Check the internet for places and events in your area that are free and fun for the whole family. Often museums or art galleries will have free activities for kids to learn about history or art.

Many towns have events and fairs that are free; find out what’s available in your home town.

Other ideas:
- go to the park
- go on a picnic
- go to the beach
- go on a bike ride
- have a “camp out” in the backyard
- take a walking tour around town
- play board games
- read together
- help the kids put on a play
- borrow books or DVDs from the library or friends instead of buying them
- libraries often have fun activities and reading programs for kids
- make a kite and fly it
- feed ducks in the park
- start a garden
- play frisbee, baseball, catch, etc

Did I miss any fun and free activities you like to do with your family? Add your suggestion to the Comments Section or send me a Tweet @moneymomma on Twitter!

For example, pollys13 from Twitter told me that “from 5 to 8 p.m. on the first Friday of each month for FREE admission to the Kirby Science Discovery Center in Sioux Falls, SD”  Thanks Molly!

Now its your turn!

Keep your credit card balance (if you carry one) to less than 30% of the available limit. This will help your credit score. The more of your available credit you use, the more it hurts your score.

Check out Etsy! www.etsy.com

Etsy is an awesome place to find all things handmade. They even have craft suppliers, so you can DIY!

Have a restaurant or store that you absolutely love? Go to their website and see if they have a mailing list. Join it and they may send you notifications of sales and even coupons!

Photographers equipment and workflow costs alone are huge. Then there are batteries, flash cards, an assistant, wear and tear on their vehicle, insurance coverage, and the hours of work on and after the wedding that they factor into their pricing. On top of that you then pay for the creative talent of the photographer. You can save money on enlargements and albums but don’t penny pinch when it comes to the photographer. After your wedding day, the only things you have left are your pictures and your video. These are the only 2 services that last a lifetime and can be passed down to the next generation.

• Biggest tip – hire a photographer that gives you your digital high resolution files, that way you can make as many copies of pictures from your wedding day as you want without having to order them from your photographer.
• If you choose a photographer that does not give you your files, always find out how long they keep your files for, and ask if you can obtain them when they are ready to discard them. Most photographers in general don’t keep digital negatives past 3 years. Be prepared that some photographers still may charge a fee for providing your with the files. If its 3 years after your wedding, you can prepare for that fee and remember again that its the only memories of your wedding day.
• $1000.00 for a photographer is a great price but if they charge $40.00 for an 8 X 10, where’s the savings. Don’t just look at the photo packages or wedding day shoot costs, ask how much their enlargements and albums are.
• If a package includes a couple’s album and 2 parent albums, ask how much that same package would cost without any albums. Sometimes it’s worth the savings to buy your own albums elsewhere and sometimes it’s better to take the albums offered by your photographer.
• Unless you’re doing a formal shoot at the bride or groom’s house, you don’t need a photographer there. Your wedding party and family will have their cameras out anyway.
• A great idea is to not have the photographer stay for the reception. Saves a lot of coverage time. If you want to do this, simply do your first dance and cake cutting when you are introduced. The photographer can stay to capture that and leave at the point that you sit down for dinner.
• You don’t need your photographer to stay until 1am. Once the bouquet and garter tosses have taken place, there are no more major events to shoot. Your 1st & last dances look the same on film.

Thanks to A Cheap Chick for some additional wedding resources!

Check out: http://acheapchicksray.blogspot.com/2009/05/free-wedding-resources.html

Any more tips or resources you’d like to share? Please comment!

Any wedding planners out there? Connect with other women www.shesconnected.com

A net worth statement is a list of your assets and debts at a specific point in time. A net worth statement can offer lots of useful information in time for making RRSP contributions and other financial decisions.

Calculate your Net Worth:

Assets: chequing accounts, savings accounts, TFSA, RRSP, non-registered investments, GICs, etc. Also: your house, car (get the “black book value”), vacation and or investment properties, etc.

Liabilities: mortgage (your home and vacation/investment properties), personal loans, credit cards, student loans, car loans, etc

Add all your assets together and your liabilities together. Subtract your liabilities from your assets. This is your Net Worth.

Sometimes when you are just starting out (if you’re just out of university, for example) or when you just bought your house and the mortgage is high, it is possible to have a negative Net Worth. The goal is to pay down the debts and hopefully the assets will increase in value, increasing your Net Worth.

Annual updates help you track the percentage change in your net worth, and see how well you’re meeting your financial goals. It should be going up every year. You want your assets to increase and your liabilities to decrease over time.

You may want to increase your savings, pay down more of your mortgage, or pay off your debt. All of these things will increase your net worth.

We are all pinching pennies these days and everyone I run into is looking for ideas to make the wallet a little fuller with out sacraficing everything. One way is by getting creative with your meal planning and grocerie bill. I found this great site I had to share for creating a meal plan for your family for $5 a meal! Lets face it we can’t all eat top roman all the time and with no real end in site considering new options for your meals may really help the budget and ensure your diet doesn’t go down the drain trying to stay cheap!
5dollardinners.com

I love Jean Chatzky! She really tells is how it is! There are lots of women out there to help give us ideas on how to better manage our money, so don’t feel like you have to spend all your time and money fallowing just one. Pick a few and compare notes. If you find you identify with ones style then you may want to invest in their material or seminars. Jean is one I have put on my short list for sure. Check her out or catch her on TV

http://www.jeanchatzky.com/<

Who is on your short list, where do you get the most of your financial advice? I want to know!

The #1 rule is to shop around, just because you find a dress you love in the first store you see doesn’t mean you can’t find a dress you love just as much (possibly more!) at another store for an even better price. You won’t know unless you look!

Some other ideas:

• Book in the off season (the hall will be cheaper, food possibly too)
• Book during the week instead of a weekend
• Make your own (or have a crafty friend make) bouquets, table settings, and gifts
• Make your own or use pre-made wedding invitations (there are matching sets all ready to go, just use your home printer or take it to your local Kinkos)
• Keep the wedding and/or wedding party small. The fewer the people, the less the cost. In fact, if the wedding is small enough, think about renting a back room at your favourite restaurant!
• Don’t be afraid to buy a dress from the rack, last season’s dresses are just as beautiful as this years and the savings can be amazing!
• Have a cash bar
• Use an mp3 player or iPod as your DJ
• Have a family member step in as the MC
• See if the hall will allow you to bring in some of your own food, like desserts
• Have a buffet style dinner instead of having servers
• Barter/Trade – I had a friend who’s a lawyer tell me she bartered wills for wine for her sister’s wedding!

If you have any more tips, please comment, I’d love to hear them!