How Lady Gaga can help you save up money for your wedding
Budgeting Advice
Guestpost by
on March 09, 2011
45
Craig Gleason's Gaga dollars.
Joey, my fiancée, and I weren't officially engaged until September 2010, but we knew early on in our relationship that we were headed towards marriage. We also knew that paying for a wedding would be one of the most annoying financial undertakings of our lives.
Then in July 2009, a Lady Gaga song came on the radio and changed everything.
No, seriously. I was incredibly sick of the song, so I changed the station… right to another Lady Gaga song. I changed the station again… to yet ANOTHER Lady Gaga song. I sent a text to Joey:
Geez. 3 Gaga songs on at a time. We should put a dollar in a jar every time we hear one.
And so started our so-called Wedding Jar.
The song game came to include any song by the Black Eyed Peas, Fall Out Boy and Lil' Wayne's "Lollipop." "Lollipop" and Fall Out Boy were worth $5 each, because they are played on the radio less. Eventually, we also added $1 for every time we saw someone wearing camouflage (not military-issued). We would also have bonus weeks with $1 for things like seeing yellow plaid shirts or hearing Madonna songs from before 1996.
Saving money is like working out: much easier when you have
(a) a partner
(b) a goal
and
(c) a fun way to do it.
Our friends thought it was hilarious and I would regularly get texts with things like, "Lady Gaga on Z-100!" or "Old guy next door wearing camo today." And, in the spirit of saving money, we decided to actually put money in the Jar for whenever our friends saw/heard them too. We kept the Jar going until September 2010.
How much money did we save between July 2009 and September 2010?
$6,730.00!
That's an average of $480 per month. This means we each put about $3,365 or an average of $240 each per month in the Jar in just over a year. I don't think I've ever saved so much money for a specific purpose so quickly in my life!
There was an actual jar and on the first of every month I would take our money and put it into a savings account at my local bank with a crappy interest rate.
In September 2010 we stopped putting money into the jar and we researched CDs with high interest rates until we would really need the cash–which would be mid-late spring 2011 when payments for venues, flowers, etc, would be due.
We went with Ally Bank's High Yield 6-Month CD (an online bank) because they consistently had the highest CD rate. We got a 1.3% interest rate and so far we have netted about $40 in interest on our Jar fund. Not much but better than the .05% from the savings account (about the same as keeping it in a jar).
Saving money is like working out: much easier when you have (a) a partner (b) a goal and (c) a fun way to do it.
In case you're curious, we got the most money from seeing people wearing camo — about 40% of our Jar fund.
About Dora Figueiredo
A happy bride-to-be planning a semi-long-distance wedding!
Andrea M said
Awesome! As a Little Monster, I approve of this technique. Also, my Pandora suspiciously started playing "Telephone" when I clicked on this.
Midgetgem said
That's awesome!
dootsiebug said
This is awesome.
What's funny is if you had each said "I'm going to put away $240 each month", it would've seemed so impossible and a huge burden. But when it's fun, when it comes in small pops and when it is a source of positive encouragement… SO EASY! You probably didn't even notice that there was less money circulating through your budget.
Jessa said
Totally true! Saving money can be so daunting, but when you do it without realizing you're doing it, the result can be amazing.
Dora said
You're absolutely right! It was easy enough to just grab cash from the ATM at the end of each month and put it into the jar.. and it was nice to watch it add up. I don't think we would have put away as much money if we had done it any other way.
Mindy Marzec said
Super great idea! ING.com also has great savings rates (not quite as good as CD) but you can take your money in and out at any time.
Brenda said
Ah but then if you're willing to not take any money out you can do a GIC with ING for even more interest
Stacey Doyle said
I love this idea, so clever. I really love that their friends got involved and they honored the 'text spotting'
Sharing this with others, thank you!!
Stacey D
Lindsay said
I don't think this would work for us because we never have cash – we use our debit cards for everything! But it's really cool that it worked for you – it sounds like a great way to save some money!
Dora said
We actually primarily use our debit cards as well. We made it a point to go to the ATM on the last day of each month and take out the money for that month's Jar deposit. It was kind of a pain to take all the money out at first, but after we saw how much we were saving, it was exciting!
Cici said
That is too funny
.
Though, if you're "seeing" so much camo, then the camo's not doing its job.
*ba-dum ching*
(I kid, I kid).
Tanya said
What a brilliant idea…!! Unfortunately from the moment we got engaged we only had 3 months to the wedding (no Im not pregnant!) so yeah at this point, anything that comes in goes out to the wedding savings!
Ruth Arnold said
I really love this idea. We both listen to rock stations for nearly 14 hours a day combined so there has to be a lot of money to save in that right? All we have to do is think of what bands to pay the ££ into.
Ron Ruth said
How great to know that the imginative spirit is alive and well…and able to produce big dividends. Dave Ramsey could learn a little something from you!
Jen said
THAT IS AWESOME!
Jessica_Iowa said
This is a very clever idea. Saving a little bit at a time can really add up and this a good example.
It reminds me of math class when we calculated the 'cost' of a daily Starbucks run. Turn's out that the $4 a day spent on a latte really 'costs' a lot–> a lot of new shoes or a lot of the energy bill!
Leslie P said
I loved this idea so much I already created guidelines for my fiance and I.
Any time one of these songs is heard, the amount associated goes into a jar:
• Your Sex is On Fire = $5 each (This is an inside joke. When this song came out my fiance said he hated it so our entire group of friends now texts the name of the song to him any time they hear it. So if I hear it, I text him, we both pay. Same if he hears it.)
• Black Keys = $1
• Weezer = $1
• Muse = $1
• Kesha = $1
• Lady Gaga = $1
• Rihanna = $1
Any time we see any of the following, the amount associated goes into a jar:
• A Mark Sighting = $2 (Mark is our rarely seen, 24-and-living-with-mom, nocturnal neighbor.)
Any time one of the following happens, the amount associated goes into a jar:
• Gordie pees inside = $1 (Our new puppy. He only peed inside twice today.)
By these guidelines my total today is $5.
Emerald said
The "Mark Sighting" thing made me laugh so hard!
Katie said
This is seriously the most fantastic idea ever. I'm going to implement this in my life immediately!
Nina D said
Such a cute story!! Especially because I am a little monster too!! So inspiring! Congrats guys I'm sure now there's nothing you both can't do!
jade said
I am officially doing this from now on! My guys' favorite thing is to brag about his "eye spy" skills and his least favorite is to save money. Thank you for sharing this wonderful idea!!!
Shanell Curry said
Awesome idea! My FH and I will be doing this too.
Keenan Dowers said
Thanks so much for sharing! What a great idea! My fiance loves to listen to top 40 radio where if we run errands for an hour and a half, we hear the same songs getting in and out of the car every time! This will work perfectly!
RachelC said
um agreed. Brilliant. This will be my saving strategy in the future FOR SURE. Perhaps we should start doing it for the honeymoon fund….I'm floating this to the fiance tonight!!! Thank you for this divine inspiration lol
Crystal said
This is such a neat way to save money! I'm currently saving towards several things by refusing to spend any of my $1 bills. I divide them evenly at the end of each week between a House fund, Wedding Fund, and Emergency Fund. I was able to save $120 the first month of doing this (and working part-time, going to school full time, and paying bills & gas this is quite an accomplishment for me.)
Dora said
I like that idea!
Lindsey said
What a great idea – I just sent this to a friend, thinking they can do this to save for their baby.
Kelly said
This is the best idea!! I am going to suggest it tomorrow
mighty_stiky said
I think I'm going to do something like this for my honeymoon.
Sarah said
This is probably UK specific but for about a year before our family holiday my Mum would put every £2 coin she got into a jar and after 12 months she had £800 in the jar just from £2 coins, I thought that was amazing!
I might start that actually…
Sarah said
This is such a cool idea! We're going to try something similar to save for a vacation:)