiday.

Seeing as we have just gotten back from a month in Europe I thought what better time than now to share what tips and tricks I use when travelling to stretch our travel budget.

We travel reasonably often on our own as well as on band trips and that can really add up, especially if you are not watching what you spend each time. If you are only travelling once every few years you can probably get away with going a bit all out on a hotel room, shopping trips, and fine dining on your vacation. But that’s not going to work so well for your budget when it’s a regular gig.

The cost of travel can be significantly reduced with a little bit of planning and being selective with what you will and won’t spend on, or just tweaking things ever so slightly so you don’t spend as much. Some of it starts before you have booked a thing and others are to help you maintain your goal budget once in your destination.

Check out 13 Effortless Tips to Save Money on Your Travel Budget for how you can save on your next trip!

  1. Shop around for all bookings

Shop around and consider all options when booking a holiday.

Is a hotel cheaper and better value for accommodation or would an Airbnb be better? If you’re just after a bed and shower and plan to be out all day, a hostel could be a more budget-friendly option.

Can you be more flexible with flight days? Booking a flight the day before or after you planned to or at a less convenient time might cost you some sleep but save you hundreds of dollars per ticket. For our trip to Japan, we avoided Easter long weekend dates and saved $1000 just by booking our trip 2 days later!

When booking hire cars get 2-3 quotes so you can make sure you are paying a reasonable rate.

A little effort at the start of your holiday planning can add up to huge savings.

Don’t forget to use the incognito mode in your browser in order to get the best deals on flights and accomodation!

Potential Savings: Picked Airbnb over Hotel room saving $40 a night on accomodation 

2. Book your flights and accommodation early

Book well in advance for tours, car hire, accommodation, and flights. Bookings closer to the travel date means you will end up paying more or missing out on the dates or times you want. If you need a particular travel day or time you will most likely have to pay much more for the same service than you would have if you just planned ahead.

Most accommodation sites offer free cancellation on bookings (and after 2020 I highly recommend you always choose the free cancellation option just to cover yourself!) up to a certain time depending on their terms and conditions for the place you are booking so you can often book accommodation in advance and change the booking dates without being hit with fees if you need more flexibility. Budget Traveller recommends booking flights on Tuesday to get the best flight deals.

Potential Savings: Flying on a 7.40am flight over 11am flight saving you $$$

*** Want help planning your next holiday’s budget? Grab your Travel Planner spreadsheet here. ***

3. Walk or take public transport as much as possible

Where possible on your holidays walk to places to get the most out of your travel budget. You will not only save money by skipping an Uber or taxi, get some exercise and fresh air as well as get to see more this way than if you were to drive or take a train.

If you can’t walk or the distance is a bit far, consider taking a bus, tram or train over a taxi or Uber to reduce your holiday transport costs. Look into any travel passes such as 48 or 72 hour passes that are available that might be able to save you on transport costs over the duration of your stay.

Potential Savings: Taking the train or bus $4 fare over $15 per trip taxi ride

4. Find free activities and entertainment

Travelling and sightseeing can be extremely expensive, especially when you have a lot of bucket list items to tick off. We were happy to spend on activities we really wanted to do or see and the rest of the time tried to find free forms of entertainment.

This could include exploring your destination city on foot, checking out a local park, spending some time in your resort’s pool or at the beach, visiting a free Art Gallery or Museum, checking out some local scenery or chatting to some other travelers at a bar or cafe and swapping stories.

Don’t assume everything fun or enjoyable costs money. Seek out budget-friendly activities and your travel budget will go much further without you missing out on the really awesome stuff.

Before you head off on your trip research “free things to do in ________, and insert the city and do as much of these activities as you can to stretch your travel budget further.

Potential Savings: Free museum entry over ticket entry to viewing platform $50

5. Spend your money where it counts

Following on from finding fun free activities, spend your travel budget on the things that matter to you. If you love Theatre go to a show on your trip, see a band you might not be able to see at home, or do a group tour to a site on your bucket list. By being selective with where you spend your cash, you can afford to do those really important must do activities.

