How much should I budget and save for Young Living’s convention?

Michael, the kids, and I just returned from a week in Salt Lake City, Utah, where we attended Young Living’s annual convention for the first time.  We created a budget and started saving for convention a year ago and now that we’ve actually seen what we spent compared to what we’d budgeted I wanted to share, especially because I’ve had quite a few team members asking me so they could plan for next year and I’ve seen other YL members asking for cost estimates in our various Facebook groups.

Our costs will be quite a bit more since we went as a family versus someone who is just going by themselves, but as far as our average cost per person I’d say we were fairly middle-of-the-road: we stayed at a hotel that wasn’t super expensive but still fairly close and nice, we bought a lot of the newly released products but not all of them, we didn’t attend the gala (an additional cost) but we did get a rental car (something that the majority of convention-goers don’t do)

UPDATE June 2018: This post was originally written after the 2017 convention where I took my whole family (hubby and two kids); I have now added more information after the 2018 convention where only I attended – that way you can see our numbers when traveling as a family as well as traveling by myself.  The original post with our 2017 family numbers is first, scroll toward the bottom to see the info with just my individual info.

Young Living Convention cost breakdown for our family of four

Here is a breakdown of our costs for our convention experience:

Ticket costs

• Convention tickets: $298 ($149 each, Michael and I each had a ticket)
• Farm day tickets: $60 ($30 each, Michael and I each had one; the kids attended with us but didn’t need tickets since they were under 5 years old and I packed their lunches)

Transportation

• Plane tickets: $1,410 ($470 each for Michael, Hudson, and me; Parker didn’t need a plane ticket since he’s under 2 and was considered a “lap child”)
• Car rental: $364 (we chose to rent a car for the week, many people who attend convention do not because there are shuttles as well as lots of public transportation available but since we have two little ones in carseats we opted to have a car of our own) 

Hotel

• Hotel: $960 – We stayed 6 nights at the Little America; Little America is not as close to the convention center as a lot of places but it was quite a bit more affordable, plus it’s not a bad walk (about 6 blocks) and there is a Trax station (public transportation) right outside the hotel so it’s easy to get around that way too

Food

• Restaurants, groceries, and snacks: $525 – I don’t have this broken down into categories but we spent $525 total, which included groceries (there is a Trader Joe’s nearby where we bought supplies for breakfast and lunch, which we prepared and ate in the hotel room or carried with us), restaurants (we ate out for supper each night), and snacks purchased at convention like Ningxia slushies, peppermint ice cream, etc.

Products

• Miscellaneous vendors: $74 – There was a vendor event full of vendors with oily books, accessories, shirts, business building items, etc. in a nearby hotel before convention started (called the AromaShare) as well as a few in the convention center itself.  I didn’t get to spend much time in the AromaShare event, if I had I would have spent quite a bit more, but I did get one book there as well as some other books ordered from Life Science Publishing, a company I use often, that was having a convention sale.
• New product: $607 – Last year they had offered a convention bundle that included one of every new item released at convention; it was $450 so I had estimated that I’d need around $500 this year to buy all of the new products.  That wasn’t the case since Young Living released SO many amazing new things, including lots of makeup – this year’s convention bundle was $1200.  I wasn’t able to get the whole bundle but I did buy a lot of it, next year I’ll be budgeting for more.

Total

Total convention cost: $4,298.

Divided by 4 people that’s just a tad over $1,000 per person, or divided by 3 (since Parker didn’t need his own plane ticket) that’s a little under $1,500 a person.

Next year we will need another plane ticket (Parker will be over 2 and will need his own) and I am going to budget more for new products in case we have another big launch, but we also may forgo the rental car.

I would recommend planning on saving a minimum of $100 per person per month from now until the next convention (aka 12 months) and you’ll have $1200 per person which will allow you to attend comfortably but without many frills.

You can definitely do it for less if you live closer and can drive or want to drive and camp out, are going to stay in a hotel room with multiple people to split the cost a lot, don’t plan to buy many new products, are okay with eating pb&j for all your meals, etc.  And of course you can do it for more if you want a hotel room right across from the convention center, eat out all your meals, buy lots of products and shirts and accessories, etc.  Adjust this to your budget and preferences!  I think this is a good, average snapshot though.

