Erinn Salge

My fiancé and I found ourselves approaching the end of 2013 with two goals in mind: 1. Make it through the wedding planning process and 2. Buy our first home. For a 26-year-old, these were both two exceptionally expensive activities—especially in northern New Jersey where we lived. But we’d been living at home and saving since graduating from college and our parents were very generous in their contributions to our wedding, so these two expenses were somewhat doable.