June 3, 2022 • 19 mins
Learn my 5 top takeaways from a week of conferences, how to save money for the next one, and what I actually spent money on this time around.
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Unknown (00:00):
Episode 12 How not to go broke at a conference.
Welcome to the savvy Brown Girlpodcast with Wendy Coop, your
number one destination forpersonal finance and
entrepreneurship for savvywomen.
Welcome back to the savvy BrownGirl podcast. I'm your host
(00:21):
Wendy Coop, the chief savvyBrown Girl. And today we are
talking about conferences andbudgeting. Great things to
attend, but we need to keep themfrom being a total money suck.
Raise your hand, okay, if you'redriving, don't raise your hand,
but you know what I'm talkingabout. So today's episode is
sponsored by budgeting forwomen. A simple five step plan
(00:43):
to get your financial acttogether, written by yours
truly, the book is now availableon Amazon as a digital and
physical copy. Learn the basicsof budgeting, whether you're new
to budgeting, or just need arefresher. This book also makes
a great gift for the person inyour life who wants to level up
their financial literacy orfinancial adulting. Just a hint
(01:04):
though, if people don't talk toyou about their money, don't
don't give them the book thatcould be awkward. We want to
avoid those awkward situations.
So let's get back to today'sepisode, we're going to look at
a couple of conferences Iattended last week, how much I
spent, and how I can betterbudget in the future. I hope
these tips will help you aswell. So the first conference I
attended was growth video livein Las Vegas, Nevada. I spent a
(01:27):
total of about $1,200. On thisconference, most of that money
was on the ticket, flight andhotel. As you know, gas and fuel
prices have dramaticallyincreased along with anything
affected by inflation. As aresult, my flight and parking at
the airport were actually mylargest expenses while I was
flying from Florida, so it's apretty big deal. Followed by the
(01:51):
ticket price because I went VIP,you know, that's how I roll. And
then my share of the hotel room.
And for the second conference, Iwent to pod fest slash bid Fest
in Orlando, Florida. It was onlyabout two hours from my house.
So I drove and I stayed at thehost Hotel. For that conference,
(02:12):
I spent about $1,300 on myticket, lodging, transportation,
food and more. And yes, yourgirl was a VIP wasn't the
highest ticket level, but VIPstill got some perks. Okay. So
after all that, here are my fivetakeaways in no particular
order. Number one, budget moremoney for food. Number two,
(02:35):
decide ahead of time, if youwill, by anyone's training
program.
Number three, budget 20% morethan you think you'll need.
Number four, keep every receiptfor tax and planning purposes.
And number five, buy next year'sticket now to save money.
Alright, so let's get into thesetakeaways. Number one, budget
(02:59):
more money for food. Okay, so ifI go back and look at my
numbers, which are right here ina spreadsheet, I spent about
$150 in food at pod fest. Andabout the same in Las Vegas. So
the difference here is in LasVegas, we were at a self
(03:22):
contained resorts bond Casino.
And because it was not on thestrip, the only way to eat non
hotel food is if you broughtfood yourself or if you had it
DoorDash or Uber Eats in. Thoseare not verbs. But you know what
I'm talking about. If you useDoorDash reviews, Uber Eats or
took Uber to go someplace else.
(03:43):
You could have other food. Butif you're just staying in the
host hotel, there were a numberof options, none of them
particularly inexpensive, butthey existed. Though the M
Resort Spa casino did have oneof the better breakfast options
that I've seen, especially ifyou're vegetarian or vegan. And
(04:05):
I typically eat mostly wholefood plant based so that was
important for me. So, back tothe food thing. You're gonna
feel like every time you turnaround, you're buying food. And
I know that I felt that way inOrlando. Because I had VIP
tickets. Sometimes I had to payfor lunch. And other times I
didn't. But breakfast anddinner. Were all still on me. I
(04:29):
took advantage of as much freefood as I could, when things
were catered when there washappy hours, or things like
that. So look to catered eventsfor your ticket level. You may
even consider upgrading yourticket level so that if there
are meals included, especiallyif one of them's dinner, then
(04:51):
you'll get to absorb that costinto the price of your ticket
and you won't have to worryabout paying for food out of
pocket at that particular time.
