How to Budget a School Carnival

Budgeting a school carnival is a big part of its success. Account for all your expenses before trying to budget a school carnival. Since the goal behind hosting a school carnival is usually to raise funds, you need to be careful about how and where you spend the budget money.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Find out how much games will cost. Estimate how many people will attend the carnival, the number of games you'll require, and how many players are allowed for each game. Take rental or supply costs into account.
2. Estimate how much money you'll need to spend on prizes. Figure out the total amount of money you need to spend on prizes by estimating how many people will try their hand at each game. Take the levels of the game into account. Come up with a monetary figure for each game and use that figure to buy prizes for each specific game.
3. Add the cost to build or rent the game with the cost of prizes to determine the total cost for each game.
4. Determine what you should charge a player for each game by dividing the total cost for the game by the number of estimated players. The cost to play a game should be no more than 50 cents.
5. Get an idea of how much you need to spend on food. Total the costs to prepare and serve food by volunteers and vendors. Ask the vendors how they propose to divide profits. Determine the prices of food sold at the carnival based on how much it will cost to prepare food and have vendors on site.
6. Consider other expenses. Decorations, tickets, janitorial services, security, insurance and miscellaneous rentals need to budgeted, too.
7. Aim to make a profit. Subtract the total expenses from the profits from food and games until you are comfortable with an estimated profit figure.

Tips & Warnings

• Use records from your school's previous carnivals as guides when determining a budget.

Who Can Help:

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