How to Save Money On Your Wedding Reception

1) Ask your caterer where you can cut corners – compare prices between a buffet and individual meals. If you caterer has been doing this for any length of time, they should be able to design a package that fits your budget.

Don’t let your caterer talk you into going overboard. Talk to your future husband or wife, and decide what the two of you want most.

Everything over and above that is a bonus, but not required. If you go in with that mindset, then you will not end up paying unnecessarily for seven or eight types of Hors d’Oeuvres.

2) Invite Fewer Guests to Your Wedding and Reception – If you are paying by the head, or by the plate, fewer guests means less expense. It is so easy to go overboard when inviting guests to a wedding. Just make sure the people you really want to attend are counted first, and invite the rest according to your budget.

3) Go “pot luck” – You can always opt for an informal reception and ask your guests to bring a dish. You are virtually assured that everyone will have enough food, and that the food will be the best anyone can make. After all it’s your wedding, and these are your friends and family. They will cook up something special for your big day! Do make sure that you have enough drinks and things on hand, and keep a list of what everyone is bringing. There’s no sense leaving it completely to chance!

4) Skip the open bar, or limit the choices – The bar is the big deal breaker for many weddings. Most places require deposits, attach extra fees, and force you to pay by the bottle – even if the entire bottle is not used up. You can save a lot of money on your reception by skipping the open bar entirely, or by deciding with your future spouse exactly what you want to serve, and how much you want to spend. Make sure that your caterer is on the same page though, or you could be in for an ugly surprise after the wedding.

5) Consider serving only one, or at most two meats – every meat you add to your menu will up the price of catering considerably. Find one that your think your guests will enjoy, and stick to that. Also, consider a vegetarian alternative. It’s going to be cheaper, and allow your guests who don’t eat meat to feel like you considered them in your plans.

6) Consider local restaurants – You do have to have a catering license to cater an event, but more and more local businesses are getting them. If the place down the street has amazing chicken or barbeque, then why not hire them? Having a well known local place cater your wedding is going to be a lot more fun, and cheaper, than the standard rubber chicken buffet fare.

Of course, the reception is only one of the major expenses of a wedding. Some other places you can cut costs are saving money on wedding pictures, planning a low cost honeymoon, and reduce the expenses of planning your wedding.

These wedding tips on cutting the costs of your wedding reception are part of the Marriage Money Guide.

Photo Credits: pumpsandgloss.wordpress.com

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How To Save Money On Your Wedding Pictures

1. Keep the number of individual and family portraits small – If you are hiring a professional photographer then you will probably want to limit the number of posed photos that you take. These types of photos really raise the tally on your photography costs.

   Consider just doing candid photos instead, or have your family do a “dress rehearsal” at a local photography studio. After all, what you really need your photographer to shoot is the events at your wedding.

   You can have those family photos taken any time, anywhere. You cannot redo the exchanging of your rings, walking down the aisle, or that first married kiss. Save your photographer for those special moments, and do the family portraits another time.