Potential Savings: Guilt-free spending here to do what you really want thanks to your saving efforts elsewhere 

6. Drink less

Alcohol can be very expensive in a lot of cities around the world. A single drink can set you back $10-20 or more, particularly if you prefer fancy fruity cocktails like myself. If you are going away for a week you can probably get away with buying a few expensive cocktails with dinner, but when you are travelling for a month, that cost is going to eat away at your spending money fast.

On our most recent trip to Europe we limited drinking in the more expensive cities and stuck to going to bars in the more affordable destinations. There are only so many $14 Vodka and Oranges you can justify on a trip without eating away your travel budget.

Potential Savings: One less cocktail a day at $18, total saving of $126 for the week

7. Pack your lunch and cook occasionally

Back in 2017 we were in the Faroe Islands and Iceland and were astounded at the price of food! We thought we lived in one of the most expensive cities in the world but this was a whole new level of expensive!

On our first day in the Faroe Islands we paid $40 for two small sandwiches and two small bottles of soft drink. Ouch!

We planned to stay eleven nights out of thirty in Europe in Faroe and Iceland and knew paying such hefty food bills three times a day was going to completely blow our travel budget.

Instead of forking out $50 plus per meal, we grabbed some groceries to make breakfast at our accommodation each morning to save us buying one meal each day. We were staying at an airbnb so had some handy dandy full kitchen facilities.

We also grabbed a few ingredients to make up some sandwiches to take on the road for lunch a few of the days. A handful of nights we cooked or heated up frozen meals. It’s not something you probably need to do for a short overseas trip in an affordable location but is extremely helpful when you are planning a longer stay, particularly in the more expensive destinations where eating out day to day is going to cost a lot more than you expected.

Potential Savings: Eating breakfast at your accommodation total savings $10 to $30 per day

8. Shop less

I know a lot of people who travel plan to go shopping potentially leading to Mindless consumption. I’ve never really understood this myself, I can shop any day of the week in Sydney and don’t feel spending my time on holidays stuck inside four walls at a mall is a valuable use of my time or airfare.

Since I don’t shop on holidays unless I really need something, I not only save myself money when travelling but save myself time. Time that I would much rather use exploring a new city and country, not on finding stuff I can cram my home with.

I know you’ll say, “But Jess – I am buying things at a huge discount”… And I’ll say, “Maybe, but you just spent a small fortune on this trip to waste your time shopping and not enjoying what the destination truly has to offer?”.

That doesn’t include the nuisance of lugging around heavy, packed-to-the-brim luggage on your flights or paying excess baggage fees which seem to be getting more and more exorbitant.

Once we cut out unnecessary shopping on our holidays it meant we could afford to travel more often and didn’t need to save up a whole bunch of excess cash for spending.

Want to know how to pack minimally for your next trip. Check out these 16 Easy Tips for your next trip!

Potential Savings: Not shopping every day $100+?

9. Be selective with souvenirs

On our first couple of overseas trips we felt the need to bring home souvenirs from each place we visited. How could you show that you’d been to Thailand without a key ring to show it right?

You name it we bought it; decorative souvenir plates, key rings, snow globes (which always seem to break) and a new fridge magnet from each city. That didn’t include the souvenirs we bought back for family.

Soon enough we found ourselves running out of walls and space to house them all.  And I’ve got to be honest with you, apart from a select few displayed around our home, we never really looked at the others sitting on the shelf. We realised that we probably didn’t need all these trinkets to remember our holidays and that the majority of them were really just dust collectors. We decided to limit our souvenir collection for future trips and decided to be a little bit more creative about what we did bring home.

This past trip to NZ we limited our souvenirs to our photos, a key ring, and necklace and some jelly bellies!

We also took many photos to remember our travels. Not buying souvenirs made traveling easier as we weren’t risking going over our weight allowance and didn’t have to worry about having breakables in our bag that might get damaged in transit.

If you do find joy in souvenirs pick one or two you would love to display in your home from your destination but just keep in mind if you do love to travel these are going to add up over time.

Potential Savings: Limiting souvenirs $50-100+

10. Pack thoughtfully

By bringing what you need you can reduce the money you spend at your destination and help your travel budget. Unless you do your research, some destinations can really set you back for things you can buy affordably at home.

I lost one of my gloves in Iceland and the cheapest pair I could find as a replacement was $40. I left my raincoat at home due to limited space in our luggage thinking my umbrella would be fine, and after realising that umbrellas are redundant for Faroe Island weather, the cheapest raincoat at my destination that I could find was around $150 AUD.

