Here are some savings’ tips I’ve picked up over the years. Together, they will help you cut your spending and put away the money you need to pay for your wedding:

1. Does your employer offer an automatic savings option with your paycheck each week? If so, choose an amount that your payroll department will deduct with each paycheck and direct deposit it into your savings account.

2. Become disciplined about spending cash and using your credit cards. If you agree to each take out, say, $100 from the ATM on Monday and that’s your only trip to the ATM that week, you’ll learn to make that $100 last. (And no cheating by using your debit or credit cards.)

3. Cut back on extraneous expenses. These might include:

• Morning cup of coffee. At $2.50 each morning, for example, a cup
of coffee on the way to work or the gym on the weekend doesn’t seem
like such an extravagant expenditure. But factor that out over a year’s
worth of mornings, and you’re looking at $912.50. Instead, invest in a
good coffee maker, coffee beans, and a travel mug (cost: less than $100)
and make your coffee each morning.

• Lunch or other food on the run. Like the cup of coffee, a meal
eaten on the run adds up to a lot of cash going out of your wallet each
week. If a year’s worth of coffee adds up to more than $900, imagine
what drive-through food twice a week or a turkey sandwich from the
deli three times a week must add up to—a lot of dough.

• Frivolous reading material. Are you a newspaper or magazine
junkie? If so, do your savings account a favor and subscribe to your
favorite publications. A magazine that costs $3 on the newsstand might
only cost $12 to subscribe to. That means that instead of paying $36 a
year for the honor of reading that publication, you’ll save $24 annually
by subscribing instead. If you read many magazines, these savings will
add up.

4. Hoard your change. Instead of just letting loose change float around your home, start collecting it. Once a month, roll it and deposit it in your bank account. One bride I know spent an afternoon doing a clean sweep of her apartment for loose change and came up with $53.

5. Deposit bonuses, tax refunds, or any “unexpected” income right into your wedding savings account. Given your financial austerity before the wedding, you might be tempted to “treat” yourself when you get a windfall, like an income tax return. Don’t. Use this windfall to bolster your savings account and remind yourself that the more money you put into that account, the sooner you can end your self-imposed spending hiatus.

6. Reduce commuting costs. Do you and your fiancé live together and do you each drive a separate car to work? If so, could you carpool and save money on gas and tolls that way? Or, if one of you has a longer commute—and a gas-guzzling car—could you switch cars? The person with the longer commute could take the most fuel-efficient car so that you spend less on gas in the long run. What about public transportation? Might it help you save spending money by switching to this commuting mode for the short term?

7. Become a library patron. In the time before your wedding, try to curtail your purchases of extraneous books and movies and take advantage of your public library instead. If you’re a member of a book club, you could save money by borrowing the book-of-the-month instead of buying it new especially if it’s in hardcover, which is very expensive.

8. Cut back on entertaining costs. Do you favor going to the movies every Friday night? What about going Saturday afternoon instead? Matinee movie prices are nearly half of what prime-time movies cost, and if you and your fiancé have a regular date to see movies, you could save big bucks by moving your movie date night to a movie date afternoon. Or start seeing second-run movies at a “value” cinema, where ticket prices are significantly cheaper. Or wait a few months until the movie is on DVD and rent it instead.

9. Forgo a vacation this year. Soon enough you’ll be taking your honeymoon, and you should be saving up for that trip instead of other vacations. So instead of going on your annual ski trip to the mountains or week in the Caribbean, avoid spending thousands on those trips by not going at all.

10. Be smarter about food shopping. Instead of stopping into the grocery store when you’re rushed or hungry—and therefore likely to overspend—follow mom’s advice and plan ahead. Make a grocery list each week, plan meals, use coupons, and you’ll end up saving hundreds of dollars on food shopping in the process.