Lisa Dudson: Planning an event

Sometimes an event can derail our best laid financial plans.

The more planning you do for an event the easier things will be leading up to the event, during the event and afterwards.  Your event might be a wedding, a holiday, a birthday party or Christmas. 

There are some key steps to making your event a success without creating havoc on your finances.

Make a checklist
Think about what you want your event to be like.  Then make a list of all the things you need to do step by step to make your event a success.

Prepare a budget
Make a list of the things in your event that cost money.  Take care to ensure you have thought of everything.  It’s also a good idea to put aside a certain amount of money for a contingency just in case you miss something or it turns out to be more expensive than you thought.

Review
Check if the value you get out of the event is well worth the time it will take to organise it and the financial cost.  Run it past a friend or colleague to ensure you have thought of everything.

Put your plan in place
Now you know what your event will involve and how much it is going to cost check if you can afford the event.  If you don’t have the cash available today, how many months to you have to save for it and how much per month do you need to save.  Can you afford to do this?  The Sorted website site has a really useful event planner to help you manage your finances.  https://www.sorted.org.nz/calculators/event-money-planner.  

An event itself can be wonderful.  However if we don’t think it through and plan for it often overall it’s just not worth it.