A simple solution to packing thoughtfully is keeping a travel checklist. This can help you to remember all the important things you will need for your trip and save you buying them! Packing a Capsule Wardrobe can go a long way to covering you for all your clothing needs on your holiday.

Potential Savings: The cost of buying clothes etc $20+

11. Utilise Free WIFI

Save money on your travel budget by taking advantage of free WIFI. Buying a sim at each of your destinations can add up. For most of our destinations in Europe, we got away with using our Airbnb’s or hotels WIFI and Free WIFI in cafes. Downloading Google Maps of our destinations also really helped us to access the maps we needed whilst out and about.

Whilst you are there be sure to download things you want to stream, listen to on Spotify or Apple Music, or Audible books to keep you entertained when you don’t have access to wifi.

Potential Savings: Buying a different sim for each country you are visiting

11. Keep your mind open to alternative tourist attractions

Consider alternative options, outside of main tourist areas to help your travel budget go further.

In Iceland, we realised that we’d left it too late to book the Blue Lagoon Pools. We decided rather than going at night we’d try and find another Geothermal pool on our road trip. We found one on our route that ended up only costing $80 for both of us versus the $200 + it would have cost had we booked at the Blue Lagoon. It ended up being a very similar experience and meant we had saved a fair wad of cash for more adventures!

Potential Savings: Picking a lesser known tourist attraction for a similar but more affordable one without the crowds $100

12. Shop around for your travel card

If you plan to use a travel card, know that they can charge a range of fees and eat into your spending money. After purchase fees, reload fees, currency conversion fees, ATM fees, and the like, they can quickly eat up your travel budget.

When shopping around be sure to compare as many options on the market. A good starting point is Choice’s Travel Money Card comparison but be sure to check the card’s website before deciding to ensure you have the most up-to-date information.

A good starting point is to find a card that has no purchase or reload fees (fees to add money to your card), and ideally one with a low currency conversion charge or none at all, and no ATM fees.

Some cards allow you to earn points as you spend. Or if it’s less hassle, take your bank card with you, just be sure to do your research on whether you can use the card at your travel destination and check out the fees associated with using your card. On my most recent trip, I bought my bank card along which waived all overseas transaction fees which saved me some $$$$!

Potential Savings: $5 ATM fees per withdrawal, reload fees, conversion fees, international transaction fees.

13. Set a daily budget before you leave for your holiday

Don’t wait to arrive at your destination to think about the travel budget. Before we left for our trip we set a daily budget and converted that amount in each currency we needed based on how many days we were staying in each. This gave us a stopping point so we could visibly see when we were nearing the end of our budgeted spending money.

If you are budgeting $150 a day as a couple and staying somewhere for two weeks, only convert $2100 in spending money. If you need more you can always add more later, but that limit will help set you a travel spend budget boundary that will help you to know whether you are within your travel budget or over, so that you can adjust your spending accordingly.

It’s best to research the cost of local restaurants, transport etc from travel bloggers or ask a friend who has been before to get an idea of what you should be budgeting.

Potential Savings: Sticking to your $150 a day travel budget rather than not having one and ending up spending $200 a day or $500 extra than planned over a week

How do you travel on a budget? What are your tips for stretching your dollar further whilst still having an amazing, fun holiday? Share your tips in the comments below 🙂

Want more tips on how to save money for your next trip? Check out these 10 Easy Tips to Save Money on Your Groceries! 

Budgeting

How We Planned a Debt Free Wedding

Going into debt for your wedding shouldnt't be on the table. Check out how we planned a debt free wedding and how you can too.

You’re newly engaged and starting to make plans for your upcoming wedding. What an exciting time! The sad reality is that weddings are expensive. Most likely, more than you imagine they cost. Soon enough you hear through the distant bells chiming and realise that this is going to take some financial juggling and severe budget savvy-ness. But there is a way to plan for a debt free wedding and avoid any financial hangovers with a little forward thinking!I remember about a week after getting engaged to my now husband, I was asking my friend who was planning his wedding at the time, how much things are going to cost. He told me his entire budget was nearing the $30k mark. I began sinking in my chair. How on Earth could one day cost $30k?! Sure enough we soon realised that figure was pretty realistic for an average wedding.Money Smart’s 2014 report on wedding costs estimates an average Australian wedding will set you back $36,200, that’s closer to $40,000 in 2017 with 3% inflation. Soon enough my naive, newly engaged hopeful eyes were opened to the financial realities of planning a wedding.

