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Ways to Reduce Your Monthly Expenses to Save for Your Wedding

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Want to reduce your monthly expenses so you can save more money to pay for your wedding day? Check out these simple ways to reduce your spending and save more!

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When you’re saving up for a wedding, every penny counts. We’ve shared hundreds of ways to save money on your wedding, from cutting your guest list to skipping cocktail hour. We’ve also shared the best ways to save up money to pay for your wedding. But what about ways to reduce your monthly expenses for everyday life?

One of the best ways to help free up funds to put toward your wedding day is to reduce your personal spending. That’s why we recommend going over the monthly personal expenses for both you and your partner while you’re calculating your wedding budget!

How to Reduce Your Monthly Expenses

First, you’ll want to identify any areas where you may currently be overspending. There are probably at least areas where you could cut back! When you reduce your monthly expenses, you’ll be able to save more to put into the wedding fund! Then once you’ve identified your target areas for reduction, you can begin making a plan to slash your costs!

Think of it as a trade-off… fewer trips to the movie theater and more nights at home with Netflix. Fewer meals dining out in favor of a free trial of a new meal-delivery service. You can take that extra $10, $20, or $50 per month and put that towards the items you deem splurge-worthy for your big day!

So if you’re looking for ideas on where to lessen your spending, don’t miss these five ways to reduce your personal expenses to help save money for your wedding! We hope you find these ideas helpful in reducing your spending!

1. Cut Down on Eating Out

I love going to restaurants and eating out, but it can definitely be expensive. Try lowering the number of times per month you eat out in order to reduce your expenses. When you do treat yourself to an evening out, check local deal sites like Groupon or Living Social first. Their offers or deals allow you to get your meals for less when you want a special treat. Both sites have apps for your smartphone so you can book AND save on the go!

When thinking about your spending, consider the value of $100. You could spend it on a trip to the grocery store that will feed you and your partner for an entire week. Alternatively, you could spend that same $100 on one night out for a fancy dinner. It’s simple math– ditch the reservations and get cooking in your kitchen for a less expensive date night. You can even make it feel luxe for much less by getting creative. Try making your own hors d’oeuvres and having cocktail hour at home for a change.


2. Have More At-Home Date Nights

Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime are amazing streaming networks that have thousands of shows and movies for you to watch at your convenience. Binge-watch your favorite shows with your fiancé from the comfort of home for a low monthly fee. You’ll save big when compared with going out to the movies.

Whip up a home-cooked dinner, make some cocktails at home, and snuggle up for some TV time together and decompress. You could even play games like Trivia Crack or Quiz Up and compete against each other for a little friendly competition! It’ll give you something fun to do together that isn’t related to the wedding… loser has to do the dishes. ? See, you can still have fun while also reducing your spending!


3. Cancel expensive gym memberships

Instead of using a standard gym membership that can cost you $100s or even thousands a year, opt for an at-home workout that you can stream on YouTube or Amazon Prime. Amazon has a bunch of the Jillian Michael’s workouts available included in the cost of your prime membership and those things will kick your booty into shape, trust me! You can still see big gains without spending big bucks.

Any sort of bodyweight exercises are great because you won’t need any fancy equipment to participate! The best part is that you can use apps on your smartphone or tablet to do these workouts wherever you go — so you won’t have to miss a workout if you’re traveling.

engaged couple saving money for wedding

4. Test out different services with free trial offers

When looking for new entertainment possibilities, consider a free trial! If you’re not yet a member, you can get a free trial offer of most of the major streaming platforms. Some worth checking out are:

  1. Hulu for watching your favorite TV shows online — YEP, you can totally cut the cord with your cable provider
  2. Netflix for watching movies and original series
  3. Amazon Prime for free streaming entertainment AND free shipping on thousands upon thousands of products you may buy on Amazon.com
  4. NextIssue which gives you access to dozens of your favorite magazines on your mobile device or tablet for free
  5. Audible which puts bestselling books right into your earholes for an easy and convenient way to “read” books!

