/cgl/ - Cosplay & EGL

[Anonymous No.9787290]

How do you guys budget for cons, especially big ones out of state like AX? And how much do you save up for specific stuff?

>AX coming soon
>start saving up early February with labeled envelopes
>$200 - 300 for hotel
>$120 for food
>$60 for either car rental / gas money
>$600+ for swag
>tfw I spend $1200 a year for weeb ComicCon

[Anonymous No.9787291]

>>9787290
You can budget down a lot of the swag, a lot of it is overpriced

[Anonymous No.9787412]

>>9787290
I put away $200 a week into my savings for cons and i don't spend money on merch or food at cons.
Airfare and hotels i save by having my bro pay for it because he likes to collect points on his card and i pay him back a few months later.

I can usually preorder everything i want and I don't like to eat out since i have a restricted diet and prefer not to pay more than $7 for a salad

[Anonymous No.9787446]

>>9787412
>actually spending money on convention center food like $10 pizza slices and $13 chicken fingers with fries
>all the restaurants near the con are like $20+ minimal menu and a piss poor pizza place

[Anonymous No.9787448]

>become artist or vendor
>get paid to go to cons
>feels good

[Anonymous No.9787527]

>>9787290
Do you really need that much swag?

[ValleLator No.9787683]

>>9787290
I pay and pray

[Anonymous No.9787958]

>>9787290
I save up by being a lucky asshole who actually has a career in the field I got my degree in.

Big Con budget -
> $300-400 hotel (room shared with friends)
> $150 food
> $80 gas
> $400-600 merch
> Free industry badge.

Small Con budget -
> $120 hotel (room share again)
> $150 food
> $30-80 gas
> $200-300 merch
> Industry badge or $25-50 badge depends

Really not much of a difference desu. I do about three small cons and one big con a year.

If you'd believe it conventions aren't my most expensive hobby.

[Anonymous No.9787967]

>>9787290
I afford AX by living an hour from AX. Satisfies me enough to not be too depressed about missing out of state cons

[Anonymous No.9788111]

>>9787958
>$150 for food
But why?

Also, 2 out of state cons for me, 3 small local ones.

I go all out on the out of town ones while I’m more reserved for the local ones, unless I see some rare shit.

[Anonymous No.9788553]

>>9787967
Isn’t living in LA a goddamn nightmare due to how ungodly expensive living expenses are?

[Anonymous No.9788563]

>>9788111
I'm deathly allergic to dairy and soy (aka vegetable oil). I either make it all myself from scratch or I eat expensive. I don't like cooking when I'm at a con.

$150 over four days means $10-15 a meal, which is manageable for me.

[Anonymous No.9788596]

>>9788553
yeah thats why most people in LA have a support system. Usually people live with their parents until they get married. Living rent-free helps a lot for many people living here to do fun things. Sometimes people inherit their houses from their families afterwards which cuts down on morgage. but aaaaanyways. I usually save up for AX by going with friends. we can buy food and share it, share a car, and DIY certain parts of the cosplays :D

[Anonymous No.9788688]

I just try to avoid going too far away so I don't have to pay for a hotel. I still do it for the 2 big cons I go to yearly, but any other con I go to (usually smaller cons) I just make sure it's either close enough that I don't need a hotel or that I know someone who lives close enough who'd let me crash on their couch. Only problem is that there's not any worthwhile cons in my area, so it pretty much boils down to whether or not I want to drop the $40 to buy a one day badge to kill time/wear cosplay.
But yea, avoiding paying for hotels when possible and bringing my own food. I've been known to bring packs of ramen and use the coffee maker the hotel rooms come with to make them with. Sounds stupid, but it works.

[Anonymous No.9788781]

>Get a good job.

That's pretty much it. You can even have a shitty job and live with your parents and still save up.

Although you should probably be using that money to improve your situation first desu.