I certainly felt a tad unsure and concerned at this point. I’ve always loved working on budgets, but this was a whole new world of financial challenges. My husband (to be) and I knew we were going to be paying for our wedding ourselves as our parents weren’t in a position to help out too significantly financially. Going into debt wasn’t an option in our minds and didn’t align with our values of avoiding debt (and certainly not for non-asset purchases!).

I had heard of people trying to pay off their wedding debt post the big day and I didn’t that to be us. I was determined to find a way to have a debt free wedding, our perfect day to remember for years to come, without the debt to remind us!

We got engaged in January and set the date for September the following year which gave us 19 months to save. Let me tell you we needed all 19 of those months and every spare dollar!

The good news is that we managed to pay it all in cash. Completely Debt Free! And you can too! And a debt free wedding is still possible even if you don’t have a long engagement to save like we did.

Read below for How We Planned a Debt Free Wedding.

SAVING FOR THE BIG DAY

If you aren’t saving now then you need to start today! Remit Sethi, author of I Will Teach You to Be Rich goes even further by suggesting that people who plan to get married one day and looking at a $28000 average wedding cost should each save about $3,000 per year, or $250 a month from when you turn 21. At 21 I was certainly not thinking about saving for a wedding but in hindsight, even a small amount each week would have helped out a lot when I got married at 27.

If you have left saving for a wedding until the engagement, you will need to work out what your expenses are in a month and what you can afford to save towards the wedding. This will need to go into a separate wedding savings account.

Determined to plan a debt free wedding, for 19 months, all of our non-wedding spending was on hold. Not off indefinitely by any means!  We still went out occasionally for our sanity, but there were no holidays, shopping sprees, non-urgent home repairs, new cars, new TVs, new clothes (other than things we needed of course). All spending came to a halt and every spare dollar we could find from savings – pay rises, bonuses anything we could think of, went to the wedding savings fund to fund our debt free wedding goals. I remember in that entire 19 months we took one 3 days weekend trip up the coast and that was it which wasn’t easy for two lovers of travel. But looking back, it was worth the struggle.

FINDING EXTRA CASH

Consider ways that you can bring some extra cash to help boost your savings and help you achieve your debt free wedding.

  • Do you have unwanted clothes or clutter that you could sell? This can bring in some fast easy cash and clear up some of your crap.
  • Can you pick up some overtime at work?
  • Can you do a side hustle if you have the time. Drive for uber, sell your arts, crafts, or designs. Advertise some work to do locally like gardening.
  • Save any pay raises instead of adding them into your spending budget.
  • Reduce your eating out budget and cook at home more often.
  • Change expensive nights out at bars with friends to dinner parties at home.
  • Shop your wardrobe instead of going out shopping and spending unnessessarily.

YOUR DEBT FREE WEDDING BUDGET

Before you spend any money on anything and ensure you can plan the entire wedding debt free, start by preparing a budget of all the wedding expenses. Refer to this one below for an idea (this is read only, save a copy on your drive to edit).

Include all clothing, jewellery, accommodation, cars etc. Work out a rough budget and talk with your wife or husband to be about what are the most important things to you both.

You can research online or ask a friend who got married recently for an estimate of pricing for different expenses. Some suppliers advertise their prices online which is a good place to start, others you can get a quote after a quick email. Plot out the budget estimates into your wedding budget as a starting point. As you fill in more accurate number you will see whether you are in or over budget and you can adjust it from there. The more expenses you add in the better. Don’t forget all the little things; postage, flutes, gifts for the bridal party and so on.

Updating your budget regularly is the key to planning a debt free wedding so you can ensure you haven’t left anything out. Record every expense as soon as you can after receiving the invoice. Forgetting to enter a cost into your budget can cause you to have budget blow outs or lose your reservation when it is left unpaid. As soon as you get the email or receipt put it somewhere safe and enter it into your budget!

