Quick tip 148 Touring tips 5.

Tour budgeting. For starters, you will spend more money on the tour than you think. And the longer the tour is, the more little things like the quality of your hotel room starts to become bigger things. Also it is fine to share some of the nights, but you also need your own space from time to time. So I would highly recommend you spend that extra few bucks atlas few times a week, to get a good night sleep without listening to your band mates snore.

If you are touring around Europe, the price varies a bit, but in general I would budget €50 for every band member per day for accommodation. I know some bands out there do like to couch surf, and that is a great way to save on expenses, but in a long run you will need to budget for hotels. Food, coffee at the petrol station, bottles of water, my usual budget for all of this is around €20 a day.

Days off are a killer for your personal finances. You are spending money, without making any. And lets not forget, many of you’s will spend a small fortune on beer on the days off, I know I have in the past.

Then there is the travel. Having a car that is economical to drive, is the key to making money from your tours. And I also talked about the reliability of your car, and the effect it might have on making it to the gig in past blog posts. Also take in consideration toll roads in France, and some countries have a fee for using the motorways. Usually these fees are worth the money. The small roads will add hours to your journeys If you book well in advance, you can get deals on the budget airlines around Europe, but don’t expect to be able to bring your instruments as carry on luggage.

So as you can see, it all adds up fast, so not every pub gig that pays barely enough to cover your accommodation is worth driving 400km for. And getting good at selling your merchandise is extremely important. Careful planning is vital, so do the maths before you hit the road. There is nothing worse than being stranded at the side of the road in a foreign country with no money in our pocket.

J.P.

The author J.P. Kallio is a singer songwriter
To get EIGHT of his songs for free go HERE