If you haven’t figured it out yet, #cosplaying & #fursuiting can each be expensive hobbies to have. The more accurate, ornate or complicated a #costume, #cosplay or #fursuit becomes, in general, the more #expensive it becomes. Then, multiply that by the number of #costumes, #cosplays & #fursuits one has, as well as unfinished projects, money is simply flying out the door.
Naturally, when have multiple costumes, cosplays or fursuits, you’re likely going to have leftover materials. If you also have unfinished projects, then you’ll have unused materials for those as well.
| All of those materials (both used and unused) cost money. |
Unless you were able to get some of those materials for free, then all of the materials that you have (both used and unused) represent money that you’ve spent. What’s worse is if you inadvertently purchase some type of material or items that you already have, but had forgotten about.
Buying materials that you forgot you have not only wastes your money, it may prevent you from being able to complete a project or from making it as elaborate as you had originally planned.
Further, buying more materials that you don’t need means you’ll need more storage space for items that you may never get around to using. |
Cosplayers, costumers & fursuiters aren’t necessarily known for having a lot of money or a lot of living space. Thus, finding ways to reduce costs is going to be personally beneficial in multiple ways.
| So how can you reduce the likelihood of buying something you already have?
Businesses already have a method for doing this: they keep and maintain an inventory. |
Anyone can make the mistake of buying something that they don’t need because they already have it and the best way to prevent that is to track the items that you already have. The key term here is track: to track means to actively know how much of a particular item that you have and where it is. In other words, is the item part of a costume, is it part of or slated for a work in progress, or is it simply something that you have in stock and not currently using.
To start an inventory of what you have, we recommend the following steps:
- Setup 3 main lists and name them “Completed Items”, “Works In Progress” and “Raw Materials”.
- “Completed Items” are any completed costumes, cosplays or fursuits that you have.
- “Works In Progress” are any incomplete costumes, cosplays or fursuits that you are working on.
- “Raw Materials” are any unused items that you have that aren’t slated for any particular “Works In Progress”.
- For each “Completed Item” and “Work In Progress”, create a sublist of the individual items that are part of that completed item or work in progress. (For a “Work In Progress”, you can have 2 separate sublists: items already used and items that you haven’t used yet.)
- For “Raw Materials”, simply list all of the unused items that you have that may be left-overs or for any “Works In Progress” that you may have abandoned.
If you want to track how much money you have spent, you can include the cost of each item regardless of which of the 3 main lists it’s in. (You don’t need receipts to do this. You can always include what you think you spent on a particular item if you don’t remember.)
If you decide to repurpose specific items that are part of an existing “Completed Item” or an “Work In Progress” for another “Work In Progress”, then you can do that right in the inventory.
| Just remember: the only way that the inventory will be of value to you is if you are accurate about what you have and you update it as things change.
If you don’t keep it up-to-date, then it really won’t serve its intended purpose well. |
There are various apps that can let you setup lists with sublists or tasks with sublists. You could also use an online spreadsheet.
| If you store your inventory in the cloud, then you can access it anywhere. |
One final thought on keeping an inventory:
| Sure, while this sounds like it might be a lot of work or time to setup and maintain an inventory, just remember:
This is about you and your money.
It won’t affect anyone else if you have an inventory system, but it can potentially save you money. |
Costuming, Cosplay & Costume Clubs 101 