SET Cost: 1. If you want to be a paid member, it's $35 per year -- but you don't have to be a paid member. It's estimated that roughly half of all SCAdians are paid members, which means that the other half are non-member participants.
2. For an additional fee, pretty small, you get copies of your kingdom's newsletter, your barony's or shire's newsletter if they have one, or even the newsletters of other kingdoms/baronies/shires. Some deliver paper copies while some are emailed or posted online. Most of the ones that are posted online don't have a fee associated with them.
VARIABLE Costs:1.
Non-member surcharge. Every event, whether it's one day, three days, or a week or more, will charge $3 for every non-member that enters that event, on top of the event fee (see #2). The money isn't meant to punish anyone; it just helps contribute to the insurance payment in case anyone gets hurt while at an SCA event. If you're intending to go to less than one event per month, you'll be paying less overall if you do it this way. Non-members can't participate in official fights and can't hold high office, but every other activity and honor is equally open to members and non-members. If you're intending to go to more than one event per month (or more than 12 events per year), it'll be cheaper to buy the membership. If you're going to exactly 12 events a year, you'll break even either way -- but I still think membership is worth it, even though I realistically can only do about half a dozen events per year, because I get the SCA newsletter and a spiffy little blue membership card.
2.
Event fee. Almost every event has a fee associated with it. Sometimes it's around $5, cheaper than the cost of a movie; sometimes it's around $10, usually at a weekend-long camping event; sometimes it's as much as $20, and if so, that'll generally mean that not only do you get to enter the event, you get to share Feast, too (see #3). All members have to pay this fee; non-members pay the event fee plus the non-member surcharge. The largest event fee (also called site fee) I've ever seen is about $165 for the entire two weeks of
Pennsic. I'm about to attend
Gulf Wars for all of next week (14-21 March), which charges $65 for the entire 8 days, and then the fee drops day by day if you don't show up on the first day. Someone arriving on Friday night will pay the full $65, but I'm not arriving till Tuesday night so it's only $55 for me, and so on.
3.
Feast. I can't eat the feast myself, because it's non-kosher; also, because attending feast would almost always mean I'd also have to carry my feast gear (see below) from my eruv-enclosed encampment to the feast hall/pavilion, which is forbidden on Shabbat (most feasts are held on Saturday afternoons, at least for weekend events). However, I'm told that if one can attend, feasts are not to be missed. There's usually a combination of modern foods, semi-period foods (modern recipes, using only ingredients that were available to Europeans in pre-17th century), or period foods made using only period ingredients and recipes found in period cookbooks. Vegetarians inform me that they can always find a vegetarian option, though vegan options are harder to come by. If you have allergies, contacting the event's head cook well in advance will ensure that either your needs will be met, or that you'll be informed that they can't be met, in time for you to make other eating arrangements. Also, see #5 for feast gear.
2.
Tent. This is where it can be either really inexpensive, or really expensive, depending on what you're like. Smart bargain hunters will be able to find a used tent for relatively cheaply. Period tents such as those from
Panther Primitives,
SoulPad,
Tentsmiths, and other historically accurate or mostly-accurate-looking tents tend to be more expensive than modern tents like those you could find at
REI or
d**k's Sporting Goods. However, they also (1) look appropriate, (2) are more sturdy, (3) will last a decade or more if properly cared for, unlike the modern 'earth pimple' type tents that have to be replaced every one to three years, (4) actually provide more comfort in terms of wind blocking, breathability, and shelter from rain. There's also the option of a yurt (look it up, they are WONDERFUL if you can afford to buy or if you have the skills to build). Some people even will build a living wagon (often called a
vardo -- she's also made a second one for
herself and helped design and make a third one for her
brother) to take to events. Those cost a bloody blue fortune, but I'm told they are completely worth it, if you have it to spend.
4.
Garb. If you have the skills to sew your own garb, do it. It'll save you at least half the cost, usually more. If you have other skills -- like armor construction, weaponmaking, period cooking, tent building, or pewter casting -- see if you can trade your skills with someone else who sews. I'm trading my pottery for garb, and it's going over pretty well. You can go really expensive by going as a late-period nobleman with a fancy-schmancy wardrobe, or go really cheaply by going for early-period Norse. You can pay more for 100% wool and linen and silk, or choose mixtures like cotton-wool, cotton-linen, rayon-linen, rayon-wool (NOT linen-wool, remember that's against Biblical commandment for a Jew!) for a little bit less money. You can also go completely out-of-period by using all-cotton (available in period, but only to the extremely wealthy of Europe), rayon in place of linen, or viscose (natural plant fiber, but it sure doesn't look it) or polyester in place of silk. Again, it's as expensive as you choose to make it.
5.
Feast Gear. Whether you're cooking over your own fire or attending the feast in the group pavilion, you need feast gear. Seldom, if ever, will the event hosts provide plates, bowls, cups, goblets, silverware, napkins, tablecloths. Instead, each person should bring their own -- yes, a personal tablecloth. You can go the cheap route and bring stuff from home, the almost-as-cheap route of flimsy disposables, or you can go with slightly more class. I've seen people with (food-safe, lead-free) pewter feast gear; people whose feast gear is store-bought wooden cups, bowls, and plates and cloth napkins; people who make their own pottery (ahem, me) but bring an extra set of wooden or pewter ones in case the pottery breaks or they have an unexpected guest show up who forgot their own feast gear. I bought some pewter and some silver at the Salvation Army for next to nothing -- maybe $5/piece instead of the $20-$45/piece that it would've cost to buy it new, some wooden serving bowls at Whole Foods, made my own ceramic feast gear for myself and my bashert. This is another place where you can either save money, or look fantastic, and if you're savvy with bargain hunting, you can do both.
6.
Encampment. This is mostly optional stuff, but it can help enhance the experience for you if you're someone who cares about such things. Do I need a Moroccan style lantern of multicolored glass, a set of bread baskets, pretty wooden folding tables and chairs? No, but they do look a bit more medieval than nylon folding chairs, plastic card tables, and Coleman propane lanterns. Do I need a
Dragonwing firepit? No, but I do want one -- but for now, my little Weber grill will have to do. It's the little things that add up to a beautiful, medieval-looking encampment. They also add up to a very un-beautiful expense. This is something to build up to, slowly, over several seasons, rather than to bust it all out at once.
7.
Fighter gear. Here's the part I think you'll love. Fighters need rattan swords, rapiers, bows and arrows, crossbows, throwing axes, and/or armor, depending on what sort of fighting they do (heavy = rattan sword, light = rapier, and so on). You've made a gorgeous set of armor out of... I don't know, it looks like plastic or rubber? I'm just imagining the gorgeousness of what you could create if you learned metalworking. Then again, there are also fighters who use plastic armor, painted to look 'real'. This stuff costs a mint of money, but if you're one of those who are skilled at making it, you can probably turn it into almost a second career, on top of whatever you're studying in college. People will pay for it, or barter for it, through the nose. Seriously, you could finance almost your whole SCA career just by learning to make armor that people would want to wear.
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