The money situation

[Kay Alett]

  So I'm starting to put money away for a con, and I was wondering what a roundabout price I should expect? I expect that the furthur away it is the more costly it will be.

I live in the Arklatex area (As seen in my profile) and Dallas is the closest city that I've heard holds cons, can anyone give me a ballpark price of what to expect?

[pocomouse]

Hotel, meals, transportation and art/other purchases at the con will add up to over $1000.  I'd count on spending $1500 at least, unless you find someone to share expenses with.

[Kay Alett]

O.o Holy - .....wow....I thought it'd cost a few hundred but.... yikes..... Hmmmm....oh well guess I'll not be going to a con any year soon.

[Relaxing Dragon]

Depends on how close one is to your house. If it's within driving distances, then you can usually shave a few hundred dollars off in terms of food and a room (since you're at home). Of course, that doesn't happen too often, so more often than not it's around $1000 (like Poco said). Though it's usually very easy to find someone to share expenses with (be it a friend who wants to go with you or splitting a room with someone), some things will always be pricey (the plane ticket is the big one, I think. No one to split it with, and more and more expensive each passing day).

[Kaloth]

Hmm I have been meaning to ask this too, does anyone know how much you would look at if the con was in the city you live in? (morphicon is maybe a 15-30 minute drive from my house)

[Zoopedia]

What if you want to just spend the day there?

[pocomouse]

Hmm I have been meaning to ask this too, does anyone know how much you would look at if the con was in the city you live in? (morphicon is maybe a 15-30 minute drive from my house)

.

RMFC was 20 mins from my house, so I didn't need a hotel or plane ticket and I only had one meal out (I had dinner with some of the other congoers Saturday night).  I spent about $250, counting the weekend admission, and I was a bit extravagant with my purchases, buying 2 pieces of art, a CD and a book.   You could easily spend less.

The bulk of any con's expense is going to be transportation and hotel.  The rest is pretty controllable.  If you're frugal (getting food at the grocery store instead of restaurants, not spending too much in the dealer's hall)  you can shave quite a bit off the cost.  And, again, look for someone to share expenses with.  Get a roommate, drive instead of flying if you can and share gas between a few people.  You can work it out if you really want to.

[Feathertail]

How much does it cost if you "work it out?" Can someone provide a rough item-by-item breakdown, with explanations?

I'm looking at FWA right now, a con within driving distance of where I live, and it doesn't look like it'd cost more than $500 if I'm careful.

[pocomouse]

How much does it cost if you "work it out?"

Can someone provide a rough item-by-item breakdown, with explanations?

That would be totally situational.  I wouldn't recommend bringing less than $600. 

Food for 3 days: $90  Three meals a day at $10 per.

Hotel for three days: $225.  $75 per day for half a room at a cheap motel.

Gas:  Hard to say, depends on how far you drive and how many people share the ride.

Con expenses:  Plan on at least one meal out with the furs, plus at least one piece of art/other purchase.  I'd say $100 minimum.

And finally, bring a cushion.  How about... $100 minimum?  You just don't know what might happen. 

[Kobuk]

Kaloyan_Alet, you can also check this thread for more helpful stuff when going to cons:
http://forums.furtopia.org/index.php/topic,29471.0.html

That thread may not have a lot of info. in it about money issues, but if anyone wants to provide further detailed information about how much money to bring, spending, etc. in that thread, it would be very appreciated.

[Feathertail]

$90 for food sounds like a bit much. Maybe this is a good time to point out that bringing some of your own food can help save money ...

You're right though, it'd be good to plan for at least one meal out in a group.

How much do art items, souvenirs and the like usually cost?

[Kay Alett]

Thanks Kobuk, however.... The reason I posted this thread was because I had just read that thread and while full of sound advice it didn't really fill me in on money info enough.

I have to say though that $600 is a much better price to hear than $1500, and if you take three friends along with you to the con and share expenses you can all help ease the strain on each others wallets. Thanks all for the info, I'll keep saving and when I feel I have enough I'll let you all know with an announcement, I've never been to a con of any kind before so I'm looking forward to a fur con being my first.

[Feathertail]

I've never been to one either. Am kind of nervous about it.

[Relaxing Dragon]

Don't be. Best places on Earth are Furry Conventions. Friendly and easy to relax in

Poco's been saying it right. If the con is within driving distance of your house, then you can easily get away with spending around $100-$200. It all depends on how thrifty you are in the Dealer's Den (the entry fee for a convention is usually around $30-$40, so that's not a big worry), since that's basically where a good portion of your money would go. Heck, if you didn't buy anything in the Den (hard to do, but possible) and the con was close enough, you could go the whole convention for just the price of admission. Don;t exactly recommend that, though, since it feels a bit empty.

When it comes to long-distance cons, it's all but essential to have some mates to go with. Costs go down, there's people to chat with on the way there and back, and a good general sense of companionship. Though it's all definitely something that needs to be worked out a long time in advance, especially when it comes to the hotel. Rooms of the host hotel (and surrounding ones) tend to sell out incredibly fast, so you need to jump on that (and don't forget the convention rate! It cuts the cost of a room each night way down).

Overall, I agree with the $600 minimum for an out-of-town con, about $250 for an in-town convention (Makir, your situation sounds exactly like me and FC. That's only twenty minutes away from my house, and I went through it using less than $300, and that's only that high because I'm a spend-o-holic in the Dealer's Den ).