2. Place Cameras on the tables at your reception –You can always hire your professional photographer just to shoot your wedding, and then ask your guests to shoot candid photos at the reception. We did this at my wedding, and our guests really enjoyed doing it. Usually the people who enjoy taking pictures the most will pick up the camera, and we got a ton of fun shots on every subject, from every angle – someone even arranged their reception food on their plate and photographed it!
3. Ask a photography student – Call your local university or art school and see if they have anyone who would accept a discounted rate of pay so that they can build their portfolio. Be sure that you look at their past work though, because their style and idea of what is beautiful may not match yours. These are photos that you will keep the rest of your life. If you can find a student who’s vision matches your own, then this is an excellent way to save money on your wedding photos.
4. Ask a friend (or two) that’s interested in photography to take your photos for you – Having two “official” photographers will actually make things run smoother, and quicker – and you’ll likely get some wonderful candid shots as well.
5. Get the negatives! (Or a Disk) – No matter which photographer you use, make very sure that they include the original negatives or a disk containing all of your wedding photos in their price. That way you can go back and make as many prints as you want, or even edit specific photos and enlarge them.
6. Check your local newspaper and Craigslist for photographers – many of the listed photographers may not shoot weddings specifically, but would be willing to do it for you if you asked them. Their rates will usually be much lower than an official “wedding” photographer, and the picture quality will likely be just as good. Always ask to see a portfolio of their work before you hire them.
7. Decide on exactly what you want – You may be able to negotiate the price downwards if you want fewer specific photos. If you decide what is most important to you then you can make sure that the photographer delivers those shots – without paying for a lot of extra ones that you may not have wanted.
8. If you hire a professional wedding photographer, ask them for a discount – Most professionals will be able to offer you a discount if you ask, or you can simply buy a smaller package of photos. Most wedding photographers will be willing to negotiate with you if they want your business.
9. Make your own wedding album – We paid hundreds of dollars to have our professional wedding photographer lay out our wedding photos in a big, white leather bound album. While it is undeniably beautiful, you can get the negatives, or a disk of your wedding photos, and do it yourself. Shutterfly, and Walgreens both offer nice, leather albums at a fraction of the cost.
10. Do your research – Before you hire a pro, shop around, check prices, and ask the professional of your choice to price match, or negotiate. Look carefully at everyone’s backgrounds, and portfolios. You might actually be able to get a cheaper photographer who does a better job, you just have to put in the footwork.

Here are some other ways you can save money on your wedding:

• Save money on your wedding dress
• Save money on a destination wedding
• Save money planning your wedding

This list of ideas to save money on your wedding pictures is part of the Marriage Money Guide.

Photo Credits: pixcellence.co.uk

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Does Your Neighbor’s Foreclosure Affect the Value of Your Home?

You hear through the grapevine that your neighbors two houses down are losing their house to a foreclosure. You say a silent prayer of thanks that you’re not the one dealing with financial troubles and then you wonder why in the world they allowed themselves to get so far behind on mortgage payments.

After that, you don’t give it much thought.

Affects of Foreclosure
What you may not realize is that the foreclosure is indeed going to affect you in one way or another. Whenever a house sells in a neighborhood, the amount is sells for is noted and has an effect on the general housing prices within the area. The market value of your home depends largely on the price the homes around you sell for. In other words, if people look around your neighborhood to buy a house they’ll want to know how much comparable houses have sold for recently within the area.

Enter: Your neighbor’s foreclosure.

The house sells for much less than it would have if it hadn’t slipped into foreclosure, and if his house is similar to yours in square footage and features then this can pull your market value down. The same goes for instances when people sell their homes for less than the homes are actually worth because they just want to get out from under the mortgage loan. Every real estate transaction in your neighborhood has the potential to raise or lower the market value of your home.

So now you’re probably thinking, “…and here I thought the ‘Foreclosure Sale’ sign in his yard was annoying.”

What can you do about neighboring foreclosures?
There isn’t really much you can do unless you want to run through the neighborhood giving people money to catch up on their mortgages. What you should do, however, is to realize that this is a real concern for you, especially in a couple of instances:

1. You plan on putting your home on the market soon.
2. You maxed out your home equity with loans back when your home was worth more.

Selling Your Home
If your plan is to attempt to sell your home soon, pay attention to the sales going on around you. Are your neighbors getting their full asking price? Are some of them falling into foreclosure? If this is the type of thing going on with your neighborhood then you should brace yourself. In other words, selling isn’t going to be pretty. Why should someone pay full the full asking price for your home when they can walk across the street and buy your neighbor’s similar home at a much lower price?

Home Equity
If you have quite a bit of second mortgage debt – such as home equity loans or home equity lines of credit – the foreclosures happening around you might bring your home’s market value down and you might suddenly owe more than your home is worth. Why should you know this? It may be the reality check you need in order to stop using that ELOC and instead make an aggressive effort to pay these loans down. The sooner you build up some equity, the better.

Thanks to Johnathon from Master Your Card for this guest post on home values and foreclosures.  If you enjoyed the post you can read more about the site or subscribe to the feed.

