At a happy hour, the boy or girl will soon celebrate a bar/bat mitzvah. Congratulations! How do you prepare financially for this festive and joyous event?
- Budget allocation: Check together exactly what budget you want and can dedicate to family happiness. If you’ve saved, check exactly how much you have.
- Stay on budget: During preparations, make sure not to spend more than you planned in advance. Sounds trivial – but the temptations to go over budget are many.
- Expected costs: Make a list of all expected expenses such as hall, reservations, music, clothing, program costs, etc.
- Price comparison: As with any purchase, here too you need to compare prices between the different suppliers in preparation for the event. Look carefully at what each provider offers – the service offered, costs and value.
- Priorities: Decide what’s more important to you and what’s less. Check carefully if costs can be reduced. Get creative. You can always save.
- Use family and friends: There may be people around you who are willing to help if you just let them. Use their skills in designing the invitation, designing the tables, designing the album, helping with refreshments, preparing the plan for the event and more.
- Involve your son or daughter in event planning: hear what they want within the options. You may find that they want a modest event. They may want a modest class event separate from the family event. Prepare yourself for the conversation – come up with uniform principles and explain what is possible within your budget. Let your partner choose from the available options. They will feel partners in decision-making, cooperate and even accept responsibility for what has been decided.
- Added value to the event: Look for original but meaningful ways to celebrate the event. Volunteering or contributing to the community will enhance the Bat Mitzvah experience. The economic cost of giving to another will be low, but the experience and sense of satisfaction are high.
- Be true to yourself: Don’t feel like you “owe” a certain kind of event to your son/daughter. Each family must decide what is good and right for them and not worry about “what they will say” and “what it will look like.”
- Lead a layered decision: Try to bind the parents of the children in the class and decide on a fixed amount as a gift or collect money in advance and buy a uniform gift for each of the children in the grade. This way you can lower the cost of gifts to friends and at the same time convey a message to children.
And the main thing – make joint decisions, enjoy the preparations and the event itself and do not forget: by the time of the wedding it will pass. And the wedding is right on the doorstep.
