The Buyt Desk
Weddings are expensive affairs in India. You can plan a simple wedding in just a few lakhs or even plan a big fat Indian wedding and spend crores together.
The wedding is a very important event in one’s life. Indian parents dream of their kid’s wedding and even spend all their life savings on the wedding. In India, wedding expenses can be pretty high even for a simple wedding. Other than the cost of wedding customs, food, venue and honeymoon there will be other major costs like clothing and jewellery for bride and groom and expensive return gifts for the guest add on to the cost.
Many even take wedding loans and start their married life with debt. Instead of enjoying newly married life, many just end up paying their debts. Many even push their wedding by a year or two to arrange funds and plan their big day in a grand manner. Managing finance is very important so that you can start your married life smoothly. It is advisable to get married within your budget and not go overboard with the spending. The debts can be bad at the start of married life. Better to plan the wedding well and start the married life with better financial conditions. Here are a few tips and tricks to save funds for your wedding.
Have a separate wedding account
Keeping money in your everyday bank account will be spent and hardly can be saved. So have a separate account for saving for weddings. Keep adding money into this account every time you have some surplus. Decide that you will not withdraw any money from this account and it will be exclusively for wedding expenses. Build good savings in this one-way account where only money goes in and comes out only for weddings. Once when you have enough money for your wedding expenses you can plan your wedding. Once the balance starts to rise you will feel motivated to save more. Plan and set your financial goals for the wedding and systematically work towards them. A tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) is the best account for wedding savings. As interest earned on this account is not taxed, you can save more and compounding will help the funds grow better in a few years. Maybe you can open this account as soon as you start earning. And it is not necessary to spend all money from this account at the wedding. All the excess funds can be invested for future use.
Save something extra every week
Keep adding money into the wedding account regularly. And try to save some extra money every week and add it too. This will be extra than the plan. This will help to reach the target faster. Auto deposit from a salary account will be regular savings but try to add something more every week even if it is small money.
Increase saving by cutting down expenses
Cut down on the expenses that you really do not need. Maybe cut down your restaurant trips and buy fewer clothes and shoes. And put this saved money into the wedding account. Curb your everyday meaningless expenditures. Some small sacrifices like this today will make you financially stronger for your wedding. Budgeting will help you reduce your unnecessary expenses and give you a disciplined approach to saving and spending.
Chalk out your wedding priorities
Along with your partner and the families of both bride and groom, decide on what is needed and not necessary at the wedding. Maybe you all need to compromise on a few things. Decide on the guest list, venue, decorations and menu. Discuss your honeymoon plans with your partner. Pre-booking most of this may save some money.
Budgeting the wedding
Both the families along with the bride and groom should budget the wedding expenses. Decide who will pool in how much money. Allocate a budget for everything including the venue, food, drinks, stay, gifts, music, decorations and wedding dresses. To save more go for an off-season wedding where all costs will be reduced. Weddings should be fun and not stressful. Saving should be enough for the wedding and it shouldn’t push you to debt. Financial stress is a big NO at weddings and budgeting will help to achieve this.
