Saving Tips for Book Events

Last year I posted my Four Steps to Saving For YALC and this year I'm sharing my saving tips again, because yes, I've already started saving  myself. This is a general Saving for Book Events guide and is how I save my pennies to hit up as many book events as I can despite a) being poor, and b) living up North.

Me at YALC 2018 having the time of my life.

Start Saving Now

I pretty much never stop saving. Whenever I can I put money away, whether it's £1 in a coin jar or £100 transferred straight out of my wages into savings, I do it. I cannot stress how much easier the whole process is when you start earlier. You can save little and often, and it very quickly builds up.

Get Planning

The sooner you book your accommodation, the cheaper it will be, as the closer you get to the event demand will drive up the prices. Travel has to be left to closer to the time as tickets are often not released until 12 weeks beforehand. But setting out a budget also gives you goals, so you know what to aim for.

Go on a Book Buying Ban

Despite being on a buying ban for three months leading up to YALC, I still ended up already owning almost all of the books that publishers had at their stalls so I couldn't take advantage of any of the "buy two get a proof" offers or cheap prices. Next year I'm going to try to be a little more hard on myself.

This doesn't mean not supporting authors though - I request a lot of books at my local library and they're pretty good at getting them in, so there's a wee PLR boost for them. And I'll still buy the ebook if it's one I'm very excited about.

Start A Books Read Money Jar

This is a favourite of mine, and I tend to get £100+ from this alone. Every time I finish a book, I put £1 in my money jar. Every couple of months I switch out the coins for notes and then by the time an event comes round I have my spending money ready.

Give Something Up

If you're spending your money on a bottle of wine a week, why not give your liver a break and save that money instead? I've done this in the past with chocolate for a month, booze for three months, and smoking forever.

The most recent thing I gave up was one of my subscription boxes - I just wasn't feeling it any more, the books were going unread, and it was time to put that money to better use. Like buying even more books.

Unhaul Some Books

This is one I actually need to do more myself. Being a bookworm I have a lot of books that I've either read and won't read again, or haven't read and probably won't if I'm truly being honest with myself. There is nothing wrong with selling on books you no longer need, you can raise some pennies for yourself and get those books into the hands of those that will actually read them.

What are your tips for saving money?