One of the things that’s helped me be able to plan for events and projects has been setting a budget. When Alex and I were engaged but still living in separate countries, budgeting played an immense role in my ability to be able to wrap my head about my finances. At the time I was living with a Craigslist roommate in New Orleans, my first apartment out of college, and it was the first time I ever really had to pay close attention to where my money was going.

Shortly after Alex and I combined our finances, we got into the groove of sitting down at least once a month to go over our monthly budget spreadsheet. I’m not sure how other couples do it, but having a joint spreadsheet for our bills, subscription services, and other recurring payments really made it easier for us to have conversations about money (something I have always hated doing).

So after Alex and I sat down to hammer out our finances for the upcoming month, I got stuck into making a budget for our tentative trip to Vegas in April. Of course, as I’ve said multiple times already, we still don’t have tickets so there is a chance that we may not even end up going, but I still want to be prepared incase we do go!

I consulted some of my state-side BTS friends to see what sort of amount I should be looking at for one person per day in Sin City, and boy is it anything but cheap. It might be down to my frugal nature, but I was so shocked to learn that $100 on dinner in Vegas is pretty standard! And since Alex and I share finances, it was even more shocking to wrap my head around the possibility that we might be dropping $200 on dinner. That’s crazy!!! The further I got into the budget for a five day trip to Vegas, the more I began to wonder if we would really end up spending so much each day. Either way, I eventually decided that we will need to tuck away at least £1300 for food, travel, and entertainment. Oof… Even just writing that out makes me feel uneasy. Well, I guess it’s always better to overshoot your budget just incase there are hidden costs (taxes, tips, Uber surge charges, etc).

So it’s beginning to look like we’re going to need to tighten our belts a few notches if we end up traveling to Vegas to see BTS. Although we’ve got concert tickets for our 7th wedding anniversary in May, I would happily give them up if it meant I got to see my fave Korean boys first!