Also Look to see if the hotelyou're staying at has any kind
of free or continental breakfastbuffets. Those are awesome for
just eating as much food as youpossibly can. Now, if you're
staying at a hotel, and they askyou, if you want to charge it to
(05:14):
your room, or pay for ityourself, just go ahead and pay
for it yourself. I know chargingyou to room is really, really
tempting. But before you knowit, that room bill, when you
check out will be super, superhigh. So keep the costs low, and
be mindful and pay foreverything as you go. And by the
way, if you set this upproperly, then you've got the
(05:38):
envelope set up in YNAB in theapp, so that you can keep a
running total of how much you'vebudgeted for food, and how much
is actually left. So just forme, I spent $150, more or less.
So the next conference, I mightbudget $170, just to give myself
a little bit of a cushion. Allright, takeaway number two is
(06:00):
decide ahead of time, if you'reby anyone's training program,
because I'm going to be straightwith you some of these programs
can cause 567 $1,000. And that'swith the conference discount,
okay? Now, I'm not saying don'tever buy the thing,
(06:22):
you could benefit from someone'straining program or membership,
where you get a TEDx talk, or ifyou want to self publish a book,
those are all very worthy thingsand things I encountered at pod
fest. But then again, if youdidn't budget for it, no amount
(06:44):
of FOMO is going to make youcome up with the $5,000 to make
sure that you take advantage ofthe program. Sometimes, if you
sweet, talk it nicely, you couldget them to extend that pricing
beyond the conference, say offer$500 down. Or maybe they're just
(07:04):
naturally extending thepromotion. But take a look at
when you have money coming innext, see if you can budget for
it. And then decide if it'sworth your while to get in on
that program. Or just wait untilnext year. It's okay, it's
probably going to be there. Butthese are things you have to
decide ahead of time. Because ifyou don't, you're going to be
(07:25):
pulled in every which way witheveryone's good offer. But it
might not be the right thing foryou. So if you know that writing
a book is still two years outfor you, just because you've got
other things going on, thendon't feel pressured to sign up
for a self publishing programthat you might not have time for
this year, you'll just bewasting your money. So keep
(07:45):
those things in mind. If there'snever a way to know totally,
what kind of offers you're gonnaget. But take a look at any
sponsored lunch and learns. Andfor sure expect a pitch, which
isn't a bad thing from theconference organizer. So in
Vegas, the conference organizerhad a very large pitch. And I
(08:08):
was expecting that they built upto it. It wasn't a surprise. You
weren't blindsided by it, butdefinitely something to
consider. So if you think youmight want to take advantage, I
would actually budget another$5,000 for the conference of
conference of your choosing. Sowhatever conferences your
(08:28):
favorite, whatever conference,you think you're going to
actually go and buy more things,more programs, or take advantage
of that budget another $5,000.
Because you never know ifthey're going to have a payment
plan, or what the deal might be,you may have to pay it all at
once. But I would say minimum$5,000. And then number three is
budget 20% more than you thinkyou need. You get there to the
(08:53):
conference. And there's not onlyjust food to buy, there's swag
to buy, there's books, there'sjewelry, there's equipment, if
you're podcasting or you'redoing YouTube, you always want
the new things. And I mean atpod fest, the sure microphone
people were there. And it was soso tempting to pick up another
(09:16):
kit, but it wasn't in my budget.
But if I had the category ofstuff I didn't budget for which
I talk more about in my bookbudgeting for women. Then I
could look at that category andsay, Well, I've got a few extra
dollars here and the stuff Ididn't budget for I can use
(09:36):
that. Move it out of my digitalenvelope in YNAB. And there I
have it, money for T shirts,money for software, money for
education, money for books, whathave you. So budget 20% more
than you think you need. Call itstuff you didn't budget for and
(09:57):
make an actual digital envelopeout of it. Unless You want to
carry around cash. But who wantsto do that? Takeaway number
four, is keep every receipt fortax and planning purposes. Now,
if you're not used to keepingreceipts for everything, they
must not have been listening tome for very long, or you haven't
read my book because clearly,clearly I talked about that.
(10:20):
Keeping the receipts ofeverything that you spend and
keeping track of everything thatyou spend brings awareness to
your spending habits, it showsyou where your money is actually
going, and where it's not going.
