Money Managing: Creating A Concert Road Trip Budget 101

Money Managing: Creating A Concert Road Trip Budget 101

Happy Thursday! Today is another Concert Money Managing post! My first Concert Money Managing post from a little over a month ago went over very well & if you don't know what I'm talking about click here to see how I manage my money to decide what concerts I want to go to! Since we already discussed how I decide financially what concerts I go to, today I will explain to y'all how I can afford to go on as many road trips as I can for these shows since I am from Corpus & Corpus literally has 1 good concert a year so I tend to travel out of town to San Antonio or Houston for most of my shows!

I personally want to better myself with budgeting at concerts & over the past year, I've really had to create budgets for myself in all aspects of my life including concerts so as I type this post, this will personally help me out in the future as well as it will help you! If you didn't read my other money managing post, I don't pick the most expensive seats & that's been a HUGE way I've saved money! Every concert will have a different budget & today I will share y'all several main ways I will be creating my budget for this tour season!

Creating A Concert Road Trip Budget 101:

#1: The Ticket

The ticket should always be the one of the first things you think about when you are planning your budget because if I spend $150 on a concert ticket my budget for the whole trip will be a lot different versus if I only spent $30. In my last concert budgeting post, I kind of showed y'all in Tip #4 how much I budget myself per show. Some artists I am willing to spend more money on than others but how much you spend on the ticket is up to your personal preference & what you can afford! My whole road trip experience will be based mainly on how much I spent on the ticket! 

If you are going to do VIP, include that in your ticket budget & be reasonable about what you can afford!

#2: Location

Location for my concert road trips are VERY IMPORTANT! I mainly only road trip for concerts in San Antonio or Houston (I've done Austin a few times as well)! I never really go for shows in Dallas because where I live, Dallas is 7 hours away which will up my cost tremendously on transportation alone so I tend to only travel 2-4 hours to save some money! I can't take my own car on road trips because my car is older & can't handle driving long distances so I do tend to carpool! Hopefully this year though that will change & I will start hosting the road trips myself! 

#3: Where Am I Going To Stay??

Again, this all depends on who I'm going with & where I'm going but this is another HUGE part when creating your budget! I tend to find myself personally going to more shows in San Antonio from how much cheaper that trip is alone! Most of the time when I go to San Antonio, we drive to the show & then drive back home that same night! It might sound like a insane idea when you first hear it but I have saved SO MUCH money by doing this so if you want to save as much money as possible I highly recommend doing that but make sure it's within 2 hours away or less from your hometown & load yourself with tons of caffeine & sugar to stay awake! Have your passenger driver (which is always me for these kind of road trips) be as energized as you are & also it's good for safety reasons! Usually winding down after concerts is super difficult because you have so much excitement & happiness in you! PLEASE STAY SAFE IF YOU ARE GOING TO DO THIS MONEY SAVING TIP!

A lot of people aren't as crazy as what me & my concert buddies are about driving there & driving back the same day even though it does save you a tremendous amount of money & like the safety of a hotel to go to (or just stay with a family member or friend to save even more money but this post is mainly for the people who are going to do the whole concert & hotel experience)! Every concert road trip is different! If you are looking for creating a concert road trip turned into vacation, this is not the post for you! If you are doing the concert as one of your many activities, that's vacation budgeting & a whole other ball game! I don't go on a ton of true "vacations" due to the fact my "vacations" are many mini concert road trips that last 1-3 days! If you truly want to cut down on your concert road trip budget & attend as many shows as possible, ONLY STAY FOR ONE NIGHT!

So, if you are going to do the go to the concert & stay in a hotel thing, don't go too expensive on the hotel! Hotels.com is your best place to easily search for hotels! Start your search with "hotels near (insert tour venue here)"! I mainly always stay near the venue for convenience but it may be different for you! You may want to be near the mall or a specific location in the city! If you want to save money though, stay near the venue! 

I never spend more than $125 on a hotel for 2 since most of the times I do get a hotel for a concert it's always just me & my mom! If you have more than 3 people I would get a hotel comfortable for everyone & at a cost that you can evenly split with everyone involved to be fair with everyone's budget! Don't pick the most expensive place in downtown Houston & expect your friends who can't afford the 5 star hotel to pay their $120 for the one night y'all will be staying! Be fair to everyone's budgets not just yours when it comes to picking a hotel! 

#4: Gas Money & Parking Passes

I'll just tell y'all right now, no matter how much my ticket costs my gas money & parking pass money will always remain the same! I save $20 for contributing to gas since I do carpool with others & $20 for parking passes! I've never spent more than $20 on parking passes at the venue itself so to be safe even if you know the parking is cheaper, some venues like to trick you because they make a ton of business off of parking passes alone! 

This past week, I went to a concert & I was so determined based on my past experiences at this one venue that $10 was the cost of parking & my mom told me, "let's just be safe & bring $20"! A lot of times at venues officers & patrollers direct you where to go from the very moment you turn on the street into the venue & you are basically trapped into paying whatever price they want you to! This happened to us last week & we knew there was cheaper parking out there! Do I have tips into how to get out of a patroller basically forcing you to go into a certain lot so they can fill up all of the expensive passes first? No, I do not so I always play safe when it comes to parking passes & always have the mentality that the pass will be $20 no matter what! Even if you do go to a venue with a $20 bill & the passes end up being cheaper, they always have change!

#5: Merch

Every show is different but if you are going to do the whole merch thing, DO YOUR RESEARCH ON PRICES BEFORE YOU GET THERE & INCLUDE IT IN YOUR BUDGET WHEN YOU ARE PLANNING! I always search for merch prices on Twitter through fan accounts because some fan will always release prices of merch for a tour to let other fans know so don't give me that excuse of, "I didn't know the hoodie would be $80 now I don't have money to eat dinner after the show!". Check the artists' merch website because their prices will most likely be their tour prices & check tour update accounts!

I understand this won't work 100% of the time but most of the time it will! If you are the first show of the tour, check the prices from the last tour or checking out the artists' merch website to how much they are selling their merch already! If you are getting exclusive merch for a exclusive show, I recommend saving a extra $20 for your merch budget because exclusive merch will always cost you more money because of how limited it is!

Sometimes, I'll ditch merch all together & just go to the mall in the area & go shopping instead (that'll be in your miscellaneous budget)!

#6: Food

Always save money for food! Eat cheap! If you are going to do a nice dinner before, plan it advance with everyone involved & work with everyone's budgets! Whataburger is always the move after the concert! 

My Average Concert Road Trip Budget Percentages:

50% The Ticket

25% The Hotel

10% The Merch (if I don't do merch that 10% will go into shopping at the mall in the area, saving it for something else, or contributing more to the hotel or ticket)

5% Gas Money

5% Parking Pass Money

5% Food Money

I didn't wanna give a exact cost because my concert road trip exact cost is different for every road trip! I am always super realistic about how much I'm willing to spend but this post is all about what to consider when creating your budget! How much you spend is your business! Just consider these tips when planning!