Hey everyone! I hope all of you had a great weekend.
Not too much happened this weekend for us. We tried to do a little off-roading the other day, but even the park was closed because of the bad weather and all of the snow. I was happy when I saw that the gates were closed because the roads looks horrible…
Last week, it was negative 40 degrees with windchill, and yesterday it was over 60 degrees. The weather has been crazy! 60 degrees actually felt warm and I wore shorts out yesterday.
This week will be a busy one. I have a few wedding related appointments, and we are also helping W’s parents move to Memphis. I’m hoping to find a library close-by or a Starbucks and dedicate a full day to working after we arrive.
Spending
Earlier in the month, we did spend around $200 buying new items for our bathroom and our guest bathroom. Both needed a redo and they now look much better.
We didn’t spend too much this week. We spent money on groceries, and we went out to eat three times (one was to try the BBQ! – see below).
When it comes to travel rewards spending though, I spent A LOT. As a part of my gift to my bridesmaids, I offered to pay for the bulk of their roundtrip plane tickets to Vegas. The total? 84,000 points for all five of us (the other 3 bridesmaids have free tickets already). I caught it while it was on sale, and it hasn’t been this cheap ever.
If you’ve been to Vegas recently, TELL ME ALL ABOUT IT! I love hearing about Vegas, even though I’ve already been several times. It’s wonderful 🙂
Business Income
Business income is still going well. Last week was a little slow, but I’m hoping it was because everyone is still recouping from the holidays.
I also got a decent amount done last week, but I still have much to do. I really wish I could say that this week will be a week where I can finally get everything done, but this week is a going to be a busy one for me.
If anyone needs any help, check out my Hire Me page and let me know what services you are interested in. Lately, a few other website owners have asked me to help run their website while they are gone for just a month or two, so this is a new service that I am also offering.
I even received a few inquiries about this last week, so keep them coming! If you are starting a new job, about to have a baby, want to do some long-term travel or something else, please let me know.
Being healthy
I have been doing great with being healthy and eating more healthy this year so far. I know that’s not saying much since it is only January 13th, but I’m hoping that I can keep this up.
In the past week, I believe I ran four miles each day for five days. That is the most progress I have seen in a very long time. I’m hoping to keep that up this week!
Wedding Planning
Wedding planning is finally in full swing. I’m trying to stop looking at Pinterest pictures, and finally booking actual items for the wedding.
Today, a friend and I are going to look at wedding rental places. We need tables, chairs, tent, linens, a dance floor, and a few other items. I have found that most of the companies around here offer similar pricing, so I am just checking to see how some of these companies are in person. I have read horror stories about rental companies, so I just want to make sure.
I’m going to guess that wedding rentals will cost around $4,000 for everything.
Of course, that depends on how many people are coming also. I counted, and there are 225 people on our list, but I have heard that usually only 75% attend. That would be around 175, which would make our rentals cost around $1,000 less. I guess we won’t find out until the actual wedding comes around though! I’m fine either way though of course. What percentage of people attended your wedding? How many showed up even though they said “no” on the RSVP?
Last week, I signed the contract for the hair and makeup for my wedding. For another part of my gift to my bridesmaids, I am paying for the majority of their hair and makeup. I believe it is around 75% that I am paying. I have eight bridesmaids, so the cost definitely adds up quickly!
Hair and makeup will be around $1,000 with tip.
Last week, we also found our wedding BBQ caterer as well. The pricing is great, and the food is even better. We LOVED the pulled pork, baked beans, smoked fruit, cornbread and the green beans. We have been drooling about it since.
I do have a question for you – if you were to have wedding BBQ, what kind of dishes would you want to see?
BBQ will be around $2,000 probably. We also need to find a bartender and try to come up with a drink menu so that we know what we need to buy.
Then this week, I am hoping to finalize the invitations. Lots to do, lots to do!
Posts from Making Sense of Cents
- $12,160 in December Business Income
- 2014 and January Goals – It will be a GREAT year
- Extra Income Series: I’m a Creative Web Entrepreneur
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Have you been doing well with your extra income, spending and being healthy?
