SIX MONEY TIPS FOR NEWLYWEDS
Wednesday, July 03, 2013
Today has been a hard day. We're already into the first of the month - yet we're two days short of pay day. The first of the month is the hardest for us because we have our biggest bills: rent, our utility bill, cell phones, and Scott's car payment all in the first two weeks. And if our paychecks don't land just right we're in deep trouble. This means we usually have to pay attention to our last paycheck of the month, and save accordingly to pay for the things due just short of pay day, which is typically our rent.
Let me map this out for you. My husband and I both work full-time jobs, and we make a pretty decent living for ourselves considering it's just the two of us. Together it's about $40,000/year and I am nothing short of grateful for it, because we have come far from much less.
We got married when I was 20, and Scott was 23. Culturally, it's a lot younger than most people are willing to get married (at least on my end), and neither of us were even close to finishing college, which we both still intend on doing. I was in my second year of college, and I had just started attending the University of North Texas for Graphic Design while we were engaged. Scott had only taken a few classes at our local community college. We knew that money was going to be hard for us if we got married. To be honest, financially, we had no business being engaged. Neither of us had stable or well-paying jobs, but we felt like God was calling us to get married, and that we would be okay. And He was right. We have been taken care of fully financially since the day we've gotten married, even through joblessness, and hospital visits (four months in no less! We got to learn what "in sickness, and in health" meant real quick! Good times...) Regardless of faith, it still required sacrifice on our end to abandon the "American Dream" in order to be married young. Right before we got married I made the decision to stop going to school to avoid debt, as I had no means of financial aid before getting married, and I was paying a fortune for something I wasn't even sure I wanted to do for the rest of my life. So now we both have full time jobs. And with our one-year anniversary coming up on the 8th, I have a gold mine of money saving tips for all of you that are in the newlywed boat.
1. Buy your furniture secondhand.
This takes some research, and like I said before, sacrifice. The hardest thing about starting a new chapter in a new home is the potential your new abode holds. Pinterest is both the creator and murderer of all dreams of home decor. When we got our first apartment I refused to leave it a blank slate. This was the place I would be sharing all of my first memories as a family with my husband in. I was determined to make it not just a dwelling space, but a home. And it's really hard to do that with little money. Especially when you're pinning all of these pins with pictures of Pottery Barn living rooms, and Williams-Sonoma kitchens.
So I used Craigslist.com to buy (almost) every furniture item in our apartment that we did not already have. It took weeks to find what I was wanting, at a price we could afford, that was in our area. We never had a bad experience with our Craigslist sellers, and we even ended up unknowingly buying a coffee table from a pro NFL player!
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| Couch: Rooms To Go Pull Out (w/ new unused mattress) $150, West Elm coffee table $150, Walmart Dining Table $90 |
All in all, we bought our couch, coffee table, and dining table (chairs included) from Craigslist sellers in our area for a grand total of around $400, as we could afford each item.
2. Buy home items at thrift shops.
Obviously this is a growing trend, but thrift stores are a great resource for finding good knick-knacks to decorate a new home with. I usually buy things like frames (there are a GOLDMINE of frames at thrift shops that can be re-purposed, and I've even seen unopened frames from Target, too!) and decorative pillows. I also found one of my best steals at my favorite thrift store of a 21 piece white plate set for $11.00. They're gorgeous and were in great condition! You can also find singular kitchen items like pots, pans, mugs, cups, etc. from various thrift shops too, it just takes some hunting! Figure out when local stores put out their new items, and when they have sales. My local thrift shop has a half off day once a week on selected categories of items, and you can get stuff for literally, pennies.
3.Split up where you're buying your groceries.
Yes, it takes effort. But if you're in a spot where penny-pinching is necessary, it does help. We're barely in a place where we feel comfortable buying all of our groceries from one place (including Walmart) because we know where we can find things cheaper.
- Buy staple items at Aldi.
Aldi is super cheap for the "off-brand" of most items, with no difference in taste for things like milk, eggs, bread, cheese, and spices/baking items. We even prefer their version of cresent and cinnamon rolls! They're super fluffy and delicious.- Buy produce at a local farmer's market.
