<prompt> Human: Hey guys, Ive been a follower of this sub for a long time and trying to be financially realistic about my future plans, so I would really like some constructive criticism.Quick background: Im starting a 70k job in June, and my girlfriend will start a 55k job in September. My personal monthly finances are as follows:3800 salary-800 rent-500 food grocerieseating out-100 commute-400 student loans-500 tithe-100 health insurance-250 401k-150 miscellaneous expenses---1000 leftover for wedding fund.How does this look? I live in an extremely expensive part of the US, and I am not sure if I can really live on 150 on miscellaneous spending but Im going to try. I also know that my food budget may seem high, but I doubt I can fix my bad habits and spend much less. My tithing is also very important to me, so I cant compromse there. Our potential weddingstarting a new life together budget is also as follows:5000-10000 engagement ring8000 honeymoon to France5000 wedding our parents will likely contribute about 10000 total so a 15000 budget total3000 future apartment rent deposit4000 furnishings for apartment---25000-30000 total for everythingThoughts? We know we are splurging on honeymoon and apartment furnishings, but we are also looking for a humble-ish wedding. Are there any expenses that are unrealistic or any big ones that Im just not accounting for?Therefore, I want to save 1000 a month toward our wedding, so I will hopefully have 14000 saved by October 2016. My girlfriend will also be contributing about 250 a month starting Septembershe has more expenses and loans than I do, so she will contribute about 3000 by next October as well. So well have 1700025-30000 saved. The reason Im picking October 2016 is because thats when I want to get married. However, as you can see, Ill be 8000-13000 short. So the question is...and please dont kill me...but how terrible would it be to put the remaining expenses on our credit card? Is that too much even for a combined 125,000 income? 1800 rent, no car, no credit card debt, 90,000 combined student loans, and likely 160,000 income within 5 years assuming both of us get paid commensurately with our future work experience.I know that this strategy is far from ideal from a financial perspective, but we both value getting married as soon as possible over maximizing our financial assets. We are willing to essentially trade money for time in our hurry to get married, but we also want to make sure that these plans are at least feasible and not crippling. Having less money is ok - being financially crippled is less ok.I know I asked a lot of questions throughout, so I will sort the questions in an easy-to-respond matter by numbering them:1. Thoughts on my personal monthly expenses? 2. Thoughts on planned weddingapartment expenses?3. Thoughts on accruing large credit card debt to get married earlier?bonus 4. Thoughts on not using grace period on student loans to not pay for the first 6 months, and funnel that money to wedding fund? Any comments not in the questions are welcome too, of course. Thanks in advance for your input!edit: P.S. I know I am missing an emergency fund, but we both have family that we are close to, and we can always stay with them if disaster strikes. Also, I figure the wedding fund essentially doubles as an emergency fund, since we would obviously delay the wedding if disaster strikes. Assistant: What about cable, utilities, internet, phone bills, or gym memberships? Date funds? How about birthday gifts, holiday gifts, and anniversary gifts? Any subscriptions, ie games, netflix, amazon prime? What about renters insurance? If you have a professional job or get your exercise outside, you might need new clothes, shoes or equipment at some point in the next year remember your health is important too!. Are these already packaged into your rent or do you not have these costs? If you live in an expensive city ie NYC, SF, or DC, I doubt that 150 per month will afford you much leeway as far as having fun. Work happy hours and eating out with friends adds up fast. Thats not to say its not possible, but just that youve planned out a very strict budget with very little margin and you expect to stick to it for over a year- thats no easy feat!I think that the wedding youve laid out will be a serious stretch, especially because it will require minimizing your retirement contributions and prevent you from developing an emergency fund. Youre talking about taking on a large amount of high-interest debt on top of 90k in student loan debt. Is one day really worth the hit youll take financially? I say that with the caveat that Im financially risk-averse. Remember that the more money you save in retirement accounts now, the more power it will have down the road to accumulate interest. Time is quite literally money.Suggestions: You could absolutely shave off some money by cutting down on food costs- cook home-cooked meals with your fiancée. Portion out your food, create grocery lists before you go to the store, and stick to a strict weekly food budget. Many people I know tithe 10 of their incomes, which you could do if youre open to it. I would also recommend trying to cut down on wedding costs. Do you have expensive taste? Why do you need 4,000 to furnish a one bedroom apartment? That seems excessive to me. There are ways of finding really high-quality furniture for a fraction of the cost if youre persistent about your search. You have more than a year to check craigslist once in awhile! Are you and your fiancée dead-set on Paris? Could you do rooms booked through airbnb or stay in hostels? What about buying a less expensive engagement ring? You could splurge more on the weddinghoneymoon with a plan to save up afterwards for a more expensive ring. Finally, it seems like you will really be bankrolling this. How tight is your fiancées budget? Is there any way she could contribute more evenly? Or what about when the two of you are looking at your own budgets, are you each planning on spending 500month on food when you could buy food together and halve your costs?Edit: What about asking your parents for a low-interest loan for the difference in your savings and the wedding? Practically anything is better than 17-25 interest!Human: Thanks for your detailed reply! Im on a throwaway anyway so yea I live very near NYC, and I am in a position where I will have clients. I am honestly terrified of additional expenses I might have to pay for network, but also dont know if that will even be a thing. I also included internet and etc. in the 800 for rent, but yea...Im going to need a gym after I graduate, I pay for Netflix, and have Amazon Prime. 150 is looking less and less realistic, but I can try to take away from my food budget. Btw, that budget is just for myself, my girlfriend and I dont live together. I really need to fix my laziness with cooking...I will speak to my girlfriend about the furnishings, she is generally frugal but we are not planning on bringing much from home. She is also dead-set on Paris. Shes been wanting to go forever and this will be our one big splurge in life. This is probably the least flexible of everything I listed. She also talked about upgrading the ring later, but I feel like we are never going to actually upgrade and be like Hey, we have an extra 5000 laying around, lets upgrade your engagement ring! Maybe I should just let that happen, haha. edit: Shes apparently not dead-set on Paris and resents me for thinking and stating that. We will certainly try to lower costs there, too.  <response>: Shes been wanting to go forever and this will be our one big splurge in life. You mean other than the wedding, the ring, and the furnishings? I am confused. This is all splurge on borrowed money. If you had the cash, most of the things you are talking about would still be a splurge. 