I remember recently in school when my constituency was to host over 1000 veterinary students for the annual conference; this was done every year and it was our turn. Everything that had to do with hosting from accommodation to feeding to transportation was taken care of by us so we had to split into group/ department for better efficiency.
Each department was to come up with their plan and budget; I was the head of the welfare department; we were in charge of feeding, housing and sanitation.
We planned for 1200 people which was informed by the number of tickets made.
the plan was to feed them, care for their well-being and ensure a clean environment.
How were we going to do this effectively with little or no experience. Hence we had to give a budget.
Our budget for feeding was influenced by
-the number of people
-the number of days which we went ahead to make a roaster
-from the roaster we calculated the quantity of food for example;rice(in cups) per person and then multiply by the total number of people. this helped us know the bags of rice to buy.
From our budget we knew the food to strike out, which was too expensive and not easy to prepare to feed that large number.
After every department was done with their budget, welfare had the highest of #2,000,000 and the total whole budget was #3,500,000.
Sourcing for funds
We met our patrons and matrons for help , also our senior colleagues, reached out to veterinary clinics and stores for sponsorship and also from the sales of tickets we were able to raise #2,750,000, also coupled with the host school Levy, we raised #3,000,000. This was way under budget.
So each department was told to backslash their budget, welfare department was told to work with #1,500,000. This was a very difficult task for us because there was inflation in the country. After brainstorming, we decided to make the changes we could,
First, we did the cooking ourselves and pulled all the utensils we could have rented from our family and loved ones at no charge.
Second, we wrote proposals to some food companies for sponsorship as we would help advertise their products from there since the event was a national one.
Third, we enticed more people to join our department because we needed more helping hands in the kitchen and we devised to be on a daily rotation.
We were able to think outside the box with all the challenges because of our budget. It made it easier for us to source for funds and also spend wisely.
From this experience, I have learnt to always have a budget for financial freedom and I would love for you to be on budget too.