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I splurge every now and then but buy a lot second hand.

I put aside money for bills etc

then buy hobby stuff I need (replacement glue/paint/brushes/greenstuff)

then throw any left at hobby stuff I want (oooh shiney, ahhhh a new KS), books and video games

I may then cry bitter tears that there is not enough money to get everything I want...... (but it's not as if I don't have unpainted stuff or books I can re-read)

I tracked what I spent, and kept looking at that when I wanted more.
If it looked excessive, I backed down for a while. Knowing I had spent over £1000 a year on 40k (models, codexes, paints, magnets, everything) usually made me get back to me painting.

Me and my wife get about $400-500 each in "allowance" each month after mortgage payment, stuff for the little one, food, car payment, savings, bills etc etc. I usually spend all of it :O Hobby spending averages out at $200 a month, but these last few months I've splurged a bit too much... got an airbrush and accessories for about $450 a couple of months ago for example. I really need to cut down so I can save some money for myself... I track and budget all our money in You Need A Budget which helps a lot with planning, we never have money problems because I always know exactly what we need and any big expenses are portioned out in the budget over a longer period. Unfortunately this also means that I can see very clearly how irresponsible I am with my allowance, as opposed to the rest of our money which is controlled much more strictly. I do also buy and sell to finance it partly, but I've still spent about $6000 on the hobby since I re-entered it 2,5 years ago. It IS my only hobby though.

I don't have a fixed monthly allowance, when I want something I just check if it is affordable to me at that moment.

I don't buy much, only when my favourite company releases something nice (usually all situated in Poland ), I order it. It goes in waves with me. The last few months I had some financial bonuses (like electricity bill refund), so I splashed some of that on new miniatures, but looking at last year, I didn't spend more than €100 on miniatures, thus saving any monthly expense.

As mentioned before by someone else, I too backed a few projects on Kickstarter two years ago, and I almost always sell the Kickstarter exclusives which usually brings more than the actual Kickstarter, even with keeping the game itself. Zombicide, for instance, I backed for two games, I held one game and sold the other game and KS exclusives for almost triple the backing amount, which is easy profit. So actually I got paid handsomely for having the game. Usually people pay large amounts of money for KS exclusives, if they missed the KS, and that is a great tip for anyone thinking of backing. You don't get immediate profit (as it usually has to be manufactured), but you will get a nice bonus in the future when the game gets delivered.

Kind regards,

Low

I buy what I want. I can afford a Warlord Titan if I want it, no problems, I won't have to sacrifice any limbs.

I only buy what I will realistically paint, though, as otherwise it feels a bit wasteful. Which is why I am holding off buying anything more for now.

 Ashiraya wrote:
I buy what I want. I can afford a Warlord Titan if I want it, no problems, I won't have to sacrifice any limbs.

I only buy what I will realistically paint, though, as otherwise it feels a bit wasteful. Which is why I am holding off buying anything more for now.

I'm pretty much the same.

 Scott-S6 wrote:

 Ashiraya wrote:
I buy what I want. I can afford a Warlord Titan if I want it, no problems, I won't have to sacrifice any limbs.

I only buy what I will realistically paint, though, as otherwise it feels a bit wasteful. Which is why I am holding off buying anything more for now.

I'm pretty much the same.

Same here. I'm in the happy position right now when hobby-money is not really an object - if I want something I can buy it. Time to build/paint/play is much more of a constraint, and in very limited supply. Storage too is somewhat limiting my purchases. So, really I budget based on how much time I think I can spend.

This is the complete opposite situation from where I started out, 20-25 years ago - then I had no money but time was in endless supply. Funny how life never allows you to both have the cake and eat it.

I don't have a strict budget, but as the family finances have gotten a bit tighter, I've greatly restricted my buying. Hasn't been a big difficulty though since I've got years worth of miniatures to paint and terrain to build.

I now save my $ until I come across a product that really catches my eye or an unbelievably good used deal. Asside from a couple of osprey rulesets, The Squat biker kickstarter (Ramshackle) is the first thing I've purchased (or will purchase soon) in months and that's only about $50.

"Budget" is by holding off as long as I can stand and buy on-sale or "used".
I also have a few people locally who like to have me do commission work (model assembly, conversion, inserting magnets, basing and very occasional painting).
It all boils down to feeling OK on not busting the bank on hobbies.
I eased off on GW, my wallet thanked me, but Fantasy Flight is becoming a problem with Armada and X-wing.

 Oguhmek wrote:


Same here. I'm in the happy position right now when hobby-money is not really an object - if I want something I can buy it. Time to build/paint/play is much more of a constraint, and in very limited supply. Storage too is somewhat limiting my purchases. So, really I budget based on how much time I think I can spend.