[Anonymous No.9788822]

>>9788781
>Banquet
>not Boston market
At least you didn’t post a picture of Cup Noodle

[Anonymous No.9791638]

Broke-ass college student here with a minimum wage job. I don't spend much money outside of cons at all so that gives me a decent amount of money for when one comes around. My last con was a mid-sized con and over two nights/three days I spent about:
>$60 for hotel and carpool gas (it was a 2 person room split between 6 people)
>$40 for badge
>$100 for three cosplays (they were all very simple overall, and pieces were either made myself or bought from a thrift store with only a few exceptions)
>$20 for food (bought ramen, chips, to-go chicken salad packs, $1 mcdonald's items, and other really cheap snacks to sustain me....not great nutritionally but it was only a weekend anyways)
>$40 for dealer's room/artist alley (i'm able to talk myself out of buying most things and if there's anything dealer's room-wise i'm interested in i'll just look into possibly buying the same thing online someday instead. really i only let myself get things after thinking on it for at least 24 hours when i do my initial walk through the hall on friday)

So a whole weekend was less than $300 for me. If you're someone who's really, really broke and/or frugal, you could feasibly attend a small/mid-sized con for a weekend for around $150 in my opinion, so long as you don't buy any cosplay pieces, spend very little (or nothing) on merch, and eat and room similarly.

[Anonymous No.9791839]

>>9791638
A $20 food budget is possible if your hotel has stuff like a microwave and such. But most hotels, not so much. It also doesn’t help that cons like AX have hotels that are only near expensive restaurants. A donut place near the Westin is even expensive, the closest place to it are shit like Panda Express/ Subway. Would you even eat that everyday during con time?

[Anonymous No.9792114]

Let me see here:
>$65 for badge
>$140 for room
>$75-ish for food (breakfast, and lunch and dinner)
>$350 (not really, maybe less) for everything else.

I start putting money away months before the con starts. I should have about $800 saved up by May.

[Anonymous No.9792186]

>>9787290
Not counting the cost of room and badge I typically bring around 140 for food, stuff and unexpected expenses.

[Anonymous No.9792190]

I mostly go to ones that are within an hour drive. It’s a lot better. Unless u live in some small rural town, just go to local ones, or save up money for the really big ones

[Anonymous No.9792194]

>>9791638
>2 person room for 6 people
fucking yikes, dawg.

I have a decent job and will put 150-200 in savings per check. I have a rule not to let my savings go under 1k, so when I transfer money to checking its basically everything except the nearest thousand (ie this last con I had about 1600, so I only spent 600). Though I'm also willing to shell out a bit more for the comfort/convenience of rooming by myself or with 1 other person.

Basically I afford cons by not being a broke bitch and managing my life spending for good splurge weekends.

[Anonymous No.9793375]

>>9788553
You won't find anything decent (as in, not a dump, not trailer trash, not mobile park) for less than 2000/mo for even a single room apartment nearer to LA.

[Anonymous No.9793406]

I'm a server/bartender, so I make decent cash, but nowhere near what actual professionals pull in.

If the con's in my city:
- $50-60 for registration
- no hotel
- $75 (ideally) - 150, depending on how much I'm drinking or how often people wanna ditch to get food
- $300 AA/Vendor shit, but I honestly never even get close to that amount

My friends also like to do PAX West, in which case it's
- ~$300 for registration. The price varies depending on if you can snag the 4-day passes, how many days you're going, etc. It's always better to have extra here.
- $150 for room
- $50 for transit
- $100-200 for food and liquor
- however much money I end up spending on dumb shit

People underestimate how much they'll actually eat and drink during conventions all the time. If you want to go out to group dinners and drink in the evenings, give yourself ample room to maneuver.

>>9791638
>>9791839
>$20 food budget at a con
Why do you do this to yourself

[Anonymous No.9793448]

>fatasses spending $100+ on food in one weekend
Good luck fitting in those cosplays

[Anonymous No.9793468]

>>9793448
rattle harder ana-chan.

[Anonymous No.9793474]

>>9793448
DOOT DOOT

[Anonymous No.9793485]

>>9793448
>caloric deficit during a con
You're supposed to cut before the event, silly

[Anonymous No.9794013]

>>9793406
No point in eating out when you can go to a Target run and buy some microwaveable food to avoid spending $10 on a slice of pizza at the convention center.

[Anonymous No.9794598]

Lucky for me I have 6 friends who are helping eachother pay for an airbnb. We're also planning on buying groceries so we can eat at home and occasionally eat out.

[Anonymous No.9795617]

>>9794013
Last convention we stocked up on granola and small things like that, and I carried my water bottle around. Next convention I'm at has breakfast included which tends to keep my group going most of the day which means we can eat out more if we'd like.
My work also has an employee perk program, and I managed to get like $120 off the hotel we're staying at.

[Anonymous No.9795633]

>>9793468
Honestly I've never spent that much on food for a standard 3-4 day con. $100+ seems excessive especially for someone worrying about budget.

