Money Tips!

[Admin]

These are a huge help during the year if you think you can't afford to send your child to AX with us. It's a really great experience, and I don't want them to miss out because of not having enough money.

First off, this one goes to the kids:
1. If you see a lot of movies, or go out and buy really expensive clothes, think about this first: There are Anime clothing stores at AX, and there are never before seen in America, Japanese anime movies!
Don't waste your money on movies, and you can pay for part of your hotel, or all of your gas tag.

2. Let's say you get cash from your parents for lunch, instead of spending that, save it up. Help out in the Lunch line like I did for three years.
2.25+2.25+2.25+2.25+2.25= 11.25
Take into account that if you just do that three days of the week, you could have enough saved up for AX before the school year lets out.
This works, trust me.

3. Lets say you have a job, put away 5% of the money you earn from it, and I think you will get enough money if you always save enough, or if your job pays high enough. It's not that much, if you really think about it, just break it down into things you CAN save up for.

4. Game Stop is a great shop, you can trade in your old games to get new ones, use this instead of buying brand new games for all you gamers out there. It saved about 4-5 bucks, or more if you took good care of your game.

5. If your parents give you an allowance, just put it all in a jar, and do NOT pull it out to count it until AX. This means behaving for your parents, doing your chores, babysitting younger siblings, taking care of your pets, everything you need to do to earn your allowance.

Alright Parents, now that you've read my idea on how to save up for the kids, I think it's time I told you a few great ways to break it down.

1. The total cost will vary, so let's go with what you know so far: You're child's ticket will cost at least 60 bucks, and then there is the Gas Tag of ten bucks.
That's 70 Dollars.
Put into a small savings jar ten dollars every Friday or payday, and it'll add up so fast it'll make your head spin.

Also, kids so appreciate the Money if they have to work for it. If your kid just comes home, sits on the couch, does their homework and then goes to their video games, tell them you'll take away money too if they don't do the world or help out around the house. Do not give our free handfuls of cash just because they ask you to. Make them work for it, trust me, when it comes down to the wire, you'll have them working up a storm if they haven't already.

2. The shirts, plushies, posters, books, and everything else your child could hope to buy that's anime related will be there at Expo. They will want to buy everything and anything, so work out a list of things they want to buy first. I can post in a separate topic a list of things that caught my interest, and the price tags for them. I can also show how much the price drops if we buy on the last day. Of course, everyone wants to buy on the last day, so if there's a limited amount of what you want to buy, buy it when you see it.
But, if they make a list, and have the money for the stuff on that list, they will probably hold out for that stuff, or learn to make sacrifices.

3. A huge way to save money is to not worry about the food that they're going to be eating.
Breakfast:
The Hotel serves breakfast, that means; juice, cereal, beagles, toast, oatmeal, milk, coffee, and donuts. (the cheap industrial sized boxes of them. They're quite tasty, despite the fact their a little doughy. )
Lunch:
We will be taking Lunch with us, we will NOT eat at the convention because of the terrible prices, however, if your child absolutely needs to eat there, that's fine by me, I won't stop them from making bad money choices.
We will take cup of noodles with us, because at the 'Star Shack' there is a hot water sprout that we can use one at a time. It's used for making tea, ramen, and it's something nice that they provide for all of the conventioners.
Dinner:
Dinner will be at either Subway, or another food place near our hotel. Subway is literally right outside of our hotel, we have to go a total of I think it was 15 steps, to get there. If it is too late, we will more then likely just have some ramen, or something else we brought with us, and be done with it.
Snacks:
Snacks are needed, very much so. We will be exhausting ourselves every step of the way, but it's completely worth it. The best snacks for the convention are as follows:
1. Any sugary treat, not to be stuffed down our throats like a meal, but a nice way to get our blood sugar up.
2. I will be asking for fruit, because having a nice, cool apple, or some nice chilled orange slices, it's the best taste in the world as you pull out of a very hot costume.
3. Chips and Soda, not a lot, but some. We don't want to be sugar high, we want to be rational and thoughtful at all times.


The last money tip I can think of, is if you really have no way of getting enough for your child, than consider having your child do little odd jobs for the neighbors. Mow the lawns, cut the hedges, watch the kids, all the little things can really add up fast.


For an example of how much AX cost totally, for me this past year, not counting the things I bought outside of AX grounds, it was $570 bucks. That seems like a lot hun?
I spent 230 on the hotel and 130 on mine and Tila's ticket to get inside of the convention. That's only 360 altogether, where did the rest of that 570 go you ask?
It went into the four meals I had at AX.
Take it from me, you do NOT want to go there without food of your own. No one will complain if your costume is accompanied by a backpack, shoulder bag, or even grocery bag. If you're ask to pause for pictures, you can strike a pose after setting it down on the ground out of the camera's view, or just pass it off to one of your friends to hold while you pose.
This is it for now!