HOW MUCH WILL I NEED TO SAVE?

Once you have a ball park of all the expenses work out how much you will need to save each month up until the day. If you are budgeting $20k for a wedding in 12 months you need to be saving $1667 a month for the wedding. Once you have your figure you will need to decide can we afford to save this month each month. If not you can either push back the wedding day or cut expenditure so you can put more money away to meet the required saving amount.

Don’t leave this too late when your wedding is a couple of months away, and everyone has booked their flights and accommodation and you have to go into debt to pay the difference. It’s really important to get this figure and save the required amount from the get go.

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HOW TO SAVE ON WEDDING COSTS

These are the things I did in order to save as much money as possible for our wedding. I do not what to think of what we would have paid had I not taken the time and effort to research multiple suppliers and get the best deals we could. We did a lot of the below tips and friends and family have saved on their weddings with others.

  1. Get multiple quotes

For practically every wedding expense I got 3 quotes, sometimes more. This was no easy feat and time consuming but is going to be a huge help to your budget and potentially save you thousands!

Quotes can range significantly and getting three or four can usually give you a ball park of what is at the budget end and what isn’t. This is a must particularly for big ticket items like the venue, cars and photographers. I looked into at least 10 reception venue’s and prepared a spreadsheet of the inclusions they offered and compared the prices to inclusions which ranged from $90 to $150 per person. When you multiply a saving of $60 by 50 guests or more the savings add up quickly!

Be aware that cheapest is not always best. I didn’t go with the cheapest videographer I found because the quality of work was no where near that of the more expensive supplier. Sometimes it is worth paying more on a professional than throwing away half the money on something inferior.

2. Pick a date further out to give you more time to save and bargain hunt

The longer your engagement the longer you can save. If you want all the bells and whistles of your dream wedding in six months time you are going to find saving up in time a complete struggle. picking a date further out gives you more time to save and bargain shop!

Once you have worked out all your wedding expenses budget, work out how much you need to save and what you can save each month as early as possible. If you can’t afford to save enough you are going to have to tighten those purse strings. It is not going to be easy but will be worth it to know you can enjoy your day and not have to worry about any debt afterwards.

3. DIY as much as you can

Skip the extras that you can do yourself like printing names on the invitation envelopes- pen will do just fine, bow tying etc and invite some close friends over for a night of crafts. These little expenses can add up when they a multiplied for each guest. I saved myself $5 per RSVP card plus postage by just requesting a text message RSVP instead of ordering cards. If you are going to do this you need to update your RSVP list regularly.

4. Work out what are your must have items

For us it was the stuff that we would look back on for years the photography, the rings, the wedding album. This is where we spend on quality. For everything else that is less important and you are willing to save on, this is where you need to find your savings.

We opted to only have flowers for the bride and bridesmaids bouquets and didn’t bother with any others other than some orchids for the reception centerpieces. Besides, our wedding was in a garden we didn’t need any extra flowers 😉 If you can buy flowers from the local market the day before or ask a friend or family to help out on the day. This alone can save you hundreds. I know some brides who have done this and the bouquets are just as lovely (and not so heavy which is a bonus ladies!).

We skipped the fancy ceremony set up and just opted for some chairs and a carpet. We could have spent big on an archway and aisle liners, and flowers for the aisle chairs but decided that the garden and water features were beautiful enough without all that excess stuff.

 

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5. Ask around for any friends or family that can help you out

We are musicians so are fortunate to have many musicians as friends. A friend played harp at our ceremony and my husbands band did an acoustic cover of a song for entertainment at the reception. Do you know anyone that can make your cake, or do your hair or make-up for a discounted rate or in place of a gift?

Did anyone have a wedding recently that would be willing to lend you their decorations or know of any great supplier offers? Save where you can. I got my flowers delivered to my brothers house so we could save $50 on long-distance delivery. Any small help goes a long way!

This also goes for the venue. Ask your reception what vases and decorations they can provide to save you buying them.

6. Consider buying the dress second hand or off the rack

Shop around for the dress, aim for the perfect dress that you won’t have to go into debt for. On my wedding dress shopping day I saw other brides trying on expensive dresses with their mums looking like they were starting to sweat. If a $5000 dress is completely out of the budget don’t even try it on, you are asking for pain! Stick to your budget!