Please note: With each of these free trial offers you usually get 30 days of service for free. If you decide to continue beyond the trial period you’ll have to pay a monthly service fee. Check out each individual offer for details.  


5. Switch Wireless Providers or Create a Family Plan with Your Fiancé

When you get engaged, you’ll have to decide whether to keep your bills and money separate or marry them together. One major bill that most folks have to deal with is their cell phone bill. You and your partner may decide to reduce your monthly expenses by combining your wireless accounts. Going from solo plans to a family plan for the two of you with shared data and minutes could save you a bundle!

tello mobile cell plan

We just discovered this great company, Tello mobile that has insanely low prices on cell phone plans. Get a family plan and start saving!

ways to reduce your monthly expenses

6. Try out savings apps to earn cashback on everyday purchases.

Another way to reduce your monthly expenses is to utilize coupons and discounts whenever possible. Ditch the coupon clipping routine and get cash back the fun and easy way. How? With the help of savings apps for your smartphone! The Ibotta app has exclusive offers at your favorite grocery stores, retailers and shops and you can even earn rewards *after* you shop by snapping a pic of your receipt. Download Ibotta today to start putting away extra cash to pay for your big day!


7. Try a Virtual Financial Personal Assistant: Trim!

Trim Financial Manager is a virtual personal assistant that constantly works to save you money! Trim can cancel your old subscriptions, set spending alerts, check how much you spent on Uber last month, and automatically fight fees… these are just a few cool ways Trim makes you savvier with less effort!

Lower Your Bills with Trim - the virtual financial personal assistant!

8. Switch Electricity Suppliers and Lower Your Monthly Electricity Bill

Being savvy means shopping around and price comparing to get the best deals. Did you know that you can actually choose your electricity supplier to get a better/lower rate on your monthly electric bill? Check out ElectricityRates.com to find the rate that works best for you and enjoy those monthly savings! Some states are able to get rates at over 25% less than their current rate– so it’s definitely worth checking out!

Electricity rates

Check out ElectricityRates.com to find a lower rate on your electricity!

Ways to earn more money to put towards your wedding:

9. Try a CashBack Credit Card

Instead of spending money from your checking account each month, put your monthly expenses on a Credit Card that earns cash back! You’ll earn back money for every dollar you spend, which can add up throughout the course of the months (or years) you are engaged.

How do you find the best cash-back credit card? Check out CashFreely!


What to do with all the money you’ve saved

Take the monies you’ve saved by lowering your expenses and have them auto-draft into a bank account. We’ve talked before about how much we love Capital One 360 for setting up automatic savings plans — it’s a great way to set it and forget it so you’re sure to stash away some cash each month.

Just remember, the areas where you are finding less expensive alternatives in order to reduce your personal spending will free up funds to put towards the areas of your wedding you care about. Take the funds you saved and put them towards your dream wedding dress, splurge on a fun photobooth for your guests, or book the wedding venue of your dreams. No matter what you choose, the sacrifices made in your personal spending will not only make those splurges possible but also that much sweeter!

Reap the rewards

Whether you’re trying to save $10k for your wedding or a down payment on a house, you can reach your savings goals faster by finding areas of excess to cut back. When you find intentional ways to reduce your expenses, you’ll reap major rewards. Of course, you will have extra cash in your bank account, but that’s not all! You’ll also be surprised at just how easy it can be to save extra money and how little you miss most of those extras.

The bottom line is this: when it comes to personal finance, it’s all about sticking to your priorities. If you can make this list work for you and your partner, you’ll be able to plan the wedding and life of your dreams together!

We hope you’ve found these tips helpful! Now go get to saving!


ways to reduce monthly expenses

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The Budget Savvy Bride is the #1 Online Wedding Planning Resource for couples who want to plan a beautiful wedding on a budget they can actually afford. Check out our best-selling book on Amazon, The Budget-Savvy Wedding Planner & Organizer!