The Big Dreams Savings Fund
Posted on July 22, 2008 by Her and tagged future, savings, wedding
This weekend we received our first cash wedding gift ($50). As we sat down to write a thank you note, we considered what to do with the cash. If we deposited it into our regular account, it would be gone almost immediately; probably spent on something frivolous and forgettable. So our first thought was to designate a separate account just for wedding gifts. But what to do with this account? Save up for our first home? Plan an anniversary vacation?
There are many possibilities and we haven't exactly mapped out our future just yet. We logged in to ING Direct so that we could create a sub-account and not open an entirely new account. Him suggested we name the account the "The Big Dreams" fund. We'll save all our wedding gifts there, and someday when we have a really important purchase to make, we'll use the cash for that. This way we'll have something wonderful to remind us of our wedding and the kindness of our friends and family.
What did you do with your cash wedding gifts?
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We put all our wedding gifts into our savings account, which was earmarked for a house downpayment. We had a separate joint account for our wedding expenses, which we then converted to our household account after we were married. Happy to say that we incurred no debt with our wedding, although we sometimes joke that the amount we spent ($15K) could have gone towards a bigger downpayment on the house!
Meg | Jul 22, 2008
We took our wedding money and deposited it into a savings account. We used about 20% to buy a piece of furniture for our house and the rest is just part of our emergency fund - savings for another day money.
We spent half of the money on debt elimination (some wedding costs) and the other half on some new furniture for our new home that we moved into after the wedding.
While we're still paying down a bit of debt it's nice to sit on couches we own outright!
We placed the wedding money into our house fund. We appreciated the gifts and with ING Direct, it keeps growing.
Jess | Jul 22, 2008
We didn't go on a honeymoon right away, just spent a long weekend at a themed B&B in our state. We received enough wedding money to cover all our expenses for that weekend. It was great!
Becky@FamilyandFinances | Jul 22, 2008
We got married last July, but didn't go on our Jamaican honeymoon until January of this year. We put all of the money into our "honeymoon fund". It helped A LOT and we were able to save enough additional money to pay cash for our honeymoon!
We used ours on our honeymoon, for little extras we woud have never spent money on ourselves.
You're on the right track, saving it for something great down the road is a great option.
What do you think you would have done if you hadn't been financially enlightened?
Caitlin @ Clutter Cubed | Jul 23, 2008
When we got married almost two years ago, we put ours in our Downpayment Fund for our new house.
We just moved in this past Thursday, and we're so happy!
rb | Jul 23, 2008
I got married later in life (age 35) so we already had a house and most of the basics. We used cash gifts and/or gift cards to cover items we had on our gift registry that we did not get but really needed.
We got married back in April. All of our cash gifts *were* going to go to a CD but we decided that we might need the cash sooner so we just put it into an ING account. We are going to use the cash to start our dream business.
My wife and I got married in June 2006. We received about $1500 in cash gifts and put every dime on our debt payments.
Jeff | Jul 28, 2008
I haven't tied the knot yet, and don't plan to for another few years, but I like your idea. I know that I would be pleased with you saving the money if I had given you a cash gift for your wedding rather than knowing that you ran out and spent it on the first thing you saw. Congrats and keep up the saving!
aj the writer | Jul 29, 2008
Wonder if we could chat for an article that i'm writing for creditcards.com? it's about debt and marriage. you can remain anonymous as well. my email is adrienneweds(at)yahoo(dot)com. thanks much.
Catrijn | Jul 30, 2008
If I recall, we split cash gifts up. Half went to paying down existing debt, and the other half bought a very nice pair of speakers and an A/V receiver (yeah, we're a pair of technogeeks). Those purchases were splurge items that we really wanted, but couldn't justify without gift money. (We were completely out of debt about 6 months after the wedding, so it's not like we had huge debts over our head either.)
We got married in May, and we did the same thing you did -- we deposited the cash gifts we received into an ING subaccount. We're planning to use some of the money toward longer-term home improvements (installing a ventless gas log to replace a broken vented one, fixing a minor foundation issue, replacing an inefficient toilet), and we'll save some of it toward building a garage with an apartment above it. Congratulations!
Emmilee | Aug 1, 2008
We were college students when we got married, so we had no money for a honeymoon. But we got enough to pay for a week in San Francisco (we crashed at a friend's guest house so no hotel bill).
Rini | Jul 22, 2008
I got married in May, and my co-workers took up a collection as a wedding gift for me. The total came to $130, the bulk of which we spent on a waterproof digital camera from our registry.
We got 10% off because it was a registry item, and it is a NICE camera, especially for the price! We've been spending our summer frequenting the water parks and have tons of splash-filled and underwater pictures to share.
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