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Would You Take a Better Job for a Lower Salary?

If you had the chance to take a job that you would enjoy more than your current position but paid about 4% less than your current salary would you take it?

Earn More or Enjoy More?
I’ve been on the job hunt recently and had a really interesting opportunity come up that pays less than I earn now.  Is it worth it to me to take a job that I’ll probably enjoy more even though I’ll earn less money?

Job Comparison Tool
Luckily, I have the job comparison tool to help me make my decision. I plugged in scores for 16 different criteria, including salary, and the tool suggests I should go for the new job.  Even though I gave salary the highest weight in the model there were enough other benefits of the new job that the final score suggests the new job would be a good move.

Document Job Details
One of the things I didn’t mention in my coverage of the job comparison tool was that you should create another set of columns off to the side of your spreadsheet where you provide the data behind the score for each criterion.

For example, if you rate one job as a 2 for salary and another job as a 1, you should put the salary for each job in the columns off to the side of the model.  This will remind you of the reason why you scored each job feature the way you did. 

What’s More Important than Money?
There are several reasons the new job is appealing to me:

Less Stress
To start with I’d have less responsibility, fewer tight deadlines, little client interaction, and no pager.

Flexible Work Schedule
They also offer a flexible work schedule, you can work 4 ten hour days, 9 nine hour days with every other Friday off, or 9 hour days Monday – Friday, then work from home for 4 hours on Friday.

Career Development
Another benefit is that I’d be working with a much broader range of technologies in the new job.  About 60% of the job would involve web application development and the other 40% would be composed of technolgoy research and development for the company.  This exposure to new technologies is not only interesting but also makes my resume more versatile.

Paid for Your Effort
To top it off, you get paid for every hour you work!  Although it is a salaried position, it also pays overtime. Due to the type of work the company does and the way it bills clients, the company pays employees overtime for every hour they work over 40. 

The company tries to avoid paying overtime so I probably wouldn’t make much extra money but what it does mean is that I wouldn’t typically have to work over 40 hours in a week.  Not that I’m opposed to hard work, I just like to get paid for the work that I do.  Contrast this with my current job where I could work a 60 hour week and still get paid the same.

Decisions, Decisions
Of course, the downside is that I’d earn less money, about 4% less than I do now.  I’d also lose a week of vacation since I’d be starting fresh at a new company.  Even so, when I put all the features of the two jobs into my job comparison tool it suggests I go for the new one.  They’ve made me an offer so I have to decide soon whether to accept it or not.  I’m heavily leaning towards the new job….

What do you think? Would you take a better job for a lower salary?

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Cut Your Wedding Costs – Save Money on Your Wedding Dress

The cost of planning a wedding can quickly get out of hand. After all, who doesn’t want the very best for their special day? The good news is, it’s definitely possible to have your dream wedding without breaking the bank. Here are some tips to help you save money on one of your biggest potential expenses, the wedding dress.

How to Save Money On Your Wedding Dress:

