how much should i save and where?

so....
i'm saving for wedding obv and a place to live.

Does that mean i put no $ into my reg. personal savings?
I put in about 350 today into my own ing acct and part of me feels bad. I know FH isn't putting 100% into the wedding so i shouldn't feel THAT bad but i do.

Is everyone saving 100% ONLY towards wedding and/or house?
If not what % are u saving where?

Re: how much should i save and where?

when we got engaged we opened a joint savings acct which is our wedding acct. Every 2 weeks we have X amt of dollars from both of our paychecks going into that acct...the rest goes into our own accts. We are also putting any $$ we get as gifts into that acct or if we ever just have a little extra cash. We don't touch this acct for anything other than wedding related items.

we keep money in our other accounts for bills etc.

Re: how much should i save and where?

we did the joint savings thing. But do i put 100% in after my bills, 75% ?

i'm so confused lol

I wish it were now but i'm glad that my wedding is a 15 months away just to save $$

Re: how much should i save and where?

We opened an account with the money we got from our e-party. I put each one of my expense checks (about $300 a month) into the account as well as another $100 from each paycheck. So I have about $500 per month going into our joint account.

FH is putting $450 from each of his paychecks into our joint account as well. He makes MUCH more than I do, so he can afford to do that. I also lent him A LOT of money last year, so him putting this money into 'our' account is his way of paying me back.

Luckily we don't need to put too much away because my parents are paying for the wedding and his parents are paying for the HM and we already have the house. So right now we are saving for all of the extras for the wedding and a new car.

Re: how much should i save and where?

most of my $ goes into my personal savings account, for a while i was depositing monthly into my 'wedding account' i have jointly w/ FH but kinda stopped for a bit

Re: how much should i save and where?

I save practically my whole paycheck. I still live at home, brown bag my lunch and have no credit card bills so my expenses are minimal. I leave all my store credit cards at home and try to live off of $200 per paycheck. Sometimes I am able to stretch that out for the entire month. FH puts all deposits out of his own money so basically we are even in the amonts we save. It's hard, but sacrificing now will payy off later.

Re: how much should i save and where?

i dont make a whole lot of money cuz i also go to school, but i put about $200 a month (sometimes more if i work more hours) into our joint account, and FH puts about $450 a month (again, or more if he does a side job) into our joint account.

the rest of my money after bills is in my own account, and same for him.

i don't know what percentage that is, but i dont think you need to put 100% into the joint account...because you aren't married yet, so let's say all your savings is in the 'wedding' acct, and you need to buy something, new work clothes, a birthday present for ur best friend, would you feel comfortable taking it out of the wedding acct? or would you want some of that money in ur own acct?? thats how i look at it

Re: how much should i save and where?

Most of my money goes to my monthly expenses such as rent, groceries and student loans. Whatever I have left, I have been putting about 90 percent to the wedding, 10 percent to my personal savings. I am with you, I feel bad about not doing 100 percent but I think in the long run, it will benefit us in case an emergency comes up!

Re: how much should i save and where?

---

Posted by FutureMrsKuehne

i dont make a whole lot of money cuz i also go to school, but i put about $200 a month (sometimes more if i work more hours) into our joint account, and FH puts about $450 a month (again, or more if he does a side job) into our joint account.

the rest of my money after bills is in my own account, and same for him.

i don't know what percentage that is, but i dont think you need to put 100% into the joint account...because you aren't married yet, so let's say all your savings is in the 'wedding' acct, and you need to buy something, new work clothes, a birthday present for ur best friend, would you feel comfortable taking it out of the wedding acct? or would you want some of that money in ur own acct?? thats how i look at it

---

I agree with Gina in that you shouldn't have to put 100% into the joint account. As a matter of fact, even when we're married I won't be doing that. My mother taught me to ALWAYS have a separate account of my own, even if it's just for spending cash.

Re: how much should i save and where?

After i graduated college my mom made me put $200 each month into a seperate savings account that I do not touch. A few months before i got engaged I opened a new account and I put $300 each month into it. Now that i am engaged i bumped that up to $500. My FH and I live together in a Condo he purchased 2 years ago. So we are not in a rush to find a house to live in. And fortunately my parents are footing the bill for the wedding.

