Hilarious Budgeting

Silly me! I've been spending money on a home and healthy food. What I SHOULD be doing is living in my car 🚗 (which I shouldn't insure despite the law), eating three $1 meals a day,  and only buying my prescriptions. No more electricity, Internet, rent, or paying other bills (cause no more address so they'll have a hard time finding me). My phone is probably my want, so maybe I get to keep that. Sure, I'll probably die from exposure to the elements, especially with my health. But I'll be a millionaire, so at least I'll be able to afford the funeral. 🤦‍♀️

The advice would be good, but it's just not realistic. Because the other thing they have is either a starting pile of family money or a job that makes more in a month than my household does in a year.

~From Pinterest~

What If Taxes

What if taxes, the budget, were decided by the individual?

Suppose every April, each tax payer was required to fill out a checklist- budget of where his or her taxes went.

A penny to this, a quarter to that.

Instead of just electing people who make the choices and use the budget to mess with each other. Maybe we'd find out who really wants to build a wall and spend their tax dollars on it, and who would rather see their money go to NASA or park services. So people would have more power because they would control the purse strings.

This is how investments work. You give money, you get a vote. But taxes is being required to give money and hoping YOUR share of the funds didn't get spent on something you oppose. A more accurate representation of values. So if I want my tax dollars to fund "A," but feel morally opposed to funding "B," I can know that my money hasn't been allocated to that which I oppose.

Why not give money to A myself? Because the whole "tax-deductible" idea has fine print. Home ownership, for example. And a different form to file. Plus, I'm talking about money that was never going to be mine to keep,  the 30% or so that gets taken out of a paycheck.

P is for Pots and Pans Scam #atozchallenge #wedding

In the letter A post I talked about wedding shows and all the great prizes there are to win. Today I’ll talk about the dark side.

There is a company that will rip you off. They sell very expensive cookware, sometimes that isn’t even dishwasher safe. It comes with a giveaway, allegedly, for a free Honeymoon * ß asterisk

Brides and grooms get called in for a presentation. That’s where you get some of your cookware and that magical honeymoon. And then the selling begins. Oh no, you don’t want to leave early! If you leave, you don’t get the magical unicorn’s free and super ultra awesome gift. (A bag of plain M&M’s when I went. Not even a big bag, a regular checkout size one.)

The one-two punch of cookware that you’ll be paying for indefinitely… seriously, it never gets paid off, the bills are like bunnies. It’s worse than an “of the month” club. And that Honeymoon that’s “free” … it barely even counts as a timeshare. You have a tiny window of time to choose from, usually during hurricane season, and it isn’t all expenses paid.  In fact, you’ll end up spending more just trying to get to an acceptable level of decent and safe.

So avoid this scam, or at least research with extreme vigilance. Get your pots and pans from a reputable location. Win a Honeymoon elsewhere. And never give out your credit card number or write a check to someone you don’t know. Identity theft and a hijacked credit score is no way to start a marriage.

The debate rages on at: http://forums.theknot.com/discussion/925257/are-vacation-giveaways-through-cookware-companies-a-scam

Tomorrow will be about QR codes and how they can help you get more wedding pictures!

O is for Offerings, Gifts, and Registries #atozchallenge #wedding

What a wonderful world it would be if everyone knew exactly what you wanted and needed for your wedding.

But they don’t. And they are probably poor guessers. “A can opener? Umm, sure, everyone needs to open cans.”

That being said, there will always be some people who will get you whatever they feel like getting you and that’s that. My grandmother was well known for giving the same thing at every wedding shower. Brides got two laundry baskets filled with all the basic household items. Paper towels, tissues, toilet paper, coffee filters, pens, napkins, dish towels and wash cloths, etc. And that was great. Aunt Elinore crocheted blankets for all new couples-- that's absolutely priceless.

For the rest of us, there’s the gift registry. Pick a store, drag your other half along, and decide what you’d buy if you could afford it. Get a few less expensive items on there, especially if kids are coming. “But I wannnaa give them a gift toooooo.” And add two or three big ticket items. Your wedding party will probably chip in together to get you a big gift.

Speaking of, what gifts are you getting for them? On your wedding day, it is customary to give a little gift to your party. Engraved toasting glasses, flasks, fancy keychains, necklaces and cufflinks… If you’re looking for more ideas and ways to save money on this, here’s a link to Oriental Trading Co. I’ve mentioned that company before as a money saver. http://refer.orientaltrading.com/pu354

If you get married in a religious establishment, it is generally customary to give an offering. The bride and groom put together the pre-determined amount of money and seal it in an envelope. The Best Man hands this to the officiant after the ceremony.

Join me for tomorrow’s post warning you about the Pots and Pans Scam.

B is for Budget #atozchallenge

  

I cannot stress enough the need to have a budget in place before you do anything else.

• “Daddy will probably pay for all of it.”
• “The manners guide says the father of the groom pays for the bar tab.”
• “I have $500 saved. That should be enough.”

That is not a budget. Those are pre-conceived notions. You need to nail down an actual budget. You need to know who is paying for what, how much they are willing to spend, and when you can expect to have that money.

When you go to buy a dress, you will need money. When you book a reception hall, you will need a deposit. The cake will require a deposit, probably full payment before the wedding date. All of the major planning is going to require some form of payment, and most of them are going to want it upfront, at least in part.

Make a list of everything you’ll need for your day. Then do research on what the websites and books say you’ll need for a wedding. Once you’ve figured out what you do and don’t need, start pricing. Figure out what matters most to you.

There are people who think custom engraved invitations are an absolute must. (Check out the Wax Seals post on W day.) For other folks, a party isn’t a party unless a vat of vodka has been consumed. One girl I knew just couldn’t live without a dove release. What seems superfluous to you is someone else’s absolute essential. Budget according to your desire, not third-cousin Ellen’s or Aunt Becky’s or even Grandpop’s. They probably won’t care in five years from now. You will.

If you're curious— the cake and the bride are what guests photograph the most.

Now that you know what you want and have a general idea of costs in your wedding area, you can discuss the budget with other people. You can find out if Daddy really is going to pay for all of it, or chip in, and find out when that money will come. Armed with knowledge is the way to approach people when asking for money.

It’s also the best way to figure out how much of a wedding loan to take out from the bank, should the situation come to that. Or a way to figure out how long it will take to save up enough money for the wedding. (And it may be a factor in deciding to elope instead. Check out the post on E day.)

Be sure you have money when you go dress shopping. There is nothing worse than finding THE DRESS and not having the money. Then it vanishes. It’s heartbreaking. Avoid this pain. More about the dress and avoiding rip-offs in the next two letters (C and D).

I'll also be getting into how you can save money by using the dollar store and http://refer.orientaltrading.com/pu354