[Anonymous No.9796046]

>>9795633
$100 seems decent if you’re out of town and your hotel room doesn’t have a microwave.

[Anonymous No.9798516]

Really interesting thread. I'm going to AX for the first time this year and I hope not to spend >$1000 between my BF and myself. We live out of state so plane tickets are going to cost the most. I have cosplays already that I may just add to but my BF needs an entire cosplay because he's never done one before. We have a B&B reserved for pretty cheap and is within walking distance so that saves some money.

I have a good paying job but don't work many hours during the school semester. I'll have a month and a half to work before the con so I can easily earn that much back before then (as in replenish my savings account before I run out).

[Anonymous No.9799012]

>>9798516
>look up on Airbnb
>2 people, july 4-9
>$528 a night

I can see that being great in a “in a pinch” scenario (read: all the hotel blocks have been fully booked), but damn.

[Anonymous No.9799067]

I dont know where your problems are but i went to the last 3 cons without buying any merch.

[Anonymous No.9799070]

>>9787290
I will usually give a hj for a free room and spend that extra money on swag. Always have 1000+ for swag.

[Anonymous No.9799484]

>>9799012
That's crazy! My friend found our place for $57/night. The person has I think one unit left. No way would I spend more than $100/night anywhere really.

[Anonymous No.9799543]

>>9799484
>less than $100/night in downtown LA

I hope you mean AFTER you split costs with other people you room with

[Anonymous No.9799573]

>>9788111
I don't have weird dietary needs but realistically you should eat 3 meals a day and on a 3-4 day weekend eating out constantly is 8-15 bucks, anywhere from 72 to 180 bucks is pretty reasonable. I guess you could eat nothing but granola bars and cup ramen all weekend but that's a really good way to get sick/get hangery. Don't act like most hotel rooms have a way to cook in them and don't say you bring a hotplate to cook 'real food' while you're there because I've gone to cons 3+ times a year for almost a decade now with dozens of different groups of people and I have literally never been in a room with a stove and never saw someone bring an electric burner. I think I've only been in a room with a microwave a handful of times.

[Anonymous No.9799591]

>>9799573
Cold food + use of the small fridge should be of use. You don’t need to make hot meals to eat.

[Anonymous No.9799897]

>>9799573
During one out of state con I attended, i did buy frozen dinners like hot pockets to satiate the hunger inbetween meals (it also helped that there were free continental breakfasts at the hotel I was staying at) but I found out there was a Yoshinoya nearby the convention center so I basically ate there for dinner everyday until the con was over
>tfw during the 4 hour trip home and realizing that Yoshinoya no longer exists in my city

[Anonymous No.9800273]

>>9799591
Oh yeah I want to eat cold sandwiches on my weekend off.

/sarcasm

[Anonymous No.9801636]

I might as well just ask this question here.
So i booked a hotel with 2 beds but only listed 1 adult for the amount of people staying because im not sure who exactly among my friends are gonna need rooms.

would the hotel care if I end up with 3 other people on the day I check in?
yeah, i know this is probably a stupid question but this is actually my first time having to book a hotel room.

[Anonymous No.9801640]

>>9801636
You can just add them to the reservation once you know. Just go back to the site and click the manage existing reservation button.

[Anonymous No.9801987]

>>9799070

tfw no tuggy-to-save-money lolita gf

[Anonymous No.9802089]

>>9799543
Well of course. Some places are just naturally expensive and riddled with hidden fees. You also have to factor in Uber or other modes of transportation.

[Anonymous No.9802558]

>>9787290
I don't know how I would survive if the cons I go to didn't have a flea market where I leave a bunch of stuff I don't need anymore and then pick up the profit when I need it (more often than not Saturday evening). Also I only truly go to two cons a year, winter and summer versions of same con.

>15-30€ for train tickets
>hotel FREE (I just sleep at friend's couch)
>food and booze 30-50€
>afterparty 50-100€
>loot 50-70€

[ValleLator No.9802728]

>>9801636
>>9801640
>implying the hotel will even notice or care
It’s called lying guys.

[Anonymous No.9803418]

>first year having good job and starting con season

My years of struggle are finally paying off.

As far as budgeting, it depends on the con. I have a friend who loves to go to Dragoncon with us but is shitty at managing money, so I told him to buy his ticket for next year at con this year, and put aside $2 a day into his savings. By con he'll have enough for hotel room portion and around $350ish for food and swag.

Also: put aside some of that tax return money!