Dee @ Color Me Frugal says
At our wedding we actually did not have many people show up who had not RSVP’d- but we actually had the opposite problem. People who HAD RSVP’d did not show, which was super frustrating since we had paid for food for the number of folks who had RSVP’d plus a few extra just in case. Have fun in Vegas!
Michelle S. says
Ugh that really stinks! That is very rude. How many people did that?
Ginessa says
I had the same problem! It still ticks me off. We had probably 2 empty tables. I used the RSVP system with our website with theknot.com.
About the bar, I read a lot of articles when I was wedding planning that recommended having a signature drink that made things easier. You don’t want to have a super stocked bar and a lot of left over weird alcohols like sherry lol. We only had beer and wine, which was easy.
Good luck on all of the wedding planning. It is fun hearing about your updates.
MMD @ My Money Design says
I would be very afraid of what Pinterest would have done to my wife had it been around when we got married!
Michelle S. says
Haha, it’s no good!
Liz says
I will heading out to Vegas end of February for my birthday. I’m super excited as we haven’t done any traveling in some time!. Should be lots of fun. Have a great week, Michelle!
Michelle S. says
Have fun! I’m jealous 🙂
GamingYourFinances says
Planning the guest list for a wedding can be super tricky. We had a smaller wedding (90ppl) so it was just close friends and family. The RSVP rate was high and everyone showed up. I have heard of horror stories where one family “forgets” to RSVP because they’re unhappy with some aspect of the wedding. My take on it is that if you don’t have the decency to RSVP then you’re out.
Michelle S. says
Our guest list is also just close friends and family – Wes just has a HUGE family. I’m going to assume that our RSVP rate will be high also, and most people already said that they are coming.
John S @ Frugal Rules says
Our weather has been the same craziness as well. We started the week at -45 windchill and was 50 yesterday! Things were a little slower for me last week as well, but it seems that things are starting to pick up a bit.
Michelle S. says
Yup, the weather has been crazy. It’s another 60 degree day for us!
Travis @debtchronicles says
Great job on the running, Michelle….I’m SO ready for spring to come and our snow to melt so I can get outside and run (right now I’m stuck on the treadmill or indoor track at my gym).
Michelle S. says
Yeah, I’m stuck on the treadmill too. I’m hoping to run outside today with my dog if I have some time though!
DC @ Young Adult Money says
Hmm at a wedding BBQ…I would personally want BBQ chicken! As far as spending and business income, I had a good conversation with my blog designer this weekend and his Uncle is apparently HUGE on SEO and we talked about various things and I’m more excited than ever to pursue some additional niche sties on top of Young Adult Money.
Michelle S. says
Good luck with niche sites! I would like to get into that soon as well.
Rebecca @ Stapler Confessions says
We had about 80 people RSVP “yes” to our wedding, and 6 no-shows to the reception, all for a variety of reasons. One person got sick, another couldn’t get the night off of work, a couple had to go to the babysitter’s rescue after the ceremony and before the reception, a couple’s car broke down en route (likely story!), and who knows what other emergency happened with the last person — I never really got a straight answer! Anyway, that’s about a 7% no-show rate. I expected that would happen, so it didn’t bug me.
It’s good that you’re going into this with that expectation so you’re not disappointed on your wedding day. What I learned that day is that I’m the only one who can ruin my wedding day. No matter what happened, how I handled it would make the difference in whether I remembered it as one of my happiest or disappointing days. Thankfully, it still ranks up there as one of the happiest days of my life 🙂
Michelle S. says
That is good to hear. Thanks Rebecca!
Dave @ The New York Budget says
I would LOVE to go to a wedding where they served BBQ – great choice! I think you could stick to pulled pork and chicken for mains and then go nuts on sides – that would be my preference, anyway!
Michelle S. says
What sides would you want?
Thanks Dave!
Debt and the Girl says
Wow, those temps are unreal. It got down to about 10 degrees here and I was ready to move to the Bahamas at the point. I can’t imagine being in that cold of weather. You will love Las Vegas. I went there when I was younger and had a blast. I wasn’t old enough to gamble so I just spent time hanging out at the free shows they had on the street and stuff. It was a lot of fun.
