‘I PAID FOR MY WEDDING WITH RUBBISH!'

WHAT STARTED AS A WACKY IDEA SOON MADE CENTS FOR BRIDE LEONIE

- Megan Rowe

Leonie and Matthew Porter never intended on spending tens of thousands of dollars on their dream wedding. But they also never imagined celebrating their big day and honeymoon without spending a cent of their own.

The Sunshine Coast couple’s secret was turning other’s trash into cash by collecting around 200,000 containers consisting of cans, plastic and glass bottles, which they recycled for a 10c refund at their local depot to save a whopping $20,000.

The idea came to Leonie, 32, after an initial trip to the depot in November 2018, which bagged them more money than they’d expected.

“I cashed our containers in and was super thrilled when I raked in a whole $17.50,” Leonie tells New Idea as the nation gets ready for Clean Up Australia Day on March 1. “I thought to myself, ‘I wonder how many bottles it would take to pay for our wedding?’

“I did some calculations. Matthew laughed when I told him about my maths. But I never thought I’d save $15,000 to cover the costs of the entire wedding.”