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Thanks for the tips guys! Ived already started a change jar. Also I'm gonna divy out a portion of my spending money for it. Gotta work that into my budget

chromedog wrote:I have a great spending control.

She's called my wife.

Still, she does allow me to buy anything I need with her credit card, so it balances out (and since I am not overly fond of FW QC, it's safe from overspending).

Was waiting for the wife method was surprised it wasnt the first response.

I actually find that having a credit card help me budget and limit my expenses.

I have two cards. One for food and everyday expenses, and a second for fun/entertainment. Not only does it let me track expenses and see where I'm spending what, but you can call up the credit card companies and lower your credit limit to help limit your own expenses. I find that when I carry cash I have a bad tendency to want to spend it. With credit cards you also don't want to carry a balance and incur interest as this just causes more expenses.

This obviously won't work depending on how old you are, and I know some people don't have self control when it comes to credit cards...but I find that this works very well for myself.

Personally, I buy whole armies. That way I'm realistic about how much it's going to cost (easy to forget if you buy a box at a time).

Plus the time it takes to save up gives you a bit of cooling off time (do I really need a another marine army? Elysians are cool but I do want to spend that much for so few figures? etc)

@OP: I run a hobby budget, and track my expenses. I simply have to decide what I'd rather spend my money on.

I take full advantage of Bartertown and discount retail to stretch my budget, and feel very comfortable with my spending levels.

I Budget about $100 a month, with exceptions for if I find myself with a Windfall. If I want to spend more money on something, I must save it from previous months (Tyranids!).

JohnHwangDD wrote:@OP: I run a hobby budget, and track my expenses. I simply have to decide what I'd rather spend my money on.

I take full advantage of Bartertown and discount retail to stretch my budget, and feel very comfortable with my spending levels.

Do you find it better to use a trading site? Or the dakka site with trusted buyers and sellers? I have a couple old CSM Tanks I want to get rid of to help with my tyranids.

I am already established on Btown, so I prefer trade there.

I'm not very familiar with Dakka's "trusted" buyer / seller system, so I can't comment on it.

Whereever you go, pay attention and be careful.

I try to ensure that I don't buy another box until I finished painting the previous one. This has already fallen down for my WIP Skaven army as I bought another box of Clanrats to bring my Slaves regiment up to 20 models (about half of the models in the Clanrat box are distinctly Slave looking).

However, I will not buy another box until I've finished the Slaves and Clanrat regiments, honest

I'd buy models only when you can paint them next time.
Don't buy models to stack them up.

Like many others the wife is my control button. She allocates a certain amount of cash per month (about 250 dollars) and whatever I save from that is allowed to be used on GW stuff. The rest of my earnings are hers *sigh*.

I recently delegated my Paypal account as my strictly "Random $hit" account, I don't know if I have the control to, but its been working out so far.

Basically everything in my checking account goes to art supplies for school, and my commission money goes into my paypal account for toys and gaems.

"Nothing new until everything is painted" also seems to be ineffectual.

i have 2 jobs, a wife, and an allowance. heres how it works:
Wife gets the big paycheck.
im allowed a certain ammount of money discussed by the both of us per week. (as expenses get high some months.
anything from my second job is mine to do with as i will.

Equals about 5G a year roughly for bike repairs, and hobby.

Check out GNU Cash. It's free open source version of Quicken. It will help you decide if you can afford new miniatures.

You could make a "Gaming Expenses" account and transfer $50 to it a month. If a purchase would cause the account to go negative you can't buy it.

If you sell miniatures or bits, or paint on commission you could transfer these proceeds to your expense account. Who knows, maybe you could fully fund your hobby.

You know, its got nothing to do with gaming....its the human urge to collect!

My guess is, direct gaming needs do not dictate your frequency of spending, its more a case of liking an item and wanting it NOW!

I've been through this in a number of hobbies! Hell, you think wargaming is bad, I used to collect 1/6th Action Figures ( or mens Barbie dolls, if you like ) and I used to try to budget my spending, of course my favorite company at the time ( Hot Toys ) whose figures retail for over $180 a pop, started churning out figure after figure in rapid succession, this isn't a bad thing in inself, however, said figures would ALL be limited editions!!!! When they were gone, they were gone.....it was/is ridiculous.....trying to buy the figures once they sold out, and you'd be paying easily double the original price....in the end, I jecked in the hobby....I simply didn't want to afford it.....

Thankfully, even GW isn't this low down and dirty, (Yet), but take heart from the fact that if you can control the see it, want it, thought process, you can easily afford this hobby and no way run into obscene debt!