1. Make use of sample sales – Sample wedding dresses normally come in sizes 6, 8, and 10. Occasionally you can find plus size samples as well, you just have to call around. Buying a “sample” dress can save you a lot of money and you can always have minor imperfections or dirt removed before your big day.
2. Shop for your wedding dress on Ebay – Ebay features a nearly limitless train of wedding dresses both used, and new. You can even set up alerts and Ebay will email you any time a new dress is listed. Start early enough and you are sure to find your dream dress at a fraction of the price. Make sure you buy from a reputable seller though, and be aware of the return policy in case something is not exactly right.
3. Search Craigslist – Sometimes you can find excellent deals on wedding dresses, and other wedding items on Craigslist. The sooner you start planning your wedding, the longer you have to look for that perfect dress for yourself or your bridesmaids.
4. Check out Brides Against Breast Cancer – Brides Against Breast Cancer is a charity organization where brides donate their dresses, and new brides purchase them. The money from the sale of the dresses goes toward breast cancer research. By buying your dress through them you not only get a gorgeous dress at a discount, but you help out a great cause too. Not all the dresses are used either – many designers donate the previous season’s dresses, as do bridal warehouses.
5. Wear Your Mom’s Dress – Wearing your mother or grandmother’s dress can really make your big day special since you are wearing part of the history of your family. If you do this make sure that you have plenty of time to take the dress out, try it on, and have it altered or repaired before your big day. Depending on how well their dress was stored, you may not have to do anything but have it cleaned, or you may have to take it to have sections that were worn or damaged by time repaired.
6. Find a Talented Tailor or Seamstress – An expert tailor can take an ill-fitting or worn dress and turn it into something spectacular – a made to order, perfectly fitting jewel for your wedding day. I do not recommend using the tailor that your bridal salon will suggest. At least, not before you check them out! They may turn out to be a specialist, or they may turn out to be a struggling business person giving kickbacks to the salon. Don’t trust your dress alterations to just anyone. The money you spend with them is as important as your dress, because the finished product – how well your dress flatters you – is up to them.
7. Choose a classic dress without a ton of fabric or beaded embroidery – The less fabric the dress is made from the cheaper it will be. Also, having to alter a dress with a ton of detail will make even the most experiences seamstress cringe – and it may not look as good when they are finished. A classic dress with simple lines and a minimum of beading and detail will not only make you look nice, but be cheaper at the store, and at alteration time.
8. Before you set a wedding date, call your local bridal stores and ask them when they usually run their sales – If you can time your wedding with their sales and discounts, you (and your bridesmaids) can get much more impressive dresses, for far less money.
9. Ask for a pre-sale preview – If you aren’t afraid to ask, then this will net you first crack at the sale and discount dresses, and most bridal stores are happy to accommodate you. After all, you can always have them place the dress on hold until the sale is official.
10. Spend some time thinking about what you envision your dream dress to look like, and give some consideration to which type of dress will look good on your body shape – no two women are the same, and not all wedding dresses look good on everyone. If you have an idea of what you want, then you will save time, and money when you start searching for your dress.
11. Get designer dresses at a discount – If you absolutely have your heart set on that couture wedding gown, then the internet is your best friend. Search, search, search, until you find it on sale. You can find the real designer dresses as much as 50% off, and the designer knock offs far cheaper than that.

For other ways to save money on your wedding, read how you can save money on a destination wedding and save money planning your wedding without spending a fortune.

This list of ideas to save money on a wedding dress is part of the Marriage Money Guide.

Photo Credits: alibaba.com

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Make a Better Life For Yourself – No More Excuses

January and September are the two biggest months for making resolutions.  After the Labor Day holiday everyone realizes they’ve been working too little and enjoying themselves too much during the summer months.

It’s back to work, back to business, and we all have a list of things to get done.  What’s on your list of things to accomplish this fall?  Let me guess, there are a few things on your list that may have been there for months, maybe years. 

I have several goals I’ve been working on fruitlessly for many months and I recently realized why I wasn’t achieving them.  I’ve been making excuses that have held me back from pursuing my goals!

The good news is, I’m through with these excuses.  In the audio below I share how making excuses has held me back and how I’m going to get past these roadblocks in my life. Click on the play button to listen (RSS and email readers may have to visit the site to listen).

[display_podcast] [No More Excuses Transcript]

Click here to follow along or enter your email address below:

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Guide to Budgeting & Tracking Money For Newlyweds

Do you often wonder where you money goes? Do you struggle to save money after all of your bills are paid? The problem is your budget, or lack of a budget. Less than 5% of the households in the United States keep a consistent household budget, and that is why 95% of the nation struggles with money. The word “budget” has a negative connotation to many people. You don’t want to be constrained by a budget, and you think it will run your life. It could do that, but if you budget correctly, it will actually free you from living paycheck to paycheck.

