How Do You Save Money For Festivals?

People always ask me, “How do you afford to go to all of these festivals? You are always on vacation!!!” I always respond that I am really good at saving money and I use it on festivals. People are shocked that I can travel so much because I don’t make a ton of money and I have tons of student loans. I am going to share some of the ways I afford going to concerts and festivals. My little disclaimer here: I am not receiving any sort of compensation for the listing of products or programs that help me save money! I’m just sharing the love.

My Biggest Tip for Affording Festivals

Do you struggle at saving? I know I do. I get the money in my account and then I say, “Oh! Look, I need the money!” Then I spend it. My biggest tip is to autosave into a separate bank account. I have two banks. One is my main bank. All of my money gets deposited here and I pay all my bills, buy groceries, etc from this account. This same bank has a savings but I am terrible at keeping money in there.

My other bank is the winner. It’s called Qapital and it is an online app. You link your bank account and then you set your own goals. Personally, I take 10% of every paycheck as well as $2 for every purchase I make using my accounts. This adds up pretty fast. This year, I was able to buy all of my festivals, concerts, and travel expenses plus have money left over! Qapital is FDIC insured. The money also isn’t right in front of my face, like it is in my normal bank account. It does take a day or so to get the money from Qapital to your bank, which deters that impulse spending that some of us, (ME!) are prone to.

Saving at Festivals Themselves

At the festivals themselves, I always budget my money carefully. I always bring all of the money for the weekend and put it in a lockbox that I bought at Walmart. I don’t carry around all of my money in the fear that I am going to lose it. Personally, I don’t like to pay ATM fees and so this helps me. In addition, my lockbox has a few other valuables in it as well.

Should I camp or should I get a hotel? Generally, camping is a cheaper option. When I camp, I can make my own food and eat out a few times at the festival. I generally spend $20 or less at the festivals themselves on food because I bring my own.

Saving Money on Travel

If I do have to get a hotel room, I always check hotels.com. Every 10 nights gets you a free room! Be sure to use their app to do your bookings when you redeem though, they charge a fee on their website! One time, I booked my buddies’ rooms for Lost Lands so we would be next to each other. I ended up racking up 12 nights because we stayed for 4 days and had 3 rooms. Free night? Ca-ching!

I typically rent cars when I go on trips longer than 5 hours as well. While there is a cost associated with this, I figure the wear and tear on my personal car is too much. I have to drive 20 miles to work daily and then come back, so I focus my driving on that. When I do rent, I use two services: AAA and Hertz rewards.

AAA is great because if you are under 25, you immediately get your young driver fee waived with Hertz. You also get additional drivers free if they have AAA and a discount! I easily save the $100 membership fee for AAA by using Hertz. And with the Hertz Gold Rewards Plus, I get free days based on my rentals too.

Affording Your Festivals

How do you save money for festivals? I seriously love Qapital and can’t imagine not using it! It’s so convenient. As a quick reminder, I didn’t receive any compensation from any of the services listed, just sharing my love for these awesome products! I also did not own or create any of these memes. Shoutout to those who did!