# How much do you budget?



## VitaiSlade (Sep 23, 2011)

I've been to a decent few furry cons, but I wonder how much other people budget for them. I've heard of some convention-goers travelling 5 states, getting a room for three nights, and enjoying the hell out of the convention for ridiculous amounts like $250. This is an abnormal (very low) amount to spend, IMHO. Now there are many types of conventions and ways to spend money. There are local conventions that you can probably do on something like $300 and then some farther away conventions that you can do for say, $500-$600 or more, depending on how you spend your money. The things I usually budget for are:

Gas/Travel
Food
Hotel Space
Con Purchases (Usually $150 or less)

I live in Florida, so a convention like Megaplex I would maybe budget $300-$400 for, but having $500 just to be safe, whereas a convention like Anthrocon, I would want at least $750 to be comfortable. My question to you is: What do you budget for local and far away cons? How many conventions do you go to per year? And what all do you budget for?


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## Idlewild (Sep 24, 2011)

I haven't been attending cons for very long, and the ones I've been to so far have been local (RMFC '09,'10,'11, NDK '08 ), but I think I spend along similar lines.

I've usually saved up $500-$600 for RMFC and only spent about $300 total. It was nice to have the extra change though in case of an emergency. This last con though, I'd only been working long enough to save up about $300-$350 (not to mention I'm a full-time student) and this normally would have lasted me if it had gone like the previous years. This year though a roommate backed out at the last second so I ended up paying for their share of the room and I didn't spend as much as I hoped to on the con itself.

For the first time, I'll be attending MFF this year. I hope to save about $300 but only because I've already bought my plane ticket/registration/paid for my spot in the room so all that's left is spending money and food money. Total it'll be about $650 spent on this con. That sounds like a lot now that I think about it. Haha!


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## FlamingLizard (Sep 25, 2011)

What's up Vitai (tornado here)?

Yeah I learned at my first 2 conventions that I would set budgets and be unsuccessful at standing by it.  My FA: United budget this year (as my first ever con) was $200. I calculated my total expenses as $244. Anthrocon I knew was a bigger con and with the 8 hour gas drive and the damn hotel suite November got I knew it was going to be more expensive to start so I guesstimated a pre-con total of $517. My final bill was $735 O_O. I underestimated the cost of the room, my total commissions, and food/other randoms like parking and such. The only thing I was spot on with was gas.

Basically, I have furfright in less than a month and I would like to say based on how local it is and it being a cheaper room and my experience with my first 2 cons, that $300 is my budget that I will not go over.


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## Kobura (Oct 7, 2011)

I'm capable of doing conventions almost free (literally, like 40$ and 25 of that was donating to charity) but would budget in a perfect world, were my income a positive number:

Room list price per night * number of nights +$50 (taxes, fees, roommate breaks a lamp)

40$ food per day, or more. Stuff gets CRAZYYY expensive and you might never realize.

Discretionary spending or whatever (make sure this is CASH and make sure it is CASH BEFORE YOU ARRIVE, prevents over-spending, and is generally much easier than waiting for the poor guy to restock the ATM and contending with half the convention mobbing him)

Two dollars a mile for driving (oh you think this sounds excessive...), otherwise whatever your airfare/ride share cost is plus a little. Remember PARKING. Assume the worst at ~25$ a day.

Remember to budget for registration!

So...cons can cost a ton. Or, they can cost nearly nothing. Depends on your contacts, your discipline, and what's owed you by those you're going to spend time with eheheh.


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