The Cheap Wedding Tips newsletter brings you the latest money-saving and budgeting tips for your wedding.

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Contents of this issue

- Make the most of your savings

- Quick tips to save more for your wedding

- Other brides' saving tips

- Setting up your wedding budget

- Cheap wedding tip

- Final thought

Make the most of your saving

In these times when cash is hard to come by, you need to make the most of your cash. With credit drying up and prices rising on everyday items we buy, we all need to find ways to make our money go further in creative ways. Besides the obvious things like creating a wedding account in the form of an ISA and putting away a regular amount each month, just how can you save more?

Last month, I came across a fabulous a little book about being 'stylishly' thrifty. Can there be such a thing? Definitely according to the author India Knight, who focuses on saying no to waste and instead saving tons of money.

Some simple things she suggests include becoming more of a domestic goddess. Not in the Nigella kind of way, but more in a Mrs Beaton sense of planning, using seasonal ingredients and good solid basics to make fabulous food. By planning your meals in advance and only buying what you need on a weekly basis, you could reduce your weekly shopping bill drastically. Of course, you do need to be prepared to do the cooking too and have time to do more thoughtful food shopping, but with meal plans ahoy and printable shopping lists available online it makes the task far less daunting.

(Just an aside, but if you plan your wedding well in advance and think carefully about what you buy you will, of course, save money too. It's the basics of budgeting and reigning in impulse buying. But that's another story which you can read about here).

Knight also highlights the growing trend in crafts and finding individual pieces that buck the commercial trend of the high street. There's nothing more fulfilling than creating your accessories, invitations or gifts for friends. It's personal, unique and let's you be creative – it's also becoming hugely popular as people look to be different and save money.

Etsy.com is a great place to start for anything handmade and unique. Whether you're looking for clothes or a handbag, or perhaps something for your wedding, your will find that special something there and since it's made by a crafty individual, you're helping them rather than helping the commercial high street big boys. If you've got an once of creativity yourself, then perhaps consider setting up an Etsy shop and selling your own stuff – certainly a good money spinner!

For those who have the creative flair and want to turn their hand to their own wedding, then StyleMePretty.com is a fantastic blog with superb ideas and inspiration for handcrafted, beautiful wedding items.

Just to round off, here are some of Knight's other tips from her book: The Thrift Book: Live Well and Spend Less
- Make presents rather than buy them. Truffles, homemade fudge, photo albums, knitted scarves, compilation CDs, jewellery are all things that you can pull together yourself without spending a fortune.
- When shopping in the supermarkets avoid looking at eye level (that's where all the expensive stuff is), instead look up and down to find cheaper alternatives and stop shopping at the 'posh' supermarkets.
- Write a shopping list and stick to it. No impulse buys or 'ooh, I'll just have some of those lovely treats on offer'. If it's not on the list, it's not going in the trolley.
- Use recycled wrapping paper like brown parcel paper with coloured string or ribbons instead of expensive sheet paper.

There are plenty more tips on fashion, dinner parties, food, make-up, kids and family, in Knight's The Thrift Book: Live Well and Spend Less – it's worth a look.

Quick tips to save more for your wedding

Have you ever thought about how much money you're wasting? We never notice the few pence here or even few pounds there that we spend on a daily basis, but it all mounts up. Here are a few quick ways to reclaim some significant cash:

1. Ditch the morning latte. I still people commuting every day with a large cup of coffee in hand. Whether it helps them start the day or not, it certainly makes a dint in their wallet over the course of a year. In my local deli, a latte is £1.50 to take out. It's yummy and a once a week special treat. But those who indulge every working day, that works out to be a hefty sum. Over the course of a working year, it's about £375 worth of coffee. Something I could do without if it meant that lovely wedding dress I had my eye on was actually in reach…

2. Lose the wedding magazines and head online for inspiration. There are plenty of wedding blogs that offer inspiration for your wedding that won't set you back £4 a pop. By curbing your magazine habit, you could save £10 a month, which could easily add another £120 to your budget by the end of the year. If you're looking for inspiration, some of my favourite wedding blogs are:
- StyleMePretty.com – as mentioned above
- I-Do-It-Yourself.com
- ManoloBrides.com
- Bridalwave.tv
- And I'm sure if you search, you'll find plenty more…

3. Finally, and this one is a biggie, stop popping out for a shop-bought sarnie and make your own lunch. If you and your fiancé did this over the course of a year, you could save on average £4 a day each. Over the course of a working year (50 weeks) this is a whopping £2,000. Obviously, you'll need to buy the ingredients to make your own, but it will still save you an absolute fortune. Definitely worth considering.

Other brides' saving tips

"I put my savings in a cash ISA and got a great rate. It should give me about an extra £100 in interest this year!" Sally-Ann, Derby

"We had a clear out of all a load of old junk and sold it on eBay. Half the stuff we didn't think would sell, but someone bought it! We made £358 over the course of the week and now I'm addicted!" Claire, Newcastle

"My boyfriend and I are putting all our silver coins in a piggy bank at the end of every day. So far we've got £45 and it's only been six weeks." Richard and Sarah, Bristol

How are you saving extra cash? Why not share your ideas here? Simply email and tell me and I'll include them next month.

Setting up your wedding budget

If you're saving for your wedding, then you've got to have a budget in mind.

You probably already know roughly how much you need for your dream day, but have you set up a proper wedding budget yet?

Many couples heavily underestimate how much their wedding is actually going to cost them often sending them well over budget and worse, into debt. Not a great start to married life. Make sure this doesn’t happen to you by carefully working out how much you really need to save to pay for your wedding. Here are few articles that will help you do just that:
How to set up your wedding budget
Golden rules of sticking to your wedding budget
The biggest wedding budget traps

Get your budget off to a fly start with the wedding planner

The Cheap Wedding Success Wedding Planner has been improved so it’s a fully interactive spreadsheet.

This makes it much easier for you to keep track of your budget, guest invites, thank you cards and much more!

It’s an essential tool to ensure you keep on budget. All you need to do is punch in the figures and it’ll do the rest. Oh, did I mention it's FREE?

Download it now >>>

Cheap wedding tip

This cheap wedding tip for finding bargains came from Rachel.

"To save money on our venue, we have hired a pub for only £10 per head. We are also having the wedding on a Friday and so our photographer is over £300 pounds cheaper than the weekend!"

Have you got a cheap wedding tip? Do you have a good idea, handy hint, or creative tip that you’d like to let others know? Then share it here and help other brides save too.

Final thought

Well, a happy New Year to you all!

I'm sorry this newsletter is a bit late this time, it was due out just before Christmas, but time run away from me! New Year was equally as busy with the birth of our little one, Charlie, who entered the world on New Year's Eve! As you can imagine, he's been keeping me busy!

So, with a new little baby in the house, things will probably be a little quieter on the website. I'll be keeping a low profile for a few months, but back in late Spring in time for the 2009's wedding season!

All the best!

P.S. Don't forget to check out the forum where you can chat and share cheap wedding secrets with plenty of other brides on a budget.