Frugal wedding

Hi there! Turns out I haven't posted in a while…oops! Well, to get you updated on what's going on, I recently got engaged to my best friend and I couldn't be happier! 

Be prepared for many DIY and minimalist wedding posts in the future. One things that we have always wanted was a wedding that didn't cost much, but was all about us and what we wanted, with close and friends there to celebrate with us. We definitely aren't going with many traditional wedding ideas and we are so excited about it.

Do any of you have any frugal wedding ideas you'd like to share? or any ways to have money will planning this fun day? let me know! :)

Live below the line

Today was a great day for me! I learned about a fantastic new campaign called Live Below the Line. This is an innovative awareness and fundraising campaign that started in order to make a huge difference in the fight against extreme poverty.  The minute I heard about it I knew I had to support it.  It is shocking to find out what people have to live on and how much people have to spend in a day in other countries, especially third world.

The challenge is to live off of $1.75 per day for food and drink for 5 days straight totalling $8.75.  By doing this, you will bring to life what 1.4 billion people currently have to spend on a daily basis just to survive.

This really hit home for me. Just the fact that in Canada, you can spend $8.75 on ONE meal alone and it's no big deal at all.  I have never really though about that but it's true.  We are so lucky here, and others don't have that luxury.

So there you have it. It will take a ton of planning as well as self control to get this done, but I think I can do it and I'm helping a fantastic cause along the way by raising money.  In a way, it will also help me with my grocery bills and controlling my spending that I have talked about in a previous post. It will no doubt me hard, but I am up for the challenge. Luckily, I have the support of everyone around me and even a great friend doing it along with me!

I will definitely post about my results and how the whole experience went. The 5 days is starting Monday, April 29th. Lets do this!

Spending cash instead of plastic

Today I had someone bring up to me the idea of using cash over plastic. I've seen tons of articles on both of these opposite ideas.  Different ways work for different people I'm sure, but lately I've been going with the cash option.

Starting in march, I want to take out $150 cash every payday (every 2 weeks) and have that be my entertainment and more fund. Now, this doesn't include major bills such as rent, credit cards, phone etc. This is strictly entertainment, groceries, coffees, and meals out.

I have done this before and it's worked really well in the past. Because for me personally, if I can see the physical cash dwindling down in my wallet, I'm much less inclined to spend it.  With plastic, it's easy to swipe and just forgot you ever spent money, which is a very bad habit.

With this system, I'm hoping I'm able to survive. I should be able to considering I've already cut my grocery and morning coffee costs.

Anyone else have luck with the cash over plastic system?