A survey out yesterday showed the average festival-goer spends a massive £600 over the course of the weekend. Now I appreciate these things are far from cheap, with tickets coming in at about £140, but how the hell are we spending this much on one weekend?

The survey identified pre-festival spends as £170 on clothes and camping gear, including designer wellies and flash tents. Now I don't know about you, but the words 'pre-festival spend' sound distinctly like any old excuse to spend money. We revealed here how to get your camping gear for less, so you should have all this covered for £50 - assuming you can't just borrow a tent from friends and family. I know the 1970s tent in the loft is a bit uncool, but you'll be able to find it more easily.

Getting there will apparently set you back £100. Again I'm not sure about this. Surely with a bit of forward-planning and car sharing you should be able to halve this at least.

The big overspends really start once you get there, with £60 worth of food and a massive £130 on drink. Now I understand this one. You don't want to be the sad sack with their packed lunch and thermos, while everyone else is necking pints and having it large. But hey, let's compromise. No-one need know about the cereal and milk stashed in your tent for breakfast and late night snacks, neither will they spot the biscuits and crisps. Now all you need is a couple of burgers a day, which should come in at £10.

And as for drink, unless you want to carry a plastic bottle of your favourite spirits and mixers, you may be at the mercy of the organisers. Just bear in mind that overdoing things will actually mean all the money you have spent is wasted. Apparently a third of people off to a festival this year are going to struggle to remember which bands they saw after hitting the booze.

If you're really canny, you could spend less than £50 on top of your ticket price, and even if you splash out on a good time, your total bill shouldn't come to more than £250. Plus you'll be able to remember what a good time you had.

And if you're looking for more ideas on saving, try Sian's article from a couple of weeks back, which has plenty of useful tips.