The Basics of Budgeting for Married Couples

• Start doing it the moment you get married. The more you wait to start a budget, the less likely that it will become a habit in your household.
• Create a budget together. One of you might like maintaining and forming the budget than the other, but you BOTH need to be present to contribute to the budgeting plan for that month or period of time.
• Choose how you will keep your budget organized. You can use a pencil and paper, Microsoft Excel, Quickbooks, MS Money, or you can use an online application such as Mint.com.
• Write down all of your monthly recurring bills such as utilities, mortgage, cable, debt payments, and insurance. Then, estimate your other monthly expenses that tend to fluctuate such as food, gas, entertainment, clothing, and car maintenance.
• Continue to tweak your variable expense allowances over the next three months.

Budgets are not perfect, and they can make life a little frustrating at first. It’s no different than starting an exercise regime. Your body will resist the exercise at first, because it’s not used to doing it, but it will get easier the more you do it. Budgeting is the same way. Here are some common budgeting struggles that newlyweds often face:

One spouse is on board to budget, but the other is not. Talk through it, and try to figure out the root of the issue. Do you share the same goals with money? If you can’t come to a resolution, then seek out marriage counseling. You can’t have one spouse following a budget while the other spends whatever they want. It won’t work.

Neither one of you has the will power to follow the budget. Seek out another couple to keep you accountable. Ask friends of yours to keep you accountable with your budget. They can call you once a week to see how it is going. If you have someone else asking you about it, it will help you follow the budget better, because you’ll feel embarassed if you keep telling them that you busted the budget.

You get easily frustrated that the budget isn’t working. You will not get immediate results with a new budget. It takes three or four months to tweak the budget and start seeing results. Once you get it right, you’ll quickly see how much more money you have at the end of the month.

Here are a couple of free excel files to help you track your plan to get out of debt and create a budget.

• Budget Worksheet
• Debt Elimination Plan

Remember, budgeting is a way of life. You must develop the habit of budgeting, or you’ll drop it like any other fad. Once you see the results and the immediate income boost by spending your money on paper before you spend it, you’ll get excited. So, get excited, and start your budget today. (more…)

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The Newlyweds Guide To Buying An Affordable House

One of the first things on the minds of newlyweds is buying a house. This is ironic, because most young newlywed couples aren’t in a good financial position to buy a house. Buying a house is a huge endeavor, and you must have SOME cash to buy it. The days of getting into a house with no money down and no closing costs have passed. It’s very tough to get approved for 100% financing, because lenders are much tighter on their underwriting guidelines. When the housing market took a tumble and the subprime mortgage market almost bankrupted our country, lenders retreated. Having said that, it’s a great time to buy a house. It’s a buyer’s market, and there are plenty of great deals on the market right now. Before you go shopping for a house, make sure you have these things in place:

• At least a 3% down payment
• Enough money to cover closing costs (you might be able to get this paid by the seller)
• Make sure you are going to stay in the same town for more than 2 years.
• Pay off any old debts or collections

Now, here are four steps that you can take to find an affordable house:

Research and hire a great real estate agent.

It’s a misconception that you can save a lot of money buying a for sale, buy owner house. Many FSBO sellers overprice their homes, and they are unwilling to compromise to get a deal done. Hiring a real estate agent can be the worst or best thing you’ll ever do. Do your research, and prepare interview questions when hiring a real estate agent. Stay away from family real estate agents unless they are really good at what they do and if they are willing to give you a cut of their commission. A great real estate agent can save you a ton of money if they are great negotiators. Great real estate agents are also great at finding hidden deals on the market.

Seek out short sales, bank-owned, and pre-foreclosure properties

Right now, you can find a huge amount of these distressed properties. A short-sale property means that the owner is upside down on their mortgage loan, but the mortgage company is willing to accept a sales price less than the amount of the mortgage upon their approval of the price. Everyone wins in this situation, because the seller doesn’t have to pay the difference to the their lender and you get a good deal. The problem is that these deals take a while to close, and mortgage companies are often stingy. Pre-foreclosures are simply properties that are somewhere in the process of being foreclosed, but the owner is still in legal possession and has the right to sell the property. You can find a deal here, but typically the seller doesn’t have much room to negotiate given the high mortgage amount, but they might be willing to update the kitchen, pay closing costs, and pay for a home inspection.