It's cheaper, you pick the portion of what you know you're more likely to eat, and the produce is always wayyy bigger than at grocery store chains.
- Buy cleaning products at the dollar store.
(I.e. dishwashing detergent, laundry soap, trash bags, etc.) Dollar store chains sometimes make their own brand of cleaning products that are super cheap, but I have even seen select dollar stores that sell name brand cleaning products for less than what grocery stores charge.
- Check the clearance item section.
If you make a fourth trip to buy the rest of your grocery needs, be sure to check their clearance section. It's usually hidden somewhere in a shady back corner, but the products there are usually still good, they may have just been damaged cans or overstock. Always check the expiration dates too, just to be safe... ;)
4. Stop buying brand new clothing.
This was my weakness before I got married. I was a clothing hoarder. "Oh I only have $20.00 in my bank account? Well this shirt is only $17.00, I can buy it!!" WRONG. I have learned the error of my ways.
This one is pretty tricky for anyone outside of Texas, because I think these secondhand chains are only local to us. However, my favorite place to buy clothing is a place called the GW Boutique. It is a brand of Goodwill that separates out all high-end name brand clothing and sells them exclusively in this store. I've gotten names like J. Crew, Express, Nine West, and Loft, each item for less than $6.00!!! Like new. It's a beautiful thing y'all.
The other store I will recommend is Plato's Closet. It's the same concept, name brands for cheap. Pro: They sell both name brand women's and men's clothing. Con: They are predominately geared towards teens, so it's a bit harder to find clothes that are work appropriate. And GW is cheaper.
5. Sell your stuff when you need a couple of bucks.
So this is the dilemma we're in right now. Bills have hit just short of payday. We have enough to pay our bills, but after that we have zero. So it's Sunday and it's right after church and I really don't feel like making anything for lunch, but you know what sounds irresistibly delicious? CHIPOTLE. And now I must have it. No argument from Scott. But we can't afford to get Chipotle today. What's the solution? We went through an old box that had books and CD's that were never to be touched again in storage and sold them to Half Price Books. We earned ourselves $25 which was double our Chipotle tab. Problem Solved! Here is a list of stores that give cash for gently used items:
2. Plato's Closet (clothing)
3. Pawn Shops (old electronics, video games, DVD's & CD's)
Hear me out - I am not telling you to sell everything you have of value to go fulfill a momentary want. That is an unhealthy money habit, and I'm open to the argument that this might be to. What I'm suggesting is purging some of that old junk that you're holding on to that you know you're unlikely to use again in the future, or items that you have already replaced with a newer version. It helps when you're down to the wire to create a cushion for emergencies like running low on gas, or deodorant, too.
Did you overspend the paycheck before by buying items that you didn't absolutely need?
Sometimes we miscalculate budgets, and go ahead and buy luxuries we thought we could afford. Always hang on to your receipt. In the event you did forget about a bill's due date, you can always return the item you bought (given it's in the condition to be returned) and buy it again on a paycheck that has less strain.
6. KNOW YOUR FINANCES!!!
BOTH of you. BOTH spouses need to know what is happening with their money. I spent a long time avoiding checking our bank account because I was scared of what may or may not be in there, and left all of the budgeting and bill paying to Scott. Just recently I learned how unfair that was. We communicate to each other our wants, and how we want to spend before we spend it. However, I discovered that wasn't truly communicating, and by me unloading every Pinterest project I wanted to invest in next Scott is secretly calculating in his head where in the world we were going to fit that in between bills, and it added unnecessary stress on him that he didn't deserve. I got involved by setting us up on a website called Mint.com. Mint is a free website that links up all of your bank accounts, loans, and credit card accounts in to one place where you can enter in your budget, and it keeps track of all your transactions. It categorizes your spending habits, and alerts you when you are over in a specific area of your budget. You can also set up goals for saving or paying off debt and it will hold you accountable, and even set projected goal dates for you. It has been so helpful for us!
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| $656 on food is a HUGE improvement from last month which was $900!!! |
I hope these tips were helpful. We're nowhere close to being a "financially fit" couple, but we are well on our way. If you have any other helpful tips, I'd love to hear them. We are always in need of improvement!
Thanks for suffering through this endless post!
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