[Anonymous No.9803758]

>>9801987
I'm actually fully lez with a gf, but she doesn't mind when I tug or blow at cons if it saves us a few hundred.

[Anonymous No.9804046]

>$300 our of $1200-1400 saved so far
>found out today that both tickets for the Kingdom Hearts Orchestra Tour and the US tour for Hamilton: An American Musical both go on sale this month in my area
>mfw
Fucking hell, talk about bad timing.

[Anonymous No.9804125]

>>9802728
wouldnt they notice if you ask for more than 1 room key?

[Anonymous No.9807585]

i got a room at the freehand
do they give a shit if they pack in 4 people in a 2 people room???

[Anonymous No.9808300]

For Sakura-Con coming up it's:
$150 for hotel
$500 for flight from Georgia
$700 for spending

I'll probably end up spending around $100 on one good meal while I'm there to top everything off when my friends and chase away the post-con depression. We've got friends coming in from as far away as Scotland and Australia, so we'll want to make our time worth it.

I usually dump a couple hundred away into a saving account a month, then spend the month prior to a con going into poverty mode for that little bit extra while paying down the next two months rent.

[Anonymous No.9808310]

I don't usually go on vacations or anything so I use my paid time off for cons. I treat cons as vacations since I generally have fun at them and just freely spend money on them.

[ValleLator No.9808779]

>>9804125
>you get two by default
>just literally ask if you can get another one
>”oh no I lost my key”
You serious bruh

[Anonymous No.9808782]

>>9804125

I once stayed in a hotel for a month for work. I think I asked for like 5 keys total because I'm an airhead and kept locking mine in the room. They didn't give a shit.

[Anonymous No.9808816]

I have a checking account that put $25 into every week. Since my cons are spaced out it allows time for the account to rebuild itself.

[Anonymous No.9808818]

>>9808300
>$500 for flight
damn i feel grateful now for my $300 flight
also $700 for spending? just a curious anon, what kind of stuff do you buy?

[Anonymous No.9808924]

>>9808818
I include food, alcohol, and anything outside the con with merchandise, but I like to be prepared for rare merchandise in case of anything rare. It's unlikely I'll spend that much all together. The flight hurt the most. It would probably have been cheaper if my friend committed earlier, but I had to buy a ticket in late January.

[Anonymous No.9808927]

>>9787291
AX exclusive releases are worth the 100 a fig price. I have one from AX 2016 that's worth 500 now.

[Anonymous No.9813785]

>>9787290
My wife packs us bentos and other snacks. It saves us a lot. Our rule at cons is 150$ each and we(she) always get one of those mystery boxes in addition to the 150$

[Anonymous No.9814759]

Just when I start making good money, the cons I want to attend, the hotels are now selling out instantly. Anybody else noticed how quick hotels are booked solid nowadays?

[Anonymous No.9815023]

>>9799012
take into consideration if you're in the US you're trying to book on Independence Day.

[Anonymous No.9815027]

>>9787290
>120 for food
That's how much I spend in a month for food..

[Anonymous No.9815536]

The feeling when your dad works for a nice hotel right next to Sakaracon so you get free rooms. :p

[Anonymous No.9815561]

>>9799591
Why be so stingy on food for a whole weekend? It's a short holiday, you shouldn't be forcing yourself to live off the bare minimum.

The few times i've gone interstate for a con i've always mostly gone out to eat, though on the first day i'll stop by the shops and pick up basics like maybe some juice/milk and cereal or bread for breakfasts.
Even just going to a local con i'm expecting to spend money on food- Even if I pack my own lunch to avoid stodgy con food, i'll probably still head out for dinner afterwards with friends.

[Anonymous No.9816441]

>>9815561
Unless you’re at ALA where they confiscate outside food because some fat fuck in Phoenix ruined everything for the rest of us.

[Anonymous No.9816482]

>>9816441
What happened?

[Anonymous No.9816517]

>>9816482

wasn’t it the whole gun thing

[Anonymous No.9820493]

[Anonymous No.9820544]

[Anonymous No.9820558]

[Anonymous No.9820607]

[Anonymous No.9820617]

[Anonymous No.9820668]

[Anonymous No.9820925]

>>9816517
Yeah, that and the shooting during a country festival last year

[Anonymous No.9821237]

>>9808816
That's what I'm doing. Putting $50-$100 in my savings. My con is in May so hopefully I'll have at least $600 in there, plus, the money I'll have in my checking.