Wedding Nonsense, Part II

So the current plan is for a small wedding and a casual reception. I say 'current' because I've heard about brides who started out thinking they'd be oh-so-casual and cheap. Then they got all caught up in the Wedding Nonsense and went off the deep end. Thus, I'm allowing for the possibility that this could happen to me.

But I really hope not.

Anyway, I like the idea of a very small wedding (about 30 people - immediate family and close friends only), and then a larger reception (more on that in a future post). My mom suggested a wedding in the morning (and by morning I'm thinking 11:00am at the earliest), and then we all go out for lunch somewhere. Sounds good to me.

Plus, a small wedding is necessary for the location I want, which is part of the Geauga County Park District. The nice benefit of using a park location is that it's free to residents. I'm no longer a resident of Geauga County, but my parents are. I intend to be the one to reserve it, but if they have a problem with that, I can always have my parents call. Of course, the drawback of the park is that I can't reserve it until November 1, so I might need a backup plan if someone manages to reserve it before I do. However, I doubt it's a really popular location. It's really beautiful - bridge over a creek that runs into a small pond, and a beautiful flowering tree (if indeed it is still flowering in June, which might not be the case), but it's out in the boonies. Here's hoping it's available.

Save Money on Hair Cuts

I get my hair cut about twice a year. Inevitably, the person cutting my hair scolds me, but oh well. It seems to work for me just fine. Plus, it saves money. Guy hair, on the other hand, needs to be cut more often. If my hair grows an inch, you can hardly tell. If my fiance's hair grows an inch, well, it's quite noticeable.

Growing up, his mother cut his hair. With four kids, that seems like a great choice. She's continued to cut it on occasion as well. Recently, we decided it wouldn't be a bad idea if I just learned how to do it myself.

I practiced with his mom's assistance before trying it on my own. I've now cut his hair 2 or 3 times without supervision, and it seems to be just fine. It also helps that his hair is very forgiving - it's quite wavy so if I mess up here or there, it's much harder to tell than it would be on someone with very straight hair. I'm still working out a few of the details (still need to figure out just how short I can cut it in certain areas where it seems much thicker), but those will be easier with practice.

We did opt to buy a decent pair of scissors, which cost us about $16 at Target. Considering a single hair cut costs about that much these days, we've already made back that money easily. It would be nice to have one of those wraps to keep the hair off his clothing, but we use an old towel for now.

I know this isn't an option for everyone - I wouldn't want to cut other types of hair, but it does save money. I also know I'm not the only one doing this. We know at least one other couple where the wife cuts the husband's hair, too. As an added bonus for us, it means he gets his hair cut more often. His hair always got quite a bit longer before he felt motivated to go get it cut. Now I can just do it in the comfort of our home.

I finally opened a Roth IRA

After making it a goal probably about a year and a half ago, I finally opened a Roth IRA. I chose to do so through Vanguard because they have a pretty low expense ratio, and because they are well-rated. I went with their Total Stock Market Index Fund, because it's pretty steady, and I'm not a big risk-taker. :)

Vanguard makes the whole process very easy. The main painful part is reading the long documents that you have to agree to before completing the process. However, the material in these made me think that they were probably pretty standard. The other annoying thing was that I filled everything out, but then wanted to print out the documents and read them before signing, and I couldn't find an easy way to save my progress once I got to the point of printing out the documents.

They require an initial investment of $3000, so you do have to save up a bit before you can open one. I also plan to continue to contribute monthly in order to max out my yearly allowable amount, which I had thought was $5500, but is apparently only $5000.

But hooray for FINALLY opening a Roth IRA. Next to find out more about Lending Club or a similar service. It's sounds like a good way to invest some money and earn a higher rate of return.

Wedding Nonsense, Part I

My boyfriend and I are nearing the point where a wedding is probably somewhere on the horizon. Still very faint in the distance, but there. As a librarian, I have of course been reading about weddings and the wedding industry. I discovered a term that I absolutely love: The Wedding Industrial Complex.