This is the complete opposite situation from where I started out, 20-25 years ago - then I had no money but time was in endless supply. Funny how life never allows you to both have the cake and eat it.

Exact same situation for me.

Mdlbuildr wrote:

 Oguhmek wrote:


Same here. I'm in the happy position right now when hobby-money is not really an object - if I want something I can buy it. Time to build/paint/play is much more of a constraint, and in very limited supply. Storage too is somewhat limiting my purchases. So, really I budget based on how much time I think I can spend.

This is the complete opposite situation from where I started out, 20-25 years ago - then I had no money but time was in endless supply. Funny how life never allows you to both have the cake and eat it.

Exact same situation for me.

This is me. I sock away hundreds a month for retirement. I can afford the guilty pleasure of buying junk I really don't need, but I can't seem to find enough time as busy as I am with my career and marriage. I've got a little monkey on the way so that will diminish my hobby time even more. Hopefully the baby will be a tame best.

 Monkey Tamer wrote:
[I've got a little monkey on the way...

Congrats!! Kids rock!!

We have 3 and they are awesome. Spend as much time as you can with the kiddo. You will never regret spending time with your kids. They grow up soooooo quickly. In the blink of an eye.

 Beer_&_Bolters wrote:
How do i budget for hobby stuff?

I ask myself a few questions:
Is the mortgage paid?
Are the bills paid?
Is there food in the house?
Is there money left after all that?

If those all come back yes, then i buy stuff.

This.

A lot of my army is second hand, scored in trades, or found at a convention's sort-of garage sale that I attend every year.

With the exception of my Blood Angels, they're almost 100% BNIB purchases...some of which were gifts, which when I think about the cost of retail 40k armies makes me sad.

To actually answer the question: I generally budget my hobby-ness depending on how much overtime I've worked (for those retail gubbinz), or if I've got a lot of something I don't need/want (trades). I'd say there's a once-a-year type of splurge that I do that lasts about a month where I buy/sell/trade a lot of projects/odds and ends trying to square away the armies I have.

Generally, if the wife and I have any money left after paying all our bills and keeping the kids alive for another month, I can buy myself something. It's usually nothing big though, mostly a box of bikes for my white scars or a few spare bits from ebay for my 30k world eaters. Big purchases usually happen for my birthday and christmas when I give my wife a list of everything I "need" and let her pick what to buy.

Occasionally my mother-in-law comes down for a visit and wants to spoil us. She's really interested in my hobby so buys me something for it every time. Once she bought me a realm of battle board and, once I had painted it, she played a game on it with me

I don't have a budget; if I want it, I buy it. But that has been a bit of a problem in that I now have about 30 years worth of projects to paint up, especially at my glacial painting speed. So now, for the last 6 months to a year, I have enforced a 'painting' budget on myself where I only try to buy stuff that I realistically think I will get painted and as a result, my spend has dropped right off to the point where I am seriously considering not buying anything for the foreseeable future purely in an effort to get stuff done.

 filbert wrote:
I don't have a budget; if I want it, I buy it. But that has been a bit of a problem in that I now have about 30 years worth of projects to paint up, especially at my glacial painting speed. So now, for the last 6 months to a year, I have enforced a 'painting' budget on myself where I only try to buy stuff that I realistically think I will get painted and as a result, my spend has dropped right off to the point where I am seriously considering buying anything for the foreseeable future purely in an effort to get stuff done.

I'm much the same, monies no problem but time is. And thus the dilemma I face.

I've got boxes and boxes of unbuilt kits and try my best to build my way through it and paint but it is a daunting task.

Nonetheless the urge to spend on new shinnies remains so for the last year I have a plan B where I can buy what I want from a paypal account topped up by stuff I sell.

Of course then I went to Salute and Plan B got a swift kick to the nads.

Time for Plan C........

I always find a way to get something at the cheapest price possible, but I never buy used or second hand. I don't actually have a budget, just whatever's left after important expenses is split 50/50, half to savings, the rest to whatever I want.

I'm a cheapskate.

Mdlbuildr wrote:

 Oguhmek wrote:


Same here. I'm in the happy position right now when hobby-money is not really an object - if I want something I can buy it. Time to build/paint/play is much more of a constraint, and in very limited supply. Storage too is somewhat limiting my purchases. So, really I budget based on how much time I think I can spend.

This is the complete opposite situation from where I started out, 20-25 years ago - then I had no money but time was in endless supply. Funny how life never allows you to both have the cake and eat it.

Exact same situation for me.

Same here.

Also, I feel I am slowly coming to the end, or at least a baisse of things to buy, and I have just started inventoring my collection and sorting through the lead&resin pile. Until that is done, I try to limit my buys. SAGA is our latest go-to game, and it was started with the argument that we could use our existing minis.