Also, my kids did not attend Kid’s Camp – Michael kept them in the hotel or we brought them to the convention center and just took turns walking them around the Expo while the other person was in a session.  If you plan on your children attending Kid’s Camp that would be an additional $315 per child to factor in.

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Update after 2018 Convention where only I attended

In 2018 I decided to attend convention by myself.  As you can imagine that greatly reduced the cost overall so I wanted to share that so you can have a better representation of what you might spend individually.  Here were my numbers:

• Ticket costs: $229 (this included my 2018 ticket, which I bought at the end of the 2017 convention, as well as my farm day ticket, Foundation 5k ticket, Closing Party ticket, and ticket to get in to AromaShare)
• Plane ticket: $649 (that includes the plane ticket, travel insurance, and the cost to check one bag each way)
• Other transportation: $40 (rental car for one day that we split 5 ways for 5 of us to go to the warehouse and call center, Trax tickets to and from the airport)
• Hotel: $309 (I shared a room with one other person and we split the cost)
• Food: $140 (this included groceries at Trader Joe’s, Ningxia slushies and peppermint ice cream at Club Red/the farm, and meals eaten out)
• AromaShare/other vendors at convention: $334 (this included diffuser jewelry for myself, gifts for my kids, items to use as gifts/giveaways for my team, reference books for myself and to give to team members)
• Convention products: $1,055 (I bought the full new product bundle plus some extras of things to use as giveaways, things I wanted multiples of myself, etc.)
• Tickets for next year: $330 (Tickets were $165 each and I bought 2 so that we’d have one for Michael if he decides to come next year)

Total cost not including the tickets I pre-purchased for next year: $2,756

Total cost with the 2 tickets I bought for next year, $3,086

While I did some things to save money in certain areas (stayed at an inexpensive hotel and split the cost of the room, bought groceries to keep my food costs down) I also budgeted and spent quite a bit in other categories (bought all the new products, bought quite a bit at AromaShare, went to the warehouse/call center which required a rental car).  If you’re looking at that number and thinking that’s wayyyy out of your budget for next year, here is one example of how you can have a no-frills convention experience and save.

And keep in mind, this is just one example – depending on where you fly from your ticket could be more or less.  If you decided to drive vs fly that may keep costs down too.  But this will give you a good jumping off point for next year.

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Sample Young Living Convention Budget and Savings Breakdown

The bare bones:

• Convention ticket: $165
• Farm Day ticket: $30 (I guess you could take this out of “bare bones” and put it in “additional items but IMO it is 100% a must-not-miss necessity of convention!)
• Plane ticket: $500 (give or take, this is a rough estimate!  I’d recommend looking online at what the average ticket costs from your area to Salt Lake City and use that to help you estimate your cost)
• Transportation: $25 (even if you’re doing this bare-bones I’d still allot some for Trax, Uber, and/or pedicabs)
• Hotel cost: $400 (This could be bit less depending on your hotel and if you split a room with others)
• Food: $150

Bare bones cost: $1,270

If you divide that by 12 that’s $105 a month.  If you start setting aside $105 a month (that’s roughly $25 a week) each month from now (June) until next year’s convention (July) you’ll have your convention costs covered!  Now, if you can swing it I’d definitely recommend budgeting more because you’re going to want to do/buy some of the additional items listed below, but about $100 a month should get you there with no frills.

Additional items (based on what we paid in 2018):

• Foundation 5k: $35
• Closing party: $10
• Gala: $95
• New products: In 2016 $500 would have covered all of the new products, in 2017 it was $1200, and in 2018 it was $800.
• Other vendors at the AromaShare event (books from Life Science Publishing, diffuser jewelry, oil bags, shirts, roller bottles, oil shelves, and more)
• Next year’s convention ticket: usually in the $150 range (you will want to have enough in your budget to go ahead and purchase this while you are at convention so that you can secure your spot and get the best price)

I hope this was helpful as you begin to budget and plan for next year!  After attending convention twice now I will say it is totally worth it and if you can make it happen to get to go it is absolutely an amazing experience!  I hope to see you there in 2019!

And if you’re curious about what to pack check out out my Young Living Convention Packing List and Tips post!

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