It also shows you if you'vebudgeted too much for a certain
category, or most likelybudgeted too little. The other
thing is, you're running abusiness. And because you're
(10:41):
running a business, you want tokeep these receipts for tax
purposes, for any tax write offsthat may come from you attending
the conference, as well asplanning how much you're going
to spend at the next conferenceor next year's conference. If
you even decide you're going togo back, I'm going back to my
conferences. I hope you enjoyedyours and you want to go back,
(11:01):
the receipts helped me build thespreadsheet for my conference
expenses that I put in a GoogleSheets document. For Google
Sheets. I don't think you callit a document, but you know what
I'm saying. So I itemized it outby ticket transportation, food
and meals, swag slash merch,hotel, clothing, and gear that
was just gear was an allinclusive category. For stuff I
(11:27):
couldn't, I couldn't categorizeany other way. And then I
totaled it all up. And I've gotseparate tabs for growth video
live pod fest, and upcomingconference in July, which is she
speaks. And then in September,I'm going to fin fin con in
Orlando, I'm going to bespending a lot of time in
(11:47):
Orlando. But the point is, isthat when you've got all of your
receipts, and you have a betteridea of what you actually spent,
I had no idea I was spendingthis much money to go to
conferences in person, becausewe've spent the last three years
going to virtual things. And allyou had to do was pay for the
(12:09):
virtual ticket. But now we'readding in transportation cars,
hotel cars, food cars. And allof a sudden, that cheap virtual
conference has now become a veryexpensive in person event. So I
want to make sure that you havethe money to spend, not just
because you're going to write itoff on your taxes. But because
(12:30):
you want to be in a goodfinancial position when you get
to these conferences. If thatmeans you're able to bring some
food with you so that you couldeat more healthfully at would
you no doubt. That's great.
Because I can tell you by theend of the week, I was so tired
of hotel food, it wasn't evenfunny. It wasn't that it was bad
food. I was just tired of hotelfood. I was so glad for my
(12:52):
husband to cook for me when Igot home on Sunday, I thoroughly
thoroughly enjoyed our food,which was actually a kit from
HelloFresh. They're not asponsor. But hey, shout out to
HelloFresh it's vegetarian kid,it was really, really good. So
(13:13):
that brings us to take awaynumber five, which is by next
year's ticket now, to savemoney. Here's the deal. I've
been to enough conferences toknow that the earlier you buy
the ticket, the cheaper it'sgoing to be. I also know that
not everybody knows if they'regoing to have the money at the
(13:35):
conference to buy next year'sticket. So here's what I would
suggest. Take into account whatyou spent on this year's ticket
and have at least that amountavailable to buy next year's
ticket. Depending on how earlyyou bought this year's ticket,
you may be paying less for nextyear. Here's what I mean. At pod
(13:57):
fest, they offered theconference recordings along with
two tickets for the futureevents, all in one bundle. So
you got the conferencerecordings for this year. A
ticket to next year's in personevent and a ticket to a
September virtual event. All fora certain amount about $149 is
(14:20):
what it started at. I believethat's a really really good
deal. Considering I paidprobably about $200 Just for the
lowest level ticket to podfestbefore I upgraded. So by buying
the conference recordings, I'vealready secured a ticket for
next year. I'm not going to tellyou how much I spent but it was
(14:44):
more than 150 but not much more.
But this is the cheapest it'sgoing to be the prices are going
to go up soon after soon after Ifinished this recording.
If they put the tickets on saleNext year, and if you enjoyed
it, buy the ticket. If there's arefund policy, make note of
(15:05):
that. Or if there's a way youcan transfer the ticket to
somebody else, if it turns outyou can't go, were transferred
into a virtual ticket. Keep inmind all of those policies, and
enact those clauses as soon aspossible if it comes down to you
not being able to go to theevent, but buy the ticket at its
(15:26):
cheapest price, which is almostalways at that event. So buy
your ticket for next year, thisyear. That way, that's one thing
you've already figured out, youcan write that off, most likely
on this year's taxes. I'm not atax expert. So don't come to me
with tax questions. We'll havesomeone on the show a little
(15:50):
later on this year to talk abouttax planning. But the point is,
is that not only are you goingto save money by buying next
year's ticket this year, you'realso going to lock in the lowest
rate possible. And rest assured,you've got your ticket or
tickets, because I'm planning ontaking my husband next year, so
(16:10):
we need to get him a ticket aswell. Keep in mind as you get
closer to to the event, ticketprices will go up. So you want
to lock in your ticket at thelowest price possible, as early
as possible. And caveat, thatcaveat. But in addition to what
I just said about the tickets,make sure that you book your
(16:33):
hotel room in the block at thehost hotel, as soon as you can.
Some hotels will make you payfor the entire state upfront.
