Till debt do us part

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I think one of the things that I would fear the most for any bride & groom is getting trapped by  wedding debt! Your wedding will probably be the most expensive day in your life how you may wonder well simple take your total wedding budget and divide it by the number of total hours your wedding will be. So if you are having a wedding for kshs 400,000 and your wedding is lasting from 8am- 4pm. Your spending rate by the hour is kshs 50,000. So am sure after spending that much money you would not want to be haunted by your wedding caterers bill after your wedding.

Saying no to wedding debt:

It takes a lot of discipline and sacrifice to avoid  getting into wedding debt the following are a few ideas you could take into consideration to help you:

Savings Account:

Saving for your wedding is wise, starting to save for your wedding early is even wiser. I would suggest that a couple have a longer engagement period to allow them not just to save for their wedding but to also save for their marriage. Once you have decided that you would want to tie the knot eventually you can open a joint savings account at any local bank. When shopping for a joint savings account it would be great if you could choose a high interest savings account this will ensure that your money will work harder for you.

Wedding Standing Order:

Decide on how much you would both be comfortable with in spending on your wedding. You can place/ setup a standing order to automatically take money from your current account and deposit it in your joint savings account, this will ensure that you are disciplined and are contributing consistently to your wedding kitty. You can think of a few luxuries that you can give up in order to met your monthly standing order payments. Kiss away extravagant dates, spa weekends and all those other nice expensive activities and sacrifice for your new life together.

Wedding  Excel Sheet:

Use simple excel spreadsheets to setup a wedding budget monitoring system. Keep records of all your wedding expenses and be sure to indicate how your wedding money has been used. Use simple excel formulas to alert you on whether you are within budget. Prioritize your wedding categories in your budget so that a lot of the funds are allocated to the categories that you place first. Read up on simple ideas that you can use to help you save money during your wedding planning process.

Say no to credit cards:

They may seem very appealing but avoid using credit cards when it comes to settling wedding bills. Cheques are often recommended, though a lot of service providers allow for only bankers cheques to be used. Cash should be avoided because of accounting purposes. Using credit cards or taking out wedding services on credit to pay your wedding bills will come to haunt you after I do. Avoid taking out loans to finance your wedding remember that your wedding is a liability and not an asset, so you are trying to spend the least at least!

Miscellaneous Expenses:

Allocate for wedding miscellaneous expenses this include all bills tied into your wedding planning activity this include restaurant bills, fuel bills, calling credit card bills e.t.c. Have an allocation of up to 20% of your wedding budget to take care of all these expenses that are incurred during your wedding planning process. Working with exact budgets can lead you into accumulating debt.

Always remember that a larger portion of your couple's savings should be spent on setting up your home as newly weds. It is not wise to spend more on your wedding than you have set aside for your future lives together!