Negotiate your butt off

Start with a low offer, and prepare to start the negotiation process. Give yourself enough room to negotiate a price that you can afford. For instance, if the asking price is $200,000, then offer $150,000. They might counter back, but you could end up paying $175,000 when it’s all said and done. If you had originally offered $175,000 and they make a counter offer, you’ll probably end up paying $185k to $190k. Other great negotiating tools are closing costs, home inspections, a year’s worth of property taxes, and upgrades to the house. Have fun with it, and be willing to concede on a few of your demands in order to make the deal happen. If you want to find out how realistic the asking price of a home is, try looking it up on Zillow.com. Zillow takes the comparatives of other similar houses in the area that recently sold and formulates an estimate of the land plus the house.

Calculate how much you can afford before you start looking for a house

Add up your total gross income between you and your wife. Then, divide it by three. This is the maximum payment you can afford without feeling house poor. So, if your calculation comes out to $1,500, then you should start looking for houses in the $200k to $250k range. This is one of the most important tips for finding a house that you can afford. You must know your price range ceiling before you start looking at houses. Agents will try to get you to buy outside of your range, but be firm with them. Only look at houses out of your price range that you would plan on offering less than the asking price.

Conclusion

You can find a great deal on a house right now, but don’t get caught up in the moment. Renting for a little while is always an option. Buying a house is a great investment, but it can also be a huge burden on your marriage. I would not recommend that any newly married couple buy a house in their first year of marriage. I’ve been married for three years, and we bought and renovated a condo in our second year of marriage. There were some rough times, and painting ceilings at 12am wasn’t our original idea of being newlyweds. If both of you were well-established financially before you got married, then buying a house right before or after the wedding might not be so bad. Don’t take the housing process lightly. Be wise and use common sense. You’ll be fine. Good luck!

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Will Honda Stand By the Quality of Their Cars?

Our Honda CRV had the compressor rod in the air conditioner shatter two days ago.  We took it into the dealer and apparently it’s a frequent problem with 2003 and 2004 CRV’s and will cost around $2100 to fix.

Paying for Quality
The reason we spend more to buy Honda’s is because they’re known for their quality and durability. Having an issue such as this isn’t something we expect from a Honda and is the reason we’ve only owned Honda vehicles to this point.

Asking Honda to Stand By Quality
I phoned American Honda about the issue and they let me know I had to take it up with the car dealer first. We took the CRV into the dealer and they filed for “Honda Goodwill” on our behalf. Honda offered to pay for the parts and although this was about 60% of the total cost, I was still hesitant to go forward.

Known Quality Problem
After talking with the Honda mechanics and researching online I discovered failure of the compressor on Honda CRV’s for 2003 and 2004 CRV’s is a frequent problem.  One reason the repair bill is so high is that the rod shattered and the metal shards destroyed many other parts of the cooling system.

I just had our 60,000 mile service done on the car and there was no mention of the potential issue.  Had I known about the problem we could have considered getting the part replaced and avoided a lot of the damage. For example, we knew the timing belt on our older Accord should be replaced at a certain mileage to avoid having it break and cause damage to the car. We had it replaced even sooner than the recommended mileage, just to be sure we wouldn’t encounter the issue.

Escalating the Issue
Since this is a known issue that Honda didn’t make me aware of, in addition to the fact it’s not an issue I expect out of a vehicle known for quality, I opened a case with American Honda to ask for assistance with the repair cost in addition to the cost of parts.

I should be contacted by a case worker today to follow up on my ticket so I’ll let you know how it turns out.  We’ve been really pleased with our Honda vehicles and Honda service to date so I’m hoping Honda will be willing to give further assistance on this matter.

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How to Save Money on Your Honeymoon and Still Have A Blast

With all the money spent on your wedding the last thing you want to do is break the bank on your honeymoon. You still want it to be a beautiful, romantic trip to remember though! Here are a seven ways to get the most out of your honeymoon without spending a fortune:

1. Make a budget first – Traditionally it is the responsibility of the brides family to pay for the wedding, and the groom’s family to pay for the honeymoon. However, few people today follow the old traditions, which means that more and more couples are paying for both their wedding, and their honeymoon.