A great time to shop is at EOY sales around June 30. I bought mine off the rack with a 50% discount saving me over $1000.

Check out pre-loved wedding treasures facebook groups or eBay for second hand dresses to save!

7. Shop around for wedding dress alterations

These can range significantly and cost upwards of $500 very quickly. My first quote from the store I bought my dress from was for $500 not including what I ended up getting done. Get at least three quotes here! By doing this I managed to save hundreds of dollars by going to a local alteration place that specialised in formal and wedding dresses which worked out much more convenient travel-wise.

8. Opt for a smaller cake.

A friend was kind enough to give us this advice after his own wedding when he was left with half a cake – a very expensive one at that. We opted for a two tier cake and still had about half left over from 80 guests. Even after giving a lot away to family a lot ended up in the bin (Shock horror but it sat taking up space we didn’t have in our freezer for a few months and after agreeing we were not cake people we just wanted it gone).

If you are having wedding cake, if your venue allows it consider skipping the dessert to save some extra cash. We paid for both and most people only had one or the other.

9. Consider skipping the DJ and MC

If a DJ and MC aren’t included in your package consider asking a friend to bring their laptop and speakers and be your DJ for the night as their gift to you. We did this for a friend of ours recently and were happy to help them out. With a playlist you only need to check the laptop occasionally and be there to que a few of the main songs.

Sometimes the personal touch of a family or friend as MC can add to the night and save your money. If you have an extroverted friend this might be a good choice 🙂

10. Have a wishing well

If you feel comfortable with the idea, I highly recommend having a wishing well in place of a gift registration. Let’s face it do we need a second toaster and and a new set of towels that don’t go with what you already have? We were living in our home for three years before we got married and had everything we needed.

Rather than getting more unnecessary stuff that you don’t have room for, consider asking guests if they are happy to, to donate to your honeymoon fund so you can create memories with their gift. Some people may still opt to give you a gift they picked but in our experience most people were happy to accommodate our wishes.

We asked guests to donate money to our European honeymoon and some opted to give us Euros and Pounds which was greatly appreciated.

If parents are buying you are gift, ask if they would mind paying for something for the wedding – the photographer, the celebrant or cake. Every little contribution helps and will be something you can appreciate for years to come!

11. Ask whether your reception location offers discounts for weekdays

Weekday wedding can be significantly cheaper. Fridays and Sundays can also be cheaper than Saturdays as an alternative to weekdays. We managed to save almost 10%  or about $1000 off the wedding reception bill by booking our wedding on a Sunday instead of a Friday or Saturday night. It happened to be our actual anniversary so for us it was perfect.

12. Limit your guest list

Unfortunately there is no easy way to do this but if you are paying for your own wedding and don’t want to be saddled with the wedding debt for the early years of your marriage you are going to have to stick to a numbers limit. If your parents insist on inviting extra people that aren’t on your list, ask them to pay the cost of their guests attendance.

Work out what you can afford and stick to that number. If some people RSVP that they can’t make it, you can then potentially invite others that you had hoped you could but just couldn’t budget for in the original list.

Try not to get caught up in offending people. It is not worth going into debt to avoid potentially offending people not invited who most likely completely understand how expensive and difficult wedding guest lists are. If you are really stuck, consider inviting guests to the ceremony only and keeping the reception for close friends and family.

12. Consider a more minimalist wedding

I recently went to a very minimalist wedding and it was no less special than any others I had been to and a lovely relaxing day. Work out what you can do without. Can you use a current suit (or buy one that you can wear again after the wedding)? Can you find an affordable dress off eBay (check feedback first of course!)? Do you have some heels you could wear instead of forking out for new ones? Do you need the pricey photo album or can you put one together yourself (we did this saving us $1000 or  more!)? Check out How Minimalism has Helped Me Find Financial Stability and how it can help you stick to a budget leading up to your wedding.

Work out what are the must haves for you and your partner and agree on what you are willing to go without. We didn’t bother with expensive add on centerpieces that can cost hundreds and instead we went for some orchids in vases with water for under $80 in total. Sometimes less is more 🙂

13. Find ways to save on bridal party costs 

This is particularly helpful if you have a large bridal party. Instead of buying the bridal party dresses and matching suits consider asking them what item they already have that they could wear. Maybe they already have a dress or shirt in the colour scheme you are after and can mix and match. This can look really amazing in photographs and potentially save you a lot of money if you are planning to buy the outfits. Again look at buying these outfits around the sales periods like end of financial year.

