conversation: User (northeast_lions): "As the title says, me and my fiance are getting married this fall. Collectively we bring in $105k a year. I will be getting a raise the end of next month of at least 3% so that will add about $1800 more to my salary. \n\nWe currently budget quite well and are able to put away $800/month exclusively from her paychecks (I cover most of the bills with my paychecks) and most of the approx. $150/month that is left over from mine goes to our miscellaneous (spending money). \n\nWe currently have $10k in checking and approx $6k in basic bank savings account. Our wedding is budgeted for $13k total and we are putting $7k towards that. \n\nWe currently pay the following:\n- $1300/month in student loans  \n- $700/month in car payments  \n- $1200/month in rent  \n- $400/month in groceries  \n- $116/month in Cable  \n- $130/month in utilities (gas, electric, water)    \n- $180/month in insurance (car and renters)  \n- $130/month in cell phone bills (mine and what she pays her mother)  \n\nAs I said before we can put away $800/month from her paycheck and right now my extra goes into spending money but that is going to increase when I get a raise the end of the next month. After we get married we are trying to decide what we should do/can do afterwards, we both want to wait to have children until we have a house (neither of us want to raise children in an apartment) but our biggest concern is that our student loans are going to prevent us from being able to afford a house that would be suitable to raise a family in the area we live in. My biggest question is what can we do about our student loans, she has three totaling $21k that are at 10%, 10.25%, 13.25% interests rates. All of the other loans that we have are under 7% interest rate (approx 3.1% to 6.75%) totaling approx $50k to $65k (not sure about the total of the loans that I pay to my parents, parent plus loans). Is it reasonable to wait two years and buy a house and not worry a lot about the student loans or should we put off buying a house to pay off as much of the loans as we can in two years then start saving for a house? I just am not sure what I should be focusing on once we get married. \n\nSorry for any messing formatting as I am new to posting on reddit. Thank you guys in advance!"
  Self: "There have been some lean times in my life, and I discovered that there are a lot of things I can do without, short term or long term. Here's what I would consider doing in this situation: \n\nMinimize all monthly bills to your lowest tolerable comfort level for one year and pay off every loan you have. Clear the slate.\n\n1. Find a studio apartment with bills paid and store excess property with family or sell it. You can buy nicer things later.\n\n2. Sell your cars and buy good used ones with cash, or have one nicer car and one "working" vehicle with good mileage.\n\n3. Learn to live without cable and get your news online or sign up for Hulu to watch your fav shows. Look around youtube. \n\n4. Buy a prepaid phone and use it minimally, or text, and tell people you're low on minutes. I've seen phones on sale for $10. that serve quite well, with prepaid cards that carry over. They look just as nice as some others. If you are on a family plan your calling information is accessible to the owner of the account.\n\n5. Plan breakfast, lunch, dinner meals. Boil a dozen eggs and make egg salad sandwiches for lunches. Make a pot of stew and eat it til it is gone. Make oatmeal bar cookies for quick breakfast or snack. You could cook on Sunday and have meals ready the rest of the week, stews, roasts, a batch of hamburgers or sausages ready to eat with a salad. Easy peasy.\n\n6. Rethink a costly wedding. What are the essentials you want? a beautiful setting? find a public garden with a community center. Or, set up a back yard with a rented gazebo, chairs, flowers everywhere. Wedding dresses are such a waste. Do a search online for a lovely outfit at a reasonable price, and wear a new pearl necklace instead. You can wear the pearls forever, but not the dress. (Jewelry is such a nice reminder of a special occasion). Hire a classical guitarist or a DJ or pick your own music, buy the wine, cater for a decent buffet line, but just for the setup, not for the service. Hire a professional photographer only if you absolutely have to. The point is to celebrate and mix with the families. Spending gobs of money is just simply pretentious to me IMHO.\n\nTHEN, AFTER A YEAR OF MINIMIZING, you will be on a more solid footing to look for a home where you can plan for a family and a much less complicated financial situation.\n\n.\n"
  montalvv (montalvv): "Wish I could upvote this 100 times. Very good advice."
  