Budgeting and fundraising
Resource
When it comes to budgeting, you will have to consider three aspects:
- Expenses (what the FSA is expected to cost versus what the FSA actually costs)
- Fundraising (how to get funds to cover as many expenses as possible)
- Real expenses (your daily record-keeping of expenses during FSA)
The following sections will explain each aspect and give you some examples of what to do before, during, and after your FSA.
Expenses
Your five biggest expenses will always be transportation, accommodations, food, entertainment, and paid services (e.g., language school, tour guide). However, before you calculate any of these, decide which paid services you will be using and find out what is being offered. Then, negotiate, negotiate, negotiate! Ask if discounts are offered for large groups. Check whether meals are included in homestay costs. Find out if transportation and entrance fees to activities are covered. Usually, with a big group, there’s quite a bit of wiggle room. You may also want to write a letter [Word, 44k] to your Member of the National Assembly to see if they could sponsor your trip.
Once you know how much of the cognitive load you’ll be handing off, start entering numbers into the budgeting tool we provide. (Your school may prefer that you use its own tools, such as Clara, and that’s fine too.) Excel may feel clunky to use, but you can add or delete rows as needed and then set it up to multiply and/or sum columns automatically – no calculator needed!
As you can see in the budgeting tool, you’ll want to keep three different budgets: projected expenses, income (projected and real), and real expenses. This tool will help you to get a handle on what you’ll likely have to pay and on different sources you can shake down for the money you need. Knowing your projected expenses and income will be enough to get things started. Just remember to budget for more than you think you will need, since there will always be a few surprises.