Some will make you leave anight's deposit. Some just need
your credit card on file. Sowhatever the case may be, for
that host hotel, locking yourlodging as soon as you can. Even
(16:54):
if you're staying at an Airbnb,just go ahead and book what you
need to book, I prefer to stayat the host hotel, because it's
more convenient. And I don'thave to go anywhere. Just trying
to be efficient like that. But Ialso know that it's not always
in someone's budget, I alwaysget a roommate. So I had one ad
(17:17):
grow with video live. And then Ihad a roommate at pod fest. So I
didn't have to shoulder thewhole expense by myself. So if
you're amenable to having aroommate, check out in the
conference Facebook group aheadof time and see who else needs a
roommate, and be a good roommateto be considerate of the people
you're staying with. So that'sanother great savings tip is to
(17:39):
get a roommate for the hotel. Sothat's it. Those are my five or
six top tips for not going brokeat a conference. By the way, if
you're listening to this and theconferences, you go to our Comic
Cons, I've got a whole differentepisode coming for you. Okay,
because what I said, for thismay not apply. But you've got
(18:04):
different things to look outfor. So if you're a Comic Con
person like I am, shout out toawesome con in New York Comic
Con, and blurred con. Those aresome of my favorites. Definitely
blurred con. Let's stay tunedfor a future episode on comic
(18:25):
conventions. All right. So ifyou have a question about
personal finance, orentrepreneurship, or budgeting,
since that seems to be myspecialty that you would like me
to cover in a future episode,you can go to speak pipe.com
forward slash savvy Brown Girland leave your question. I'll
put the link in the show notesso that you know exactly what
(18:47):
I'm talking about. I'll also putthe link in the show notes to
the conventions that I went toin case you're interested. And I
would also like to share yourreviews and testimonies on the
show. So if you want me tohighlight your review, be sure
to leave a review on Apple orStitcher and tag me on social
media. My handle on Twitter andInstagram is Mrs. When the coop
(19:10):
Mrs. W en de Yco op. If youreview was selected to be
featured on the show, you couldwin a copy of my latest book,
budgeting for women. A five stepplan for getting your financial
act together. But you can alsopurchase a copy at Wendy
coop.com forward slash books.
That's books with an S That'sall for this week. Thank you for
(19:36):
joining me and I'll see you onthe next episode.
Episode 12 How not to go broke at a conference.
Welcome to the savvy Brown Girlpodcast with Wendy Coop, your
number one destination forpersonal finance and
entrepreneurship for savvywomen.
Welcome back to the savvy BrownGirl podcast. I'm your host
(00:21):
Wendy Coop, the chief savvyBrown Girl. And today we are
talking about conferences andbudgeting. Great things to
attend, but we need to keep themfrom being a total money suck.
Raise your hand, okay, if you'redriving, don't raise your hand,
but you know what I'm talkingabout. So today's episode is
sponsored by budgeting forwomen. A simple five step plan
(00:43):
to get your financial acttogether, written by yours
truly, the book is now availableon Amazon as a digital and
physical copy. Learn the basicsof budgeting, whether you're new
to budgeting, or just need arefresher. This book also makes
a great gift for the person inyour life who wants to level up
their financial literacy orfinancial adulting. Just a hint
(01:04):
though, if people don't talk toyou about their money, don't
don't give them the book thatcould be awkward. We want to
avoid those awkward situations.
So let's get back to today'sepisode, we're going to look at
a couple of conferences Iattended last week, how much I
spent, and how I can betterbudget in the future. I hope
these tips will help you aswell. So the first conference I
attended was growth video livein Las Vegas, Nevada. I spent a
(01:27):
total of about $1,200. On thisconference, most of that money
was on the ticket, flight andhotel. As you know, gas and fuel
prices have dramaticallyincreased along with anything
affected by inflation. As aresult, my flight and parking at
the airport were actually mylargest expenses while I was
flying from Florida, so it's apretty big deal. Followed by the
(01:51):
ticket price because I went VIP,you know, that's how I roll. And
then my share of the hotel room.
And for the second conference, Iwent to pod fest slash bid Fest
in Orlando, Florida. It was onlyabout two hours from my house.
So I drove and I stayed at thehost Hotel. For that conference,
(02:12):
I spent about $1,300 on myticket, lodging, transportation,
food and more. And yes, yourgirl was a VIP wasn't the
highest ticket level, but VIPstill got some perks. Okay. So
after all that, here are my fivetakeaways in no particular
order. Number one, budget moremoney for food. Number two,
(02:35):
decide ahead of time, if youwill, by anyone's training
program.
