what I don't understand is that many of their other practices make them look like reasonable people. $80/week for food isn't super terrible (not sure how Canadian prices compare to US but it seems like everything is a bit more expensive there)... buying used... teaching yoga to get a free membership... so what's up with the $24,000 wedding?!? weddings make people crazy.
I agree that they seem -- in some ways -- to have their act together. For starters, given that he's in the military and could be transferred anytime, I agree that their decision to marry sooner rather than later was wise. After all, it's easier to have a wedding if the groom is "local", and if he's transferred later it'll be easier for him to take a spouse along. And they seem to be living in a relative moderate way: small, inexpensive apartment; low food budget.
But in other ways, they seem to be out of their minds: A custom-designed wedding ring, a honeymoon to Barbados. These are above-and-beyond
luxuries for people who have their financial house in order. Like too many people, they feel sure (insert cheery voice here) the debt will be gone soon because "they both have good jobs". Those good jobs could disappear in a heartbeat. In fact, here's a very likely scenario: Being military, he's transferred, she has to give up her job, she can't find another one in the new location.
Oops. No more ability to pay down that debt. And they seem to recognize they have a problem -- after all, she admits that she ran up the credit card bills “living a lifestyle outside of my means.” But she doesn't recognize that the wedding was yet another "outside of my means" choice.
Just to be clear, your point is that if I have debt (say student loans), I shouldn't prioritize anything else over it? Like, maybe, a vacation?
I'd say yes. If you have debt, paying that off should be more important than an extravagant wedding or a vacation or another luxury.
When you take on a debt, you're selling a portion of your future. You're saying, "I want ___ right now and am not willing to wait. I will give up other things later so I can have ____ now." Your life is not "completely your own" as long as you have debt, so it's sensible to wipe it out as soon as possible, even if it's at the expense of fun things that you really want.
Furthermore, if you DO splurge while you're still in debt, it makes sense to do it at a moderate level. For example, they could've had a small wedding for a couple hundred dollars (not many of us want to go the license-only route). That would've been more reasonable than a $25,000 wedding.
