Wedding Costs

Tis the season, not for weddings necessarily, however a family friend got married over Thanksgiving break and I am going to another wedding this weekend.  In addition to the two recent weddings, I have already received "save the date's" 6 weddings in 2013, one in June, one in July, one in August, one in September and two in October.  While I'm thinking of my costs, (wedding gifts, travel expenses and dresses for the 2 October weddings that I'm in), I can't help but think of how much money will be spent by the brides and grooms and their families.  I was curious, so I decided to look into what the average wedding costs these days.  $25,361 was the amount I found.  While it all depends on where the wedding and reception are held, how nice the meal is, how many guests are attending and everything else that goes into a wedding, I feel like that number is pretty fair.  I found a website that had the costs broken down into categories:

While I highly doubt many or even any of the weddings I attend in 2013 will cost this amount, I think it is interesting and helpful to see where and what "uses" most of the budget.  To me it is important to rank expenses in order of importance.  Pictures last much longer than the food, therefore I would rather spend the money to get an amazing photographer and sacrifice some of the catering budget.  I also think it is important to remember that the wedding is one day (or a weekend) and the marriage is forever (?) so I certainly don't want to be paying off my wedding expenses 10 years later.  I know my "dream" wedding could easily cost $25,000 but at the same time, that is a new car, and a new car is more of a necessity than an extravagant wedding.  Having a budget, sticking to it and making smart consumer decisions when it comes to a wedding is key in my opinion.  

Gift Cards to Avoid this Holiday Season

Tis the season for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and the many other December holidays.  If gift cards are on your shopping list, here is an article to read before deciding which ones to purchase.  I saw this article this morning and although I hardly ever buy gift cards for people, I do occasionally receive some.

The article lists 5 gift cards to avoid purchasing this year (unless of course you have money to spend on those you dislike).  The five to avoid are: Sears, American Airlines, FYE, Dippin' Dots, and Rite Aid.  Why?  Well, these companies are not doing so "hot" in the economy and purchasing a gift card now, that will be given in a few weeks and probably not be used until the spring is just down right risky.  The article discusses each company's financials and why its not looking good for them in the future, so if you were contemplating a gift card from one of these places, I encourage you to look into the company's first.  For example, FYE is an electronics store that sells CD's, DVD's and Blu-Ray discs in malls and may not be around in a year.

I think Sears is the only store we have here in Bozeman (with the exception of American Airlines, but who buys a gift card to an airline?  I would rather have the cash!!).  Sears is also the only company on the list that I would ever even consider buying a gift card from!

As nice as gift cards are, (I especially enjoy ones to Target, JoAnn's and Michael's),  I think the article makes a good point to look into a company and make sure they are still going to be around long enough for the "gifted" to use his/her gift card.

Getting People to Buy

This evening I hosted a Park Lane jewelry party at my house.  I do not sell the jewelry myself, but my friend does and asked if I would like to host a party which involves inviting friends and providing the location of the party.  I figured it's close to Christmas, everyone is stressed about school and what better way to relieve stress than retail therapy.  Although it was just my roommates and myself, we managed to spend a hefty amount of money.  Why? Well, the "deals" were just too good to pass up!

Without going too in depth on how this particular jewelry company works I want to share why it was so easy to spend so much.  The catalog is HUGE and I truly believe there was something in there for everyone, male/female and any age.  So how it works is if you spend $30-60, you can pick any piece of jewelry (of equal or lesser value) for only $12. If you spend $61-90 you can pick any 2 pieces (of equal or lesser value) for only $12 each plus one for free.  Then if you spend more than $90 its the same thing only 3 pieces of equal or lesser plus one for free.  The jewelry seems extremely over priced but the company is able to do that because of peoples 'Predictably Irrational' buying behaviors.