We are just trying to be smart about expenses and not buying anything out of the ordinary. I think it help if you keep track of how much you spent per week and what things you are spending money on. You will be able to see the areas you should cut back on.

Re: how much should i save and where?

I put almost all of my paycheck into the savings, I only hold back about $100. I am the main saver because FH still has car payments and student loans, but he puts in a decent amount each week and has started to work side jobs and puts 100% of those jobs into savings. I am crazy strict and organized about money and savings and have been saving for my wedding and house since I was sixteen! FH has learned to live with it lol, and actually likes it now that we are engaged and there is something tangible in sight that we will spend our savings on.

Re: how much should i save and where?

Unfortunatly we are basically putting every cent towards our wedding/HM/ house or apt for after the wedding. It isn't ideal but for now we have to.

Re: how much should i save and where?

---

Posted by MrsC2010

when we got engaged we opened a joint savings acct which is our wedding acct. Every 2 weeks we have X amt of dollars from both of our paychecks going into that acct...the rest goes into our own accts. We are also putting any $$ we get as gifts into that acct or if we ever just have a little extra cash. We don't touch this acct for anything other than wedding related items.

we keep money in our other accounts for bills etc.

---

this is what we are doing too... we're putting all gifts into our joint account. Putting 50% of our checks into that acct as well... which pays all things wedding related. Our personal accts get the other 50% and we pay our bills with it. What ever is extra, we save....if we have to dip into it later to pay wedding stuff, we will have no prob doing so. It's basically the same thing. We do anticipate going over budget though we're trying hard not to.

Re: how much should i save and where?

i wouldn't save 100%..you might want money left over for yourself..plus it sounds horrible but one of my friends has been married for a year and shes getting divorced--bc they kept sep. accounts before they got married its making her life a lot easier right now..

that being said our e-party is next month and were going to put all our money that into an account, and then each put like 100 a pay check into it to save for a house..not a lot but im a student right now and an intern so after wedding stuff not a lot left over, and we both bought new cars in the past 2 years..

Re: how much should i save and where?

For some reason our budget is astronomical!! And we only have to save half. It is crazy. Right now I am putting about $1000 a month into a wedding fund. Anything we have left over and the wedding gift money we are planning to put a down payment in order to buy (house if we are lucky or condo/co-op). That is the real reason we are waiting to get married until 2010. Also, we just opened a joint money market account and our first joint credit card (in order to earn the points). But we def. have seperate accounts. I am really concerned about the whole savings though because I have a ton of expensive things coming up and I am afraid I won't be able to afford them.....ahhhh

Re: how much should i save and where?

I'm saving towards the wedding/house...AND I also have my own personal savings. But I also have ALOT to pay back in student loans so thats where my personal savings is going. If you have any personal debt, then I would def. reccomend putting $ into your own savings acct. for that.

Re: how much should i save and where?

we have our wedding savings and it is diff everyweek of what we can save BUT as for both our personal savings it is pretty much at a stand still so we can save for our wedding and a future house.

Re: how much should i save and where?

since i am still only working part time i don't save much of anything right know. once i start working full time i will be putting a lot of money into savings for the wedding. luckily i don't need to worry about saving for some place to live at this time.

Re: how much should i save and where?

my check has a certain amount deposited into an account to pay rent and my car, then some goes into my savings and the balance is for my credit cards and spending money.
i work for my dad's business as well at home so i use that money plus extra money to go into the wedding account.
john has money sepearate for his bills and then his spending money and then he transfers a portion every week into the account.

we also put all extra money in there form birthdays, taxes, or if we win money from sports pools.
i also signed up for 'keep the change' with my bank and everytime i use my debit card it rounds up and transfers the change to an account. ive saved $145 just from the change over the past few months.

Re: how much should i save and where?

before we got engaged i had all i wanted to save for our co-op - we don't want a house

so now all my savings goes to the wedding and anything left over will go more for the down payment but we already have enough for that - we are lucky