Number three, budget 20% morethan you think you'll need.
Number four, keep every receiptfor tax and planning purposes.
And number five, buy next year'sticket now to save money.
Alright, so let's get into thesetakeaways. Number one, budget
(02:59):
more money for food. Okay, so ifI go back and look at my
numbers, which are right here ina spreadsheet, I spent about
$150 in food at pod fest. Andabout the same in Las Vegas. So
the difference here is in LasVegas, we were at a self
(03:22):
contained resorts bond Casino.
And because it was not on thestrip, the only way to eat non
hotel food is if you broughtfood yourself or if you had it
DoorDash or Uber Eats in. Thoseare not verbs. But you know what
I'm talking about. If you useDoorDash reviews, Uber Eats or
took Uber to go someplace else.
(03:43):
You could have other food. Butif you're just staying in the
host hotel, there were a numberof options, none of them
particularly inexpensive, butthey existed. Though the M
Resort Spa casino did have oneof the better breakfast options
that I've seen, especially ifyou're vegetarian or vegan. And
(04:05):
I typically eat mostly wholefood plant based so that was
important for me. So, back tothe food thing. You're gonna
feel like every time you turnaround, you're buying food. And
I know that I felt that way inOrlando. Because I had VIP
tickets. Sometimes I had to payfor lunch. And other times I
didn't. But breakfast anddinner. Were all still on me. I
(04:29):
took advantage of as much freefood as I could, when things
were catered when there washappy hours, or things like
that. So look to catered eventsfor your ticket level. You may
even consider upgrading yourticket level so that if there
are meals included, especiallyif one of them's dinner, then
(04:51):
you'll get to absorb that costinto the price of your ticket
and you won't have to worryabout paying for food out of
pocket at that particular time.
Also Look to see if the hotelyou're staying at has any kind
of free or continental breakfastbuffets. Those are awesome for
just eating as much food as youpossibly can. Now, if you're
staying at a hotel, and they askyou, if you want to charge it to
(05:14):
your room, or pay for ityourself, just go ahead and pay
for it yourself. I know chargingyou to room is really, really
tempting. But before you knowit, that room bill, when you
check out will be super, superhigh. So keep the costs low, and
be mindful and pay foreverything as you go. And by the
way, if you set this upproperly, then you've got the
(05:38):
envelope set up in YNAB in theapp, so that you can keep a
running total of how much you'vebudgeted for food, and how much
is actually left. So just forme, I spent $150, more or less.
So the next conference, I mightbudget $170, just to give myself
a little bit of a cushion. Allright, takeaway number two is
(06:00):
decide ahead of time, if you'reby anyone's training program,
because I'm going to be straightwith you some of these programs
can cause 567 $1,000. And that'swith the conference discount,
okay? Now, I'm not saying don'tever buy the thing,
(06:22):
you could benefit from someone'straining program or membership,
where you get a TEDx talk, or ifyou want to self publish a book,
those are all very worthy thingsand things I encountered at pod
fest. But then again, if youdidn't budget for it, no amount
(06:44):
of FOMO is going to make youcome up with the $5,000 to make
sure that you take advantage ofthe program. Sometimes, if you
sweet, talk it nicely, you couldget them to extend that pricing
beyond the conference, say offer$500 down. Or maybe they're just
(07:04):
naturally extending thepromotion. But take a look at
when you have money coming innext, see if you can budget for
it. And then decide if it'sworth your while to get in on
that program. Or just wait untilnext year. It's okay, it's
probably going to be there. Butthese are things you have to
decide ahead of time. Because ifyou don't, you're going to be
(07:25):
pulled in every which way witheveryone's good offer. But it
might not be the right thing foryou. So if you know that writing
a book is still two years outfor you, just because you've got
other things going on, thendon't feel pressured to sign up
for a self publishing programthat you might not have time for
this year, you'll just bewasting your money. So keep
(07:45):
those things in mind. If there'snever a way to know totally,
what kind of offers you're gonnaget. But take a look at any
sponsored lunch and learns. Andfor sure expect a pitch, which
isn't a bad thing from theconference organizer. So in
Vegas, the conference organizerhad a very large pitch. And I
(08:08):
was expecting that they built upto it. It wasn't a surprise. You
weren't blindsided by it, butdefinitely something to
consider. So if you think youmight want to take advantage, I
would actually budget another$5,000 for the conference of
conference of your choosing. Sowhatever conferences your
(08:28):
favorite, whatever conference,you think you're going to
actually go and buy more things,more programs, or take advantage
of that budget another $5,000.