14. Keep your venue options open

Picking the most higher demand venues means you are going to pay much more. We were looking at $120+ per head costs for a wedding venue in Sydney without any inclusions. On the suggestion of a friend (Steve, you are the greatest!) we looked at a coastal location 100kms away and managed to find a beachfront venue for under $100 a head that was just what we wanted! That decision alone saved us thousands and more importantly meant we could invite more of our close friends and family!

15. Set realistic expectations and do what is right for you.

It is your special day and you only get one of them.  At the end of the day ask yourself how much you are willing to spend from your budget on one day. Weddings cost an exorbitant amount of money and there is a lot of pressure to conform to friends or families expectations of what it should be.

Less flashy wedding are no less special than their pricey counterparts! It is about two people coming together to start their lives together not about how expensive the car was that you hired or how many swarovsky crystals were on your dress. No one is going to judge you for wearing a $200 dress, or getting your bouquet from the markets or wearing shoes that aren’t new. If anyone does they probably aren’t your friend (and surely not paying the for wedding :p).

If you want to elope with a couple of people around or have a destination wedding and limit your guest list, go with what is important to you. At the end of the day it is your wedding and your happiness should be paramount.

16. Don’t overspend on the invitations

I had no idea how expensive invitations got! They can range for a couple of dollars each to $20 or more. When you are buying them for 100 or more guests this adds up quickly. Let’s be honest, sure the fancy ones will look amazing, but people just open them, and chuck them on the fridge or in a drawer. No one else cares if they were the $5 or $30 ones. At the end of the day a good invitation gives guests the details they need to attend your wedding. The $5 ones will do this just find. Save your cash and spend it on the photography or honeymoon!

17. Quality is not something to skimp on.

Don’t skimp on the irreplaceable stuff! It is important to balance budget services with quality.

I’ve heard horror stories from people where friends or family were asked to take photographs for the wedding to save money. This can often end in disaster. Your wedding day is a one time thing, if you are going to spend your budget anywhere I would put photography to the top of that list and invest in a professional photographer with a great portfolio. You can never retake those photos. You can still get to the wedding in a Camry. You can still have a good day with a friend as a DJ but you cannot fix a bad photographer.

Our celebrant was not the cheapest, but we met her at a friends wedding and loved how relaxed she made the ceremony and how friendly she was. We hired her and paid a fee for her to travel long distance. Despite the higher cost than other celebrants were charging she was available to help us with an unlimited amount of questions and made us feel comfortable and sometimes that is more important.

We hired a venue for our wedding over a DIY hall option, which was the more expensive option. At the end of the day it was worth every penny to not stress on the night and to have professionals on the floor making sure by any means we were having a good time and had nothing to stress about. To hire a hall we would have had to book caterers, cutlery, table cloths, decorations with all the added stress that comes with that. This was definitely something where we opted for quality over budget but found a way to still save by picking a Sunday night and choosing a location that was not in the city.

Want more money saving tips? Check out How an Organised Space Can Save You Money 

AFTER THE WEDDING

Congratulations! If you have managed to plan a debt free wedding, you have given yourself a leg up in your financial future. Now let’s keep those financial wins going!

After the wedding can be a good time to claw back some of the money you paid out. Can you sell your wedding dress, shoes or jewellery if they are something you won’t wear again on pre-loved wedding treasure sites? Can you sell your decorations, vases, lolly bar supplies, excess stationery etc that you no longer need on eBay? Did you buy a wishing well that will just sit there collecting dust? Find someone else who needs it. Consider with your new found freed up time creating your own wedding album online instead of paying thousands for the photographers one. This can help to get back a small amount of your cash after the wedding.

I hope these tips will help you plan a debt free wedding and give you the day of your dreams within your budget.

Did you plan a debt free wedding? How did you save money with your wedding? Please comment below with your tips with other soon-to-be-wed Minimisers! Don’t forget to share this with anyone who is planning a wedding 🙂

 

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