$3500 Budget

I'm not sure what you mean by dividends unless that's your term for savings. But good luck to you. Job opportunities were not in abundance off season when I lived there.

The alaska state permanent fund dividends, they are given to all alaska residents?? they aren't tax money and can be spent on whatever people wish to spend it on, I usually use mine for things I need, and this year it's a place of our own, so that is what it is going towards, FH also has a CD that his grandparents started in his name when he was a young child that is going to mature on the 10th so that is also going to help us get up there. I looked on Craigslist for Anchorage and there are tons of jobs up there right now, I know that during the beginning of tourist season you can find a lot of jobs, and then right as it ends you can find a lot of jobs because a lot of companies hire out of staters to work summers, and then they need to replace them come fall. I have faith that this will all work out for us in the end, I have it budgeted that FH and I can make enough together to pay rent and bills and food and still have at least 500 dollars a month for other things, like the wedding.

...I'm so confused....I don't think it's a great plan to use money that isn't in your pocket right this second (or a salaried paycheck at a secure job) to pay for extras like a wedding. If you're not working now, I would really suggest trying to find one before you do something like move and have a big wedding. That makes me really really nervous for you...

Champagne dreams and caviar wishes. Glad to hear all is well on fantasy island.

Rae we're currently waiting till next week(PFD's come out on the 6th) to start calling places to possibly move into, then we will be looking for jobs, I am really not worrying about anything, other than paying the wedding planner 120 dollars out of said PFD's which is no big deal atm because with both pfds, and his cd we'll have close to 4,000 dollars to work with to get us up and moved into anchorage someplace. I have thought this all through over the last month or so, I truely have and even have a fall back plan if things don't work out, and it's not living in a tent, nor at my mothers house.

You're right about that Briana, they are given to Alaskans per year of residency. Sort of a 'hey, thanks for living on the face of the moon for a year, bonus'.

If you use that towards employment and a place to live I'm all for that. Considering you don't have that YET and you're still living with your mother and mis-caring for animals... I DO have a problem with that. Get your life in order, THEN plan a wedding.

Fins I'm taking it one step at a time, and I don't mis-care for my animal(not plural), she eats the best food we can find, and has clean fresh water every day, not to mention she gets all the love and attention she wants when she wants it, we don't hit her, throw her around or anything else, just because we had to get rid of a cat because of behavioral issues that we just couldn't figure out how or why they were there, doesn't mean we mis-treat our animal, and BTW, the sixth is literally just about a week away, then we will be calling up places that we are interested in and making appointments to go up and see them (paying mom/brother for gas of course) and fill out applications and crossing our fingers and hoping we get a place, we will also be picking up apps for places and filling them out so that all we have to do when we get a place is turn them in and see what happens after that.

I plan on doing a lot of things though, but I always make sure that those plans are realistic. Planning to get a job is all well and good, but until you actually line up some interviews you really shouldn't even think of counting that money.

I think you say it yourself, you have to cross your fingers just to FIND a place to live, this is not a very good plan. Also, that CD was probably put there for some kind of emergency fund, a wedding does not count as an emergency in my book.

Wait....this isn't real, is it? Troll?

You do realize that places of residence REQUIRE proof of income and credit checks before giving you a lease, right? LOL

Rae- it's hella real.

Glenn I didn't say he was putting his CD to the wedding, he's using it to help us get a place to live that isn't with my mother, and they made the CD so that he had money, they are his grandparents, even my Grandpa gave me money growing up and his did it differently than mine, they started an 18 year CD when he was born, and he let it go one extra year. Get your head out of your butt and actually read what I write, and not just see what you want to see in what I say, just because I'm not rolling in money and able to have a house, a car, and everything else paid off by the time I'm 23 doesn't mean anything, I'm in a whole different economic bracket than you and I do things a whole lot different, I wasn't counting the money, I was merely calculating how much FH and I would have to make to live on our own, which is logical to do...

Rae I'm not a troll, I've been here awhile, and yes it's real.

Analy, all the places I've looked at so far don't actually, they just ask for a credit check, and deposit when you move in, and even if they did need proof, it's not hard to explain that we're moving up there and cannot get jobs till we have a place to live, as long as we have money to pay rent it shouldn't matter, I know lots of people that moved into places just on their savings alone and then found jobs...

