It's Just Money

Recycling Haul!

Our latest recycling haul was our best.  Our first attempt yielded a modest $18.41.  That was quite a load.  Our problem was that we had too much glass.  It turns out that glass, in addition to being heavy, smelly (unless you wash out each beer bottle), and impossible to condense (unless you want shattered glass all over the place) doesn't pay very well.  So, we started to collect plastic and aluminum only.  After about six weeks of collecting, we brought in our second haul.  This time we earned an impressive $26.17!  Woohoo!

This time we collected for a good two months solid.  We actually brought haul #3 in on New Year's Eve, but I forgot to post about it.  We continued to limit our collection to plastic and aluminum.  We have been receiving collections from all sorts of different places.  With other folks contributing to our collection, this round proved to be the most profitable yet.  We earned a grant total of $43.22!

So, this is an interesting piece of advice.  If you are recycling bottles and cans for a bit of extra cash (and I really mean "a bit"), you should keep two things in mind.  First, plastic and aluminum only for the reasons stated early regarding glass.  Second, let everyone know that you are collecting.  Especially if you have earmarked the money for something.  In our case, the wedding fund.  Many people want to recycle but consider it a hassle.  Often, they are willing to bag it all up, and pass it along.

I started bringing a plastic bag to my weekly basketball games to collect empty Gatorade and water bottles.  When I explained that it was for our wedding fund, I got the expected jokes, "man, you're going to need A LOT of bottles!"  But guess what happened.  The next week, guys started to show up with garbage bags full from home.  Also, at the office.  Something as simple as a trash can or box clearly labeled, "Recycle Cans and Bottles!" may yield more than you might expect.

Obviously, it's a drop in the bucket in paying for our wedding, but every bit helps.

Couples Fighting Over Money

I received this email from a reader:

Last night I decided that my fiancé' and I had the last fight about money we will have.  (Well, it I can help it, it was.)  We are getting married this coming May and look at money  a little differently.  I am very uptight about spending money on certain things.  i.e. eating out.    It's crazy, I know.  I grew up kind of poor and started to work at an early age to pay for everything I have.   I think that my uptightness comes from that.  Now, we both have decent jobs and make pretty good money.  However, I am still uptight.  I do not want to carry this uptightness into our marriage and I really want to change.

PLEASE HELP!    I know that many marriages end because of money issues, and I don’t want that to be us.

Any advice on how to give my uptightness with money the good heave ho?

I have a fairly lengthy response to this, but please, please please help this young woman out with additional advice.  Especially from those who have "been there."

My response...

The hunt for a wedding reception site begins! Any Advice?

Tomorrow night we have the first of what I'm sure will be many appointments with a reception hall.  Our process so far has been mostly "research" mode.  We searched for locations on line, and asked friends and family for recommendations.  After contacting those places and receiving event menus via email or fax, we organized them by price.

We are visiting the cheap ones first so that we don't fall in love with the Ritz and find ourselves "settling" on the local American Legion Hall because of budget.  Maybe we'll love the American Legion Hall, and won't even make it to the Ritz.

The "cheap" list, and I use the word cheap with hesitation, includes mostly golf clubs and restaurants with banquet rooms.  The hotels and private estates are generally more expensive.  The place we're seeing tomorrow is a restaurant which does a lot of events.  We attended a Holiday party there a few years ago and were pretty impressed.

Here's where I am seeking advice.  What key questions should we ask?  Obviously, we'll go over menus, availability, pricing, room setup...  But what are the important, but often overlooked things that we should remember to ask when we visit?

Thanks!

Recycling Time!

About six weeks ago we brought in our haul after saving aluminum cans, plastic bottles and glass bottles.  We drove home from parties with a trunk full of beer bottles on two different occassions.  Sorted, and even rinsed out most of the goods.  For all that, we earned $18.41.  That was about two months worth of hoarding.

This time we kept the glass to a minimum.  We saved all the plastic and aluminum possible.  She put a box by her desk for co-workers to throw their water bottles and soda cans into after lunch.  I brought plastic bags to the gym to collect the guys' gatorade bottles after basketball.  This time, we brought our good to the recycle center after six weeks, and took in $26.17!  Woohoo!  We're getting better at this.

The money earned is going directly to the wedding fund.  We have decided that we will start with a budget of $20,000, and anything earned from recycling, or any additional income outside of our employment, will also go to the wedding fund.

That puts our wedding fund at a total of $20,044.58!

How much do you spend on wedding gifts?

I feel like we have discussed this before, but I can't find the topic anywhere.  Actually, I have two questions, maybe three.  Let me give you some of the back story.  My Fiancee and I have two weddings to attend in November (again people, weddings on Saturdays during college football season is NOT acceptable!).  These two weddings will make it seven for us this year.  Typically, if the couple was my friend first, I buy the gift, and they were my Fiancee's friend first, she buys.  We approach things a little differently.  I generally scour the register online with a budget in mind, and look for things, or a combination of things, that are in my price range and have it shipped to the couple's house.  She likes to go to the store, take the gift home and wrap it herself.