Of course, it's all situational, so having a good back-up budget and plan is always advisable.

[Mazin]

Hotel, meals, transportation and art/other purchases at the con will add up to over $1000.  I'd count on spending $1500 at least, unless you find someone to share expenses with.

That seems a bit high. Let me break down my costs for RainFurrest this year:

Round-trip airfare from Oakland to SeaTac (over 700 miles, so not *that* close): $210
The hotel is $109 per night plus taxes (so $123), for two nights and shared with one other person: $123
Sponsorship attendance: $60 (regular would have been $35, or $30 if I did it before Feb.)

So I'm looking at $393 plus food and purchases from the dealer's den. You can save on the food costs by packing your own sandwiches (half a loaf of bread and some PB&J won't cost much). I wouldn't worry about spending too much at the dealer's den either: at your first con you'll probably be so busy socializing with people and making new friends that you'll buy hardly anything, especially if it's a small con.

There are plenty of other ways to save money, too, like going to a con that's close enough to hitch a ride with someone else, sharing a room with 4 or more people instead of only one, heck, sleep on the floor if you can; it's a lot more fun than it sounds, and you'll pay a lot less than $62 per night! Also, some cons will give you free admission to next year's event if you volunteer a certain amount of hours (although that won't help you save on your first time).

[Streak]

Hotel, meals, transportation and art/other purchases at the con will add up to over $1000.  I'd count on spending $1500 at least, unless you find someone to share expenses with.

Food for 3 days: $90  Three meals a day at $10 per.

Hotel for three days: $225.  $75 per day for half a room at a cheap motel.

Gas:  Hard to say, depends on how far you drive and how many people share the ride.

Con expenses:  Plan on at least one meal out with the furs, plus at least one piece of art/other purchase.  I'd say $100 minimum.

And finally, bring a cushion.  How about... $100 minimum?  You just don't know what might happen.

Plane tickets, if planned out ahead of time will cost you around $200. If you carpool with a group, and pitch in for gas, you'll spend less. Hotel, if split with three others, will be around $100. Food isn't too expensive; < $75. Depends on whether you want a nice meal with a drink and desert, or a hamburger, fries, and a cup of water. Be smart.

Admission is usually around $30-$40. You don't have to buy art at a con. Just because there's a dealer's den, doesn't mean you have to buy anything from it. It's still fun to just walk around and see what's being sold. Nothing wrong with window shopping. If you want to go to a con, and you're on a budget, cut out things you don't need. There's plenty to do at conventions that won't require anything but your conbadge. It only get's spendy when you have to have the new Circles comic, or you NEED six con badges of the same character.

Be smart, and budget. Cons can be cheap if you do it right.

[pocomouse]

I guess you could go to a con and not have a meal or drinks out with the furs, or spend any money in the dealer's den.  I'm not sure why you'd bother, though.

But everyone here is right, I tend to plan my budget on a worst-case-scenario basis. It might not cost as much as I predicted, but then again it might.  The last thing you want is to be stuck in a strange city without any money, or have an emergency come up and you can't afford to take care of it, or even just be in a car full of pissed off furs because you ran out of money before you got home and can't pitch in for gas. 

Be smart, is all I'm saying.

[Mange]

I bring a TON of snacky food, so I only have to go out to eat only once. Well thats the plan anyways...I tend to travel with a mass who likes to eat....*glares at Streak* But my hubby and I are going to FF, its 200 for the hotel room for two nights. 50 for gas, and we go to SAMS club before hand and bring sandwich stuff with our cooler and drinks. So all around after both of our registrations 400-ish. Not nearly 1000.

[Rick Woods]

As for eating out with friends -- you can go to wherever they're going and order something small and side-dishy.  That way you still get to socialize (the point of going out!) but you don't spend boku bucks.

[Streak]

...I tend to travel with a mass who likes to eat....*glares at Streak*

[Fen-Fen]

I bring a TON of snacky food, so I only have to go out to eat only once. Well thats the plan anyways...I tend to travel with a mass who likes to eat....*glares at Streak* But my hubby and I are going to FF, its 200 for the hotel room for two nights. 50 for gas, and we go to SAMS club before hand and bring sandwich stuff with our cooler and drinks. So all around after both of our registrations 400-ish. Not nearly 1000.

Haha. You won't enjoy me then, Mange! I love food! XD
(Artificial fruit flavored snacks are one of my favorites ;3)

[Mange]

Oh I'm a fattie, I love food too! I just -try- to be smart and bring snacky stuff, but end up going out all the time anyways *laughs*

[weese]

Well I think I can help out a bit in this thread. I've been to a few cons with a friend (RC plane cons, not fur cons). One was over 10 hours away in Toledo Ohio. I'll list the costs and what they were for.

1. Gas - $50 split 4 ways.

2. Food - $120 at $30 a day for 4 days.

3. Hotel - $75 at $100 a night, 3 nights split 4 ways (I slept on the floor).

4. Spending / buffer money - $100

5. The con it self - $40

Total - $385

Now for the biggest RC plane con in the US, that's not too bad. It's been said before, cons can be cheep. It just depends on how much thought you put into it.

[Zoopedia]

Are there cons in the UK?

[Weisseman]

Yup. There's RBW, the biggest UK con, and Confuzzled. There might more but those are the only 2 I know.