If you are the ones footing the bill, make sure you create a budget that includes your honeymoon! It is so easy to spend all of your money on your wedding, and hope that you have enough left over to take the trip of your dreams – don’t count on it! Make that budget, or you may find yourselves with a less than desirable honeymoon location. Even if you do not have a lot of money you can still have a beautiful honeymoon celebration in the location of your choice, you just have to work within your own budgetary guidelines.




2. Consider a Honeymoon Registry – Plenty of people have bridal shower and wedding registries, but did you know that you can create a honeymoon registry as well? This will let your friends and family donate directly to your honeymoon fund to purchase your airfare, or hotel rooms.

   It’s a good idea to let people know about this as early as possible. By the time you get married any money that is donated may be too late. Best to mention it before your bridal shower instead of right before your wedding.

   There are several ways to start a honeymoon registry, but the easiest is to contact a travel agent in your area. You can also find out more about honeymoon registries when you click here.




3. Plan your wedding and honeymoon in the off season – It’s no secret that every tourist destination has an off season. During those times, you can always find amazing deals on just about everything – your hotel, plane tickets, even cruises or total vacation packages. You don’t have to go way off season either. Just target your dates slightly to either side of the peak seasons, and you can travel for less. Sometimes thousands less.




4. Use your travel agent – Travel agents offer a ton of resources. They can help you book the cheapest flights, save on your hotel rooms, and get you package deals at a discount. The money you can save with them should more than cover the cost of their fees. After all, this is what they do every single day, and for your once-in-a-lifetime honeymoon, trusting an expert to take care of the details will save you a lot of stress, and still let you get the most for your money.




5. Go on a cruise – Whether you want to see the northern lights or explore ancient Mayan ruins, there’s a cruise that goes there. Cruises are ideal for honeymoons because they are package deals. You get everything (or almost everything) for one low price. When you choose to go on a cruise for your honeymoon, you will not have to worry nearly as much about what things cost once you get there. Most meals are included, and you can arrange your on-shore outings before you leave. No surprises, just a fun time.

   Besides cruises are known for their good food, great entertainment, and on-ship amenities like spas. They really can be all-in-one dream vacations. The off-season rule applies here too, you can save a lot if you go during a slow month. You can use the internet to compare packages, prices, and off peak specials. Just google “cruise” + your desired destination.




6. Consider having your honeymoon close by – My husband and I went to a tiny little tourist town about an hour away from us. We booked early, and online, and got a free night’s stay at the hotel. We had an amazing time because there was no pressure, no flights to catch, no phone ringing…just us. IT was very romantic, and I will never forget it. We got all of that for under $500, and that included our meals while we were there. So, it doesn’t have to be expensive, and it doesn’t have to be far away to still be one of the most amazing memories you will ever have!




7. Tell people you are on your honeymoon – you will be really surprised by some of the free things you will get. Everything from free drinks, to free items, to hotel room upgrades, to free tours. Everyone loves a couple in love, and you can definitely take advantage of it during that special time!




8. Consider a timeshare, or beach house – Have a talk with your relatives before you make your honeymoon plans. See if anyone they know has a timeshare, or beach house, or cabin that you could borrow or rent cheaply. There are fewer things more romantic than a cabin or house on the beach where you and your love can spend some time together. If you did something like this you could focus what money you do have on your honeymoon activities instead of the cost just to get a room somewhere.

The most important tip is really just to look for deals wherever you go. Your honeymoon does not have to be expensive. If you plan early, and ask for a discount every time you can, then chances are you really will have a much nicer honeymoon for less money than you expected to spend on it.

For other ways to save money on your wedding, read how you can save money planning your wedding without spending a fortune and how to get the most for your money when you register for wedding gifts.

This review of honeymoon ideas that are fun but more affordable is part of the Marriage Money Guide.

Photo Credit: Tahiti Experience.com

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