Michelle S. says
Yes, the weather here has been crazy! And yes, I love Vegas! This will be my third visit there with my friends, but I also went a few times when I was younger than 21.
Laurie @thefrugalfarmer says
Great job on the running, Michelle, and the BBQ looks absolutely awesome!! Don’t forget the coleslaw and mac & cheese. 🙂
Michelle S. says
Yes, I almost forgot!
jackie says
I need to start working on my wedding planning more ahhh. I think I just need to rent chair covers, so I need to call some rental places and price everything out. Maybe that’ll be on my list for this week.
Michelle S. says
Have fun! 🙂
Raquel@Practical Cents says
So nice that you’re paying for some of the expenses for your bridesmaids. I was just talking about this over the weekend with two of my nieces. They were both complaining about the high costs of being a bridesmaid. I think we had about 3 people that didn’t show up to our wedding but we kept it small at 60 people total.
Michelle S. says
My bridesmaids don’t really have to pay for anything – and that’s the way I wanted it! They just have to pay like $50 for the dress and then the shoes (which will be around $50).
Jacki F says
For my wedding (October 2013), we invited 179, had 110 RSVP yes, and had 87 actually attend. Yup, we had almost 20 people no-show (or call us to change to a no the week of). Make sure you factor that in.
We gave our venue a final guarantee two weeks out (as required) but we could have raised the count until 48 hours before. In retrospect, I should have told them a lower number at the deadline and then raised the count a few days before if needed. We wouldn’t have wasted $1700 had I thought to do that.
Michelle S. says
Wow that is a lot of nos! We’ve already had most people say yes to us (face to face), and the majority of our list is family, so I don’t think they will be no-shows.
Andrew@LivingRichCheaply says
I’ve heard that about 80% of the guests show up…we were planning on having the ceremony at garden that had limited amount of room thinking not everyone will show up anyway. Good thing we didn’t do that because we had a good percentage show up. I guess we’re just such a lovable couple! haha. That and my friends and family are mostly in the same area so distance wasn’t as big of a deal.
Michelle S. says
Yeah, we don’t have too many people coming from out of town either. Maybe just around 10 people (and that includes my mom, brother and his girlfriend, and my grandma – so they would come regardless).
Tonya@Budget and the Beach says
Whew that is a lot of stuff going on! Glad you’re off to a healthy start this year!
Michelle S. says
Thank you Tonya!
Jason B says
I actually went to Vegas for NYE. The weather was great. The strip was packed for the countdown. I had a good time.
Michelle S. says
Sounds like fun!
Stephanie@Mrs.Debtfighter says
Is that Bandana’s? I’d be happy with any of it…YUM!! 🙂
Michelle S. says
Ha nope, it’s not Bandanas. It’s from Vernon’s BBQ. Super yummy!
Michelle S. says
Wow! Yeah, I think that is rude.
Michelle S. says
Thank you!
Michelle S. says
This is something that we have been thinking about. Thanks Catherine!
Stefanie @ The Broke and Beautiful Life says
I was in Vegas last month and have to recommend the buffet of buffets. Unlimited 24 hour access to 6 buffets for $50. They’re at the Total Rewards Casinos- The Rio was my favorite.
Michelle S. says
We thought about getting that last time! I’ll have to bring this up to them 🙂
KK @ Student Debt Survivor says
I LOVE it that your wedding will have bbq food. I’m a huge fan of “non-traditional” wedding food. I told bf I’d love to do a Mexican food themed wedding (he thinks I’m nuts). If I were having bbq I’d definitely want mac n’ cheese as a side. Everything else sounds delicious!
Michelle S. says
Mexican food themed would be YUMMY!
Lisa E. @ Lisa Vs. The Loans says
$1,000 for hair and makeup for 8 girls is not bad at all!
Michelle S. says
Well, not everyone is getting both. Only around 4 or 5 of us are doing both things.