Because you never know ifthey're going to have a payment
plan, or what the deal might be,you may have to pay it all at
once. But I would say minimum$5,000. And then number three is
budget 20% more than you thinkyou need. You get there to the
(08:53):
conference. And there's not onlyjust food to buy, there's swag
to buy, there's books, there'sjewelry, there's equipment, if
you're podcasting or you'redoing YouTube, you always want
the new things. And I mean atpod fest, the sure microphone
people were there. And it was soso tempting to pick up another
(09:16):
kit, but it wasn't in my budget.
But if I had the category ofstuff I didn't budget for which
I talk more about in my bookbudgeting for women. Then I
could look at that category andsay, Well, I've got a few extra
dollars here and the stuff Ididn't budget for I can use
(09:36):
that. Move it out of my digitalenvelope in YNAB. And there I
have it, money for T shirts,money for software, money for
education, money for books, whathave you. So budget 20% more
than you think you need. Call itstuff you didn't budget for and
(09:57):
make an actual digital envelopeout of it. Unless You want to
carry around cash. But who wantsto do that? Takeaway number
four, is keep every receipt fortax and planning purposes. Now,
if you're not used to keepingreceipts for everything, they
must not have been listening tome for very long, or you haven't
read my book because clearly,clearly I talked about that.
(10:20):
Keeping the receipts ofeverything that you spend and
keeping track of everything thatyou spend brings awareness to
your spending habits, it showsyou where your money is actually
going, and where it's not going.
It also shows you if you'vebudgeted too much for a certain
category, or most likelybudgeted too little. The other
thing is, you're running abusiness. And because you're
(10:41):
running a business, you want tokeep these receipts for tax
purposes, for any tax write offsthat may come from you attending
the conference, as well asplanning how much you're going
to spend at the next conferenceor next year's conference. If
you even decide you're going togo back, I'm going back to my
conferences. I hope you enjoyedyours and you want to go back,
(11:01):
the receipts helped me build thespreadsheet for my conference
expenses that I put in a GoogleSheets document. For Google
Sheets. I don't think you callit a document, but you know what
I'm saying. So I itemized it outby ticket transportation, food
and meals, swag slash merch,hotel, clothing, and gear that
was just gear was an allinclusive category. For stuff I
(11:27):
couldn't, I couldn't categorizeany other way. And then I
totaled it all up. And I've gotseparate tabs for growth video
live pod fest, and upcomingconference in July, which is she
speaks. And then in September,I'm going to fin fin con in
Orlando, I'm going to bespending a lot of time in
(11:47):
Orlando. But the point is, isthat when you've got all of your
receipts, and you have a betteridea of what you actually spent,
I had no idea I was spendingthis much money to go to
conferences in person, becausewe've spent the last three years
going to virtual things. And allyou had to do was pay for the
(12:09):
virtual ticket. But now we'readding in transportation cars,
hotel cars, food cars. And allof a sudden, that cheap virtual
conference has now become a veryexpensive in person event. So I
want to make sure that you havethe money to spend, not just
because you're going to write itoff on your taxes. But because
(12:30):
you want to be in a goodfinancial position when you get
to these conferences. If thatmeans you're able to bring some
food with you so that you couldeat more healthfully at would
you no doubt. That's great.
Because I can tell you by theend of the week, I was so tired
of hotel food, it wasn't evenfunny. It wasn't that it was bad
food. I was just tired of hotelfood. I was so glad for my
(12:52):
husband to cook for me when Igot home on Sunday, I thoroughly
thoroughly enjoyed our food,which was actually a kit from
HelloFresh. They're not asponsor. But hey, shout out to
HelloFresh it's vegetarian kid,it was really, really good. So
(13:13):
that brings us to take awaynumber five, which is by next
year's ticket now, to savemoney. Here's the deal. I've
been to enough conferences toknow that the earlier you buy
the ticket, the cheaper it'sgoing to be. I also know that
not everybody knows if they'regoing to have the money at the
(13:35):
conference to buy next year'sticket. So here's what I would
suggest. Take into account whatyou spent on this year's ticket
and have at least that amountavailable to buy next year's
ticket. Depending on how earlyyou bought this year's ticket,
you may be paying less for nextyear. Here's what I mean. At pod
(13:57):
fest, they offered theconference recordings along with
two tickets for the futureevents, all in one bundle. So
you got the conferencerecordings for this year. A
ticket to next year's in personevent and a ticket to a
September virtual event. All fora certain amount about $149 is
(14:20):
what it started at. I believethat's a really really good
deal. Considering I paidprobably about $200 Just for the
lowest level ticket to podfestbefore I upgraded. So by buying
the conference recordings, I'vealready secured a ticket for
next year. I'm not going to tellyou how much I spent but it was
(14:44):
more than 150 but not much more.