Listen Briana, we all want what's best for you, you can't seem to understand that but we truly do. When i was your age I didn't make a lot of money at all, but I worked hard for what I did and I saved every penny I could so that I could further my education to put myself into a position where I can succeed (instead of just planning on succeeding). I obviously did something right to be where I am now (although I'm not as far as I wanted to be at this age but I'm fine with that and adjusting the rest of my plans going forward). If you can go and get a job real quick in Anchorage then good for you, but I'm betting the job market isn't that great there as Fins discussed earlier. I know that the CD isn't "going towards the wedding" but that's just because you are going to use the dividends for that, really it doesn't matter if you use the CD to cover what the dividends should be used for (if you aren't putting them straight into savings as you really should).

The dividends are also going towards a place to live, like I said before, with both of our dividends, AND his CD we'll have a little over 4k to live off of till we get jobs, if you don't believe me about the job market go look at craigslist yourself, I'll even post a few of the links that FH and I have looked at for jobs. We aren't using anything for the wedding right now, being it's over a year away. I get you guys mean well but you have to realize how it comes off to me, especially when all you guys say is I'm only focused on the wedding, trust me, my wedding is the least of my worries right now because it's A YEAR AWAY, I'm going to be trying my hardest to at least find some kind of part time job, that way I still have time to do school work and not feel over wealmed, I'm working hard to better myself, not just planning to anymore, I have things lined up that I hope work out for me, I just hate when no body has any faith in me (as my mom has shown in the past), it makes me not

Want to even try to better myself because no body believes I can, recently I've been working towards trying to set up and etsy store so that I can possibly make a little extra money on the side of working, being I'm really crafty and I'm really good at crochet/knit and I have been told that I could make a lot of money off the things that I make, so I'm going to give it a try. Fh said I should try to get on with Avon or Mary Kay to sell for them as well, I really am trying to better myself here, it's just hard when NO ONE has anything positive to say to me, I'm trying, that's all I can do at the moment, I'm saving up money for things for the wedding, and I haven't even spent any of my school money on anything but things I needed for school (Like a better computer and such) other than that all the money that is left over now is going towards my school loans so that I don't end up like my mom and still having to pay them back when I'm almost 60 years old...

Briana, we have all given you fantastic advice (sure at times we've been mean but that's how it works when you tells us we don't know what we are talking about) but you constantly ignore it. The most positive and best advice I can give you is to:

1. Stop bringing up Craigslist as your defense for a bustling job market, go to a reputable job site like monster.com, dice.com, careerbuilder.com

2. Don't cash in the CD, extend it for another 10 years, minimum.

3. Get rid of your cat (far easier said then done, I get it), she's costing you way more than you can reasonably afford at this time

4. Get your education and make that a priority.

5. Do NOT get married until you are done with your education and settled into your career (no chance you listen to this, but I speak from experience in saying that getting married young is a BAD idea).

6. Never blame someone else for your troubles

Some of this may come off as negative, but trust me these are the best things you can do for yourself

Glenn I'm not getting rid of my cat, she isn't costing us THAT much, we pay maybe 50-60 in food for about 4 months, which isn't bad being my mom spends way more than that on the "cheap" food for her cats a month...and he doesn't want extend his CD, he wants to use it for things we need right now(trust me, i've told him to just leave it there and let it build), my education IS my priority, but we can't very well afford to live on our own unless I get a job too, I'm also going to try the etsy thing and also Avon/Mary Kay thing. I should(not garunteeing it) be out of school sometime next year, at least with my associates which is enough to get me an entry level web design job, and I can work on getting my bachelors degree from there.

I don't ignore your advice most the time, it's just when there isn't anything positive being aimed at when things are said, I have the tendancy to just not look at it. I get enough negativity from my mom on a good day (cont'd)

let alone from a bunch of strangers on a forum that really have no idea what I'm trying to do for myself, I know you guys give good advice, I know that, and I've thought about some of the stuff some of you guys have said, but I just don't like being harassed about things that I said in the past and have since changed my mind about, just makes me feel like no one even reads what I write, and is the main reason why I really don't post much on the forums, and especially why I don't start discussions asking for advice anymore, I just don't want to be harassed anymore...

Briana S- If you are getting the dividends that you are talking about... GET YOUR PRIORITIES straight, use that money to secure you a place to live, a CAR to get you and FH to a job. And good luck getting a job, jobs are hard to come by. YOU SHOULD BE WORRIED about everything but paying for a wedding planner. Seriously, get your priorities straight!