Such a great descriptor. And all too true. I simply cannot fathom spending $10,000+ on a single day, but the wedding industrial complex makes it so hard to avoid it. So this is the start of a series of posts on the various ridiculous (as I see them, anyway) aspects of the wedding industry and ideas for avoiding them.

Post I: Everyone always says you should get a diamond engagement ring. "Diamonds are traditional." "Go for a big diamond, especially if your boyfriend has the money." Well, I have recently read in two different books that the idea of a diamond engagement ring became popular when one of DeBeers' marketers came up with the slogan "A Diamond is Forever" in the 1930s or 1940s. So really, a diamond is not all that traditional. I will probably be skipping that and going for a gemstone. :)

Living with One Car

Last December, I was in a rear-end collision. Minus some whiplash discomfort, I was fine. My car, however, was not. It did what any good Honda Civic should do. It crumpled. And the frame was damaged, thus the car was totalled. I got a reasonable amount of money for it from the car insurance of the woman who hit me. No real complaints there.

Not particularly in the mood to shop for a new car, my boyfriend and I decided to see how things would go for us with just one car. We'd been talking about it for a while anyway.

Six months later, things are going pretty well. We really don't have too much trouble with it - sometimes I have to get up at 4:30am to take him to the airport for work, or we have to rearrange a bit, but it really hasn't been all that inconvenient. Of course, we are within walking and biking distance of our places of work, which helps a lot. Public transportation is also an option, although we haven't resorted to it yet.

He has a 1997 Civic (mine was a 2002, and we joke that the wrong car was totalled), so we'll probably need to replace that eventually, but for now, it's fine.

It's great to save money on car insurance, annual inspections, license renewals, oil changes, maintenance, etc. Well worth trying if your situation would make it possible. Plus, walking to and from work is so freeing! :)

I had no idea I could eat that!

My boyfriend and I are participating in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) this year. It's both wonderful and challenging. It's great because it's all so fresh and local. And we get more than just fruits and veggies - free range eggs, cheeses, potted herbs, cider, mushrooms, and more! But it's also a bit tricky for two people to eat all the food we get each week. I've resorted to giving away a few things, which my coworkers certainly don't mind. It can also be difficult to figure out things to make with everything we get.

Another interesting aspect of the CSA has been eating foods that I've never eaten before - kale, broccoli rabe, scapes, ramps, and more. This week we'll be receiving purslane, which I've weeded out of many gardens without ever realizing it is an edible and tasty treat (so they say - I've yet to try it). I don't know why, but the fact that such a common weed is edible is just crazy to me. I know we can eat dandelions, but they're so bitter that I wouldn't want to. This one is supposed to be quite good. We shall see.

Fleas

Jez, our cat who has not been outside in over a year, has fleas for the first time. Since I've never had a cat with fleas before, I had no idea what it was. So we probably caught it rather late - after she shed quite a few flea eggs onto our bed and they had time to hatch near the foot.... and well, it's just not pleasant.

A trip to PETCO was in order. Off we went with a vague idea of what we were looking for. I had looked up Frontline on the computer and the PETCO website said it was $41.99 for 3 months. A bit hefty but oh well.

We get to the store only to discover that it costs $64.99 there, and they will not match the price on their website. Absurd. I hadn't seen the notice at the very bottom of the webpage that said "Regular and sale prices, offers and selection on PETCO.com may vary from those of PETCO stores and the PETCO Store Circular." And really, charging 55% more in the store - what is the justification for that? A premium not to wait for it to ship? Pathetic.

So I asked the cashier if she could give us any discount at all. After discussing it with a manager, we were able to get it for $55. Still a markup but 31% instead of 55%. Later, we learned that we can get it for $35 at a local animal rescue league. We will definitely be looking into that.

The point is that you can get discounts at a chain store. It helped that my boyfriend re-looked up the price on his Blackberry and was able to prove to them that it was a lot cheaper online.

And hopefully after Frontline, furniture spray, and a fogger , we will soon be flea-free.