But this is the cheapest it'sgoing to be the prices are going
to go up soon after soon after Ifinished this recording.
If they put the tickets on saleNext year, and if you enjoyed
it, buy the ticket. If there's arefund policy, make note of
(15:05):
that. Or if there's a way youcan transfer the ticket to
somebody else, if it turns outyou can't go, were transferred
into a virtual ticket. Keep inmind all of those policies, and
enact those clauses as soon aspossible if it comes down to you
not being able to go to theevent, but buy the ticket at its
(15:26):
cheapest price, which is almostalways at that event. So buy
your ticket for next year, thisyear. That way, that's one thing
you've already figured out, youcan write that off, most likely
on this year's taxes. I'm not atax expert. So don't come to me
with tax questions. We'll havesomeone on the show a little
(15:50):
later on this year to talk abouttax planning. But the point is,
is that not only are you goingto save money by buying next
year's ticket this year, you'realso going to lock in the lowest
rate possible. And rest assured,you've got your ticket or
tickets, because I'm planning ontaking my husband next year, so
(16:10):
we need to get him a ticket aswell. Keep in mind as you get
closer to to the event, ticketprices will go up. So you want
to lock in your ticket at thelowest price possible, as early
as possible. And caveat, thatcaveat. But in addition to what
I just said about the tickets,make sure that you book your
(16:33):
hotel room in the block at thehost hotel, as soon as you can.
Some hotels will make you payfor the entire state upfront.
Some will make you leave anight's deposit. Some just need
your credit card on file. Sowhatever the case may be, for
that host hotel, locking yourlodging as soon as you can. Even
(16:54):
if you're staying at an Airbnb,just go ahead and book what you
need to book, I prefer to stayat the host hotel, because it's
more convenient. And I don'thave to go anywhere. Just trying
to be efficient like that. But Ialso know that it's not always
in someone's budget, I alwaysget a roommate. So I had one ad
(17:17):
grow with video live. And then Ihad a roommate at pod fest. So I
didn't have to shoulder thewhole expense by myself. So if
you're amenable to having aroommate, check out in the
conference Facebook group aheadof time and see who else needs a
roommate, and be a good roommateto be considerate of the people
you're staying with. So that'sanother great savings tip is to
(17:39):
get a roommate for the hotel. Sothat's it. Those are my five or
six top tips for not going brokeat a conference. By the way, if
you're listening to this and theconferences, you go to our Comic
Cons, I've got a whole differentepisode coming for you. Okay,
because what I said, for thismay not apply. But you've got
(18:04):
different things to look outfor. So if you're a Comic Con
person like I am, shout out toawesome con in New York Comic
Con, and blurred con. Those aresome of my favorites. Definitely
blurred con. Let's stay tunedfor a future episode on comic
(18:25):
conventions. All right. So ifyou have a question about
personal finance, orentrepreneurship, or budgeting,
since that seems to be myspecialty that you would like me
to cover in a future episode,you can go to speak pipe.com
forward slash savvy Brown Girland leave your question. I'll
put the link in the show notesso that you know exactly what
(18:47):
I'm talking about. I'll also putthe link in the show notes to
the conventions that I went toin case you're interested. And I
would also like to share yourreviews and testimonies on the
show. So if you want me tohighlight your review, be sure
to leave a review on Apple orStitcher and tag me on social
media. My handle on Twitter andInstagram is Mrs. When the coop
(19:10):
Mrs. W en de Yco op. If youreview was selected to be
featured on the show, you couldwin a copy of my latest book,
budgeting for women. A five stepplan for getting your financial
act together. But you can alsopurchase a copy at Wendy
coop.com forward slash books.
That's books with an S That'sall for this week. Thank you for
(19:36):
joining me and I'll see you onthe next episode.
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