Also, my Fiancee is attending the shower for one of these weddings this weekend.  She's trying to figure out what she is supposed to buy for the shower gift.

I Googled the question, "How much should you spend on a wedding gift?" and the answers varied.

The Wedding Fund Grows, But Not by Leaps and Bounds

A little under two months ago, my Fiancee and I decided that we would start recycling aluminum, plastic and glass as a small supplement to our wedding fund.  Well, we got one thing right, it was small!

After nearly two months of collected water bottles, cans of coke, beer and guava juice; going to parties and leaving with garbage bags full of beer bottles, we loaded up my Dad's truck and headed to the nearest recycle center.  A few things you should know about if our new found riches inspires you to start cashing in on your old beer bottles.

Your glass should be sorted by color.  The three types of recyclable glass are clear, amber and green.  Corona would be clear, Heineken or Rolling Rock would be green and Budweiser would be amber.  As far as I can tell, the payout is the same, but it helps out the guys who work there.  They don't have an easy job, you can at least do your part.

Plastic and aluminum is the fast track to big money.  Glass is heavy, takes up more of your storage space in between trips to the recycle center, and yields very little cash.  Also, you can crush aluminum cans and smash down most types of plastic.

So, you ready for our grand total?

$18.41

That's eighteen big ones!  Plus a quarter, dime, nickel and a penny, one of each.

The breakdown based on the type of material was $8.00 for plastic, Five something for the cans, leaving about five bucks for the glass.  The glass, however, filled up more than two large garbage bags, while the cans filled up roughly two grocery bags.  Quite a difference.

Oh well, it's eighteen bucks that we didn't have last week.  And our wedding budget is now $20,018.41.  Not that we have the $20k saved, but that's our planned budget.

Man, we're going to need A LOT of cans and bottles.

Wedding Budget Madness and Mind Numbing Quotes from WeddingChannel Message Boards

My Fiancee and I are in the "hand wringing" stage of the wedding budget.  As it stands now, our allocations are way above our budgeted amount.  Like 50% higher.  Granted, it is early, and we have not interviewed florists, photographers, etc.  So, perhaps we are budgeting too much in certain categories, but let's just say that cuts and compromises will need to happen.

Much as I seek comfort, community and solace among the PFbloggers, I headed over to the weddingchannel.com message board to see the conversations that were going on, and to find out if I could get any benchmarks for certain line items or to see if anyone had any great cost saving ideas.

Many there are practical and had some good ideas.  But you would not believe some of the things I read.  Here are a few choice entries (my commentary in italics).

The Search for a Wedding Reception Site is On!

I'm seeking advice from my always insightful readership!

With the wedding still over a year away, we are not pressed to find a location.  However, we would like to take advantage of all the time that we have to find a place that we will both be very happy with, but within our budget.  I know that all of the dozens of Los Angeles area hotels are always an option, but most of them are way overpriced.

I would love it if we can find a courtyard, garden court, botanical garden type of place.  Ideally, something that also has an indoor area, just in case the weather is not cooperative.  We are pretty flexible on location, although the boundaries seem to be Pasadena/Arcadia to the NE, Santa Monica/Westside to the NW, Long Beach to the SE, and the Pacific ocean to the SW (including the South Bay beach cities).

We would be ever so grateful for any recommended location or websites that will help our search!

Vegas Wedding Baby!

No, not my wedding.  I attended a Vegas wedding last weekend.  Vegas has long been known as a bachelor/bachelorette party destination, as witnessed by Financial Freedumb's recent excursion.  However, this is the fourth wedding I have attended in Las Vegas, and the third in the last three years.

There are plenty of good reasons for this trend. 

First Conversation About the Wedding Budget

My Fiancee and I sat down recently to construct our initial wedding budget.  We already know that we will be having a fairly large (around 250 guests), traditional church wedding with a dinner reception following.  We have decided that our hard-line budget is $20,000.  We will try to plan the expenses for less, but knowing that we do seek all the trappings of a "traditional" wedding, that will be difficult.

When I have a final copy of our budget, I'll post it here for all the world to scrutinize, criticize, and hopefully, make suggestions.  We have decided to begin an aggressive recycling campaign to help defray the costs of the wedding.  Sounds silly, but I hope to collect $1,000 by the date of our wedding.

Some of the items that I am convinced we can save some money on include the photographer, flowers and her gown (I know, I'm a bad man!).  I know that cutting down the guest list will be critical in order to keep in budget.  I'm guilty here.  My list is larger than hers.  Many more conversations, compromises and civil disagreements are sure to follow!  I really am looking forward to all of it.  I'll keep you posted.