And on the Wedding Front...

As my readers know, I have a fiance (I write about his job and his bonuses often).  We've been engaged to one another for about two and a half years, and we've been dodging questions about "the wedding" ever since the engagement happened. I wasn't expecting to become engaged when I did, but it was the coolest engagement story ever, and I'm (of course) thrilled it happened....it just took me by surprise.

I've been dodging talking about "the wedding" for one big reason: my debt.  I have a ton, as we all know, and I just didn't want to get myself into some situation where I have to take on even more debt to get married (especially because I can't really get any new credit right now, even if I wanted to).  I want to BE married, but the whole GETTING married thing isn't something I was excited about.  At least the  financial part of it.  If I didn't have children, we'd have been to the courthouse and back by now, but a wedding is important to them, and to us as a family too, so we'll do it.

We finally set a date, but it's still a long way down the road (nearly two years).  When people have asked why we're waiting so long, I have been pretty-much honest: I want enough time to grow my hair longer, lose twenty pounds, and save for it.  So what will this mean for my debt journey?  Well, it will likely slow it  down a bit, but I will continue to make progress on my "big three" because those debts can only go down, not up. One goes down over $250 a month, the other goes down about $230, and the other about $100.

When the wedding finally gets here, Chase will be about two months shy of being paid off (that's a $340 payment so that will be HUGE for us), and the other big ones will be pretty low...maybe a combined ten grand...maybe less?  Our "little cards" can be whittled down over the next couple years, but the new detour on my journey has to be one toward saving.

My wedding is going to be simple, but even simple costs money.  I think that my frugal nature is going to help us do it for about $6000....saving monthly and using windfalls like tax refunds and bonuses can help us get there if we're disciplined, which we can be.  We have to be.  I don't want to resent spending money on a celebration of the great love we've found.

And this is where we need the discipline.  When I have extra money, I have an itch to gamble.  I need to remember that this money is going toward the greatest celebration of my life....and that heading to the casino because I have two hundred extra dollars is stupid.  Two hundred extra dollars is a lot of wedding cake, or a dress, or part of a DJ, or lots of beer for my friends.

I'm kind of glad we set a date, and that I have a goal here.  I think it will keep me focused on the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow....we'll be able to start our marriage with relatively little debt (10,000 compared to 50,000 sounds great to me), and have an awesome celebration that WE worked hard for, saved for, and paid for with cash.

I'll keep you posted.