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I was thinking about my most recent geek spending on dice and unnecessary objective markers recently. I have been keeping a record of my spending since 2009 (online bank transactions really help with this) and decided this year to make a conscious effort to control my spending. My ambitious goal was to reduce my spend by 75% compared to 2011. Here is what happened:





This is the figure which prompted the poll question, along with the recent thread here: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/484248.page. I consider disposable income to be what’s left after deductions for tax, mortgage/rent, and key living expenses such as car food, utilities etc.

Here is a further breakdown by group:





Finally, spend as a function of time, you can see the huge tourney overshoot:





This was due to getting an unexpected invite to a geek weekend in February. The ‘kink’ is a refund for a tourney I decided not to attend. AS you can see I managed to regulate my models purchases quite well, but at the cost of *more conversions* of existing stuff-meaning my consumables skyrocketed.


So this is my approach to controlling my outlay on 40k. About me: I have no kids (yet) and have quite a modest mortgage (about 40% of my annual wage after tax) and don’t generally spend much on other stuff (a month in Turkey and my marriage this year were, I trust, one-off events!).

What works for you guys? Do you consciously control your spending or just buy stuff on a whim? What is an acceptable amount of disposable income to spend per annum ,in your judgment? Does it matter ‘where’ in your life you are? I’d be interested to hear some alternative views on this.

I have started collecting end of August, I have amassed a huge pile of bitz, buying from bitz stores which has cost quite a bit and so far my collection is at 17k points, well just shy, without wargear, I have justified that I am collecting every possible load out and have collected models for space marines as well as blood angels, so I can have the best of both worlds. Add to that hobby supplies, quite a few pots of glue!, paint, sprays, etc etc and have been to three tournies so far and booked up another 4, two of the tournies have been weekenders and have cost me quite a fair amount in fuel, hotels and tickets.

Compare that to my disposable income, its probably around 20%, I save a lot and dont draw much wages from my company with no mortgague and very managable credit.

But after this month I doubt I'd be buying much more, I have far too much to paint as it is, the only noticable outlays will be tournies

Before my current job, I rarely bought because I couldn't afford to buy games and eat. With my current job, I buy whatever the hell I want, and just keep an eye on my bank account. I just splurged for $100 from Wayland games near the end of October, then got in on MiniWargaming's clearance sale on Mantic models, spending a further $225. So $325 in the span of a week, but I haven't purchased any other gaming supplies during the past month. The month before that though, I dropped $220 over at Miniature Market. So huge amounts? Maybe. But those have all been taken advantage of at huge discounts that I'd lose out on for things I wanted, when I had the cash available without complications.

Oh dear! This level of control is very impressive. It is something I aspire to, but i know I will never achieve.

I fact, