PPierre

Will this tour pay for itself?

Add up what the shows pay against gas, lodging, and per diems — see your net and the break-even guarantee per night.

Per-diem basis

Show income (5 × $300)$1,500
Per diems-$600
Lodging-$600
Fuel / travel-$400
Other costs-$500
Net for the run-$600

You need about $420 per show to break even across 5 dates.

How to budget a DIY tour

A run of shows lives or dies on the gap between what the gigs pay and what the road costs. The guarantees are the easy part — it's the fuel, the floor you're sleeping on (or the motel you're not), and feeding everyone for a week that quietly eats the profit. Total it up before you commit: if the average guarantee you can actually get is below the break-even number here, you're funding the tour out of pocket, and it's better to know that now.

What's a realistic per diem?

$20–$30 per person per day covers food on a lean DIY run; bump it if you're not cooking or crashing on floors. It's the cost that scales with band size and trip length, so it adds up faster than people expect.

Should I count merch income?

Merch is often what makes a DIY tour break even — but it's volatile, so this tool keeps it out of the guarantee math. Treat merch as the cushion that turns a break-even run into a profitable one, not as a number you bank on.

Does any of this get saved?

No — it all runs in your browser, nothing is stored. If you want to plan a real run, hold dates, and settle each night as you go, that's what Pierre's tours are for.

A budget is a guess. Pierre tracks what the tour actually does.
Plan the run, hold dates, and record what each night pays — the real tour, not the spreadsheet guess.
Plan your tour →

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