Let's talk about them. 

Are project budgets even a thing? (Or more of a cost projection?)
Is there a hidden calculator somewhere? 
When calculating these numbers, how many upgrades of your own are you using? 
What makes you decide you're ready to start said project? Is it money? or when you feel ready? have the time? 
Has anyone ever been able to fully fund a pair of dogs or horses in 90 weekly private shows by just using what they have in the bank? 
How many dtix / htix do you generally budget for? why that number? 

Add to this! What other questions do you have? What would you add, if anything? Let's get the conversation going!

Bump. 

I have a budget - and so far I have stuck to my guns and kept (mostly) to it. I don't think projects are worth causing RL issues with money. 

mango has an amazing calculator, as soon as I am out of bed I will grab it for you, unless someone beats me too it! 

I only have two upgrades, although I have access to another two to use as my own, and a dear friend lets me use hers and vice versa.

I knew I wanted a third gen project, and so I waited and worked on her parents lines - they are full of 3mill and her dam was 7mill. 

As for shows, given my two upgrades, no I can't find shows that way. That being said, I usually give most things away to help others. So I never really make my own money! 

I budget 500k = 1bill sticking with 200K max with tickets - I haven't done the sums completely to see if that's actually 100% accurate but I know it's close. 

Rosa is awesome, Rosa is fine, Rosa didn't write this...

Mangos brilliant calculators are here https://helpmango.neocities.org/ ;)

(ETA: I only know this as City imparted her training wisdom to me several months back... and now I spend an inordinate amount of HPD on private shows xD)

i have 25 accounts and use 2-6 spots and sell the rest

the tickets/spots fund the accounts and generally get a 2.5 animal

depends really what your goal is

So my first project was Ragnarok, where I got 100 privates and snapped up as many tix sets as were advertised in ad chat. I didn't reserve bulk sets tho, so in the end, he retired with 5mil points.

Through subsequent experimentation, I've learned that 20 weekly privates get you to 2mil easy. 80 privates gets you 3 to 4mil. 100 gets 5mil. 100 privates and 2 week deage with some tix sets tossed in can get you to 6mil.

Tickets are really the only way to get over 6mil. 100 privates, a 2 week deage, and at least 20 sets a month got me to 7mil. And I have not broken past 7mil yet, mostly because I just couldn't afford that many tickets lol. The only time I hit 8mil was with Toothless, who won the deaging bonus prize from Mascot a few years ago (so those points were due to extenuating circumstances).

This may or may not help with budgeting, but there's my experience lol.