5 Tips for Managing a Cosplay Budget
#1 The real world comes first
This is a no-brainer, but get your priorities in order. Never let cosplay come between you and paying bills, paying rent, buying this semester’s textbooks, funding car repairs etc. Do not starve yourself for cosplay. Do not let let yourself get into a financial cesspool over cosplay because that is the fastest way to guarantee that you won’t be making new cosplays any time soon.
But, that doesn’t mean that you can’t cut back from regular spending to help fund cosplay. Maybe you can rent that movie when it comes out, rather than pay full price tickets. Perhaps you wait a month or two before getting that new manga omnibus.
#2 Set a budget (no matter how loose) for each costume
This doesn’t need to be anything elaborate. It can be as simple as deciding “I only want to spend $100” or “I don’t want to put a money ceiling on this costume - the sky’s the limit!”
My costumes usually come in two varieties: quicker costumes that I’m putting together for fun and larger, competitive/show pieces. I usually set smaller budgets for the fast/easy costumes because I don’t want to spend a fortune on them. For craftsmanship pieces I usually don’t set a limit because I want to get them right, which means shelling out for prototypes, fabric samples, better materials etc.
But this brings me to my next point:
#3 Track your spending and limit yourself
I realized that I was spending a lot on cosplay, so I started tracking how much I spent on cosplay a month (you don’t want to know how much). Then, I looked at my real-world expenses and established that I could afford to spend $X a month on cosplay-related materials.
So now I use a month-by-month budget to keep my spending under control. I also track how much I spend on each costume so that if it’s a costume where I was trying to keep to a budget, I know when I’m about to hit the limit.
Every month I re-evaluate upcoming expenses and factor those into the amount available as well. (December is particularly rough because of the holidays).
#4 Be aware when coupons/sales are happening, but don’t feel pressured to act
If you subscribe to Jo-Anns, Michaels, AC Moore etc, you undoubtedly get loads of coupons or news about sales in the mail/by e-mail/in-store etc. As tempting as it might be, don’t feel pressured to use them just because coupons are about to expire or a sale is about to end.
There will always be another coupon, another sale. Don’t rush to make a purchase just because the sale is RIGHT NOW. Making impulse purchases can quickly set your budget awry and worse, you may end up committing to materials that are “good enough” instead of what you really wanted.
#5 Be prepared to spend a lot and plan
Cosplay is an expensive hobby. Be aware that to make even one costume can be hundreds of dollars. Most costumes have garment pieces, under garments, accessories, a wig, shoes, props, (not to mention what you are going to transport/store the costume in!)
Keep this in mind when planning out which cosplays you want to make. It might sound like fun to do 3 new costumes per con for 7 conventions this year, but you need to ask yourself: do you have the funds for it?
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