Katie Gerdts Goes to ARC Music Festival | A Guest Money Diary

The budget guide to solo festival-going

I first properly met Katie when our mutual friend Hannah — whose money diary you can read here — invited me to join their WAG book club (wives-and-girlfriends, you’ll get it when you read below!), and she’s since become one of my constant Fort Wayne friends, despite (as you’ll also read below) us being very different!

I hope you enjoy reading the type of money diary I could never write — and here’s to hoping Katie’s abilities to: budget, eat the same meal several days in a row, and do things on her own rub off on me some day…

Occupation(s): Full-time 3-6 Montessori Teacher, Part-Time Adjunct Professor, Part-Time Virtual Assistant
Industry: Education
Age: 30
Location: Fort Wayne, IN
Annual Income: $57,000

Since meeting my husband in 2017, we have spent every Labor Day weekend (except 2020) at a music festival in or near Chicago. For several years, we attended North Coast. Last year was the first year we attended ARC, a house music festival in the heart of Chicago. We purchased tickets for ARC this year in January, each one costing $364.

A lot has happened this year and on August 7th, I served my husband with divorce papers. With all that was going on, I wasn’t even sure if I would be able to go to the festival.

With paying my lawyer’s retainer and trying to figure out how to support myself financially, I knew staying at a hotel was out of the question. I reached out to my brother’s best friend asking if he would allow me to crash with him and he graciously agreed. This money diary explains what I did in the week leading up to the festival and the weekend of the festival to save money and still enjoy my first solo festival.