Quick Saving Advice For The College Graduate!
It sounds silly.....but....I'll say it anyways. One thing I wish I did when I graduated from college is:
Started putting $20 a month away strictly for participation in weddings.
I spent my past weekend in two weddings (numbers 3 and 4 of the 7 we are attending in a 2 month span). At one of the weddings I attended, I met a guy who has been a groomsman in 9 (yes, nine) weddings. That is 9:
-tuxedo rentals
-bachelor parties
-wedding gifts
-possibly a bridal shower(co-ed for us guys)
-engagement parties
-travel costs
All of this stuff adds up and almost everyone is going to go through it. I never even thought about this expense until recently. But having been a groomsman twice in the last two weeks, here is just some breakdown of what this costs:
-Tuxedo rental - $150 each time
-Bachelor party - $550 for one and about $200 for the other
-Wedding gifts - Haven't bought them yet but probably about $60 each. (Should be more, but the presents I'm buying are more of a joke: Breadmakers ala the movie Old School. See more of my favorite movies in the About Me.
-Bridal shower: $0 - neither person had a co-ed one
-Engagement party - $0 - neither person had one
-Other - $40 for dollar dances, $50 for pre-wedding drinks.......
-Travel costs - None for the two weddings I was a groomsman in, but about $350 for another wedding we attended over the weekend.
There is so much more and it all adds up. I wish I had saved for this stuff earlier. One other thing that I considered after all this:
Why didn't myself and my 5 closest guy friends (3 weddings down, 2 more of us to go) just all buy the same tuxedo for the first wedding and then try to hold the line on gaining weight until all of us were married. That way we wouldn't have to rent everytime but we could just swap out the vest for a different color or something. Just something to think about I guess.....
posted by Please Read @ 7:13 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Nice post...It looks like this is something I am just going to be getting involved in as well. A good friend of mine just got engaged and I think he "opened the flood gates."
Pretty sound advice, most people underestimate the cost of weddings - Even if you're just a guest. I wish I would have done something like this years ago.
I am going through this stage in my life as well. All of my friends are getting hitched and it costs a lot more than you think.
Of course I had to go and move half way across the country and incur more expense for travel.
This is a great post and more people should be aware of this!
Good Job.
Not a bad idea! Weddings currently fall under recreational/personal spending for me, but it's VERY expensive once you're IN the wedding. Our guy friends are lucky, only two of them amongst the ten gals, so we girls would have to get reallly creative with your buy-a-tux idea! =)
Very few men actually own a tuxedo and there is a misconception that you need to rent tuxedo formal wear instead of buying. It sounds expensive, but even a high-end used tuxedo can be bought for about what it would cost to rent three times; and most evening wear, if bought wisely, will never go out of style. So the purchase of your tuxedo formal wear will last and can be used at anytime without having to continually plan for an event.
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