For example: my roommate found LOTS of pieces she like.  She made a list of the 6 or 7 items with prices ranging from $23-$119 (the $119 item was a watch).  Then what she did was add up enough of the lower priced items to equal $119. I think it ended up being a pair of earrings, a ring and a necklace. So, since those equaled the amount of the watch, she paid $12 for the watch, $12 for the next most expensive item, and $12 for the third most expensive item.  She was then able to pick out any piece of jewelry up to $119 value, absolutely free!  She ended up spending around $160 for 8 items which would be $20 per piece of jewelry (not that bad).

While I somewhat fell victim to buying more to save more, I couldn't help but think "what a great selling technique".  It obviously works, (both my roommates spent over $100 but ended up pleased with the quantity of new jewelry they were going to receive).  This selling technique reminded me of the experiments in the book 'Predictably Irrational' on how "FREE" affects buying behaviors and people really do buy/spend more just to receive a "free" item they may not even really need.

Pieces of April (and I thought my family didn't get along! ;) )

On Tuesday November 20th, I was one of 4 who chose to watch Pieces of April in class.  I didn't care much for the movie.  I spent most of the time just trying to figure out April's family.  What bothered me the most about the movie was how negative it was.  There didn't seem to be any happiness or thankfulness from anyone till the very end.  I know from my own family that not everyone gets along and there are other ways each of us would rather spend half of our day than with each other but usually those feelings are felt by one or two people and are only temporary.  I think April's family lacked or didn't share the same sense of humor with each other and the only one who did make jokes was April's mom who seemed to be the most depressed out of all of them.  I think being able to laugh with (or at) family members and feed off each others humor makes family get-together's that much more enjoyable.

The whole movie went back and forth between the family trying to get to April's for dinner and all their emotional struggles while April struggled to impress her family with a Thanksgiving meal.  And in the middle of all that, April's boyfriend went through hell to impress her family!  Despite all the struggles that whole family went through on that Thanksgiving day, some of April's neighbors were able to help her out and introduce her to their own family/cultural Thanksgiving traditions.  I did feel bad for April when her family drove off after realizing where she lived and seeing her boyfriend beat up.  She seemed to enjoy decorating the stairwell and to feel so unappreciated after all the work she put in.  Of all the people to decide on their own to go visit April, I was pleasantly surprised to see it was her mother. I don't think it would have meant as much had it been anyone else.  I was glad that everything April had done didn't go to waste and her family was able to see a different side to her.

Hopefully no one had a Thanksgiving as stressful as April did! I surely didn't :)

I knew I was predictable, but irrational too?

Reading Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely has opened my eyes to irrational decisions (maybe just opened them wider).  I know I can be predictable in my behaviors but I always considered my self to be honest and one to make good choices.  (Ok, maybe not ALL the time).  I found the experiments as well as the results extremely interesting.  Ariely conducted experiments on how "FREE" affects consumers and what they purchase, how being in an emotional state affects our decisions, ordering aloud in a group can alter what we choose and cost us our satisfaction, and the further we are separated from the cash itself, the more likely we are to steal.  I don't know how many times I "start over" with trying to eat healthy and the grocery store will be having a sale on fruit snacks or Chef Boyardee buy one get one FREE!  I must admit, I am a victim of the enticing FREE product.  If only fresh produce was buy one get one....

Irrational is defined as without the faculty of reason; deprived of reason.  While I fall victim of the buy one get one promotions at stores, I don't believe I am acting irrational.  Especially when it comes to food.  First of all, I hate grocery shopping and second, I like quick and easy meals.  So when things like Chef Boyardee and fruit snacks go on sale I do tend to buy them because they are easy to take for lunches, they have a long shelf life and I am shopping on a college budget.

I'm sure I make more irrational decisions than I am aware of but that is life and part of who we are as humans.  I buy things I may not need if it comes with *More! or something *Free!  I know I say things I don't mean when in the heat of the moment, and I do walk off with pens, pencils and such from banks and other places that have a nice bouquet of writing sticks.  I do not however, let what others order affect what I'm getting.  Like I said before, I am a picky eater and if someone orders a burger and fries at a restaurant, unless I'm in the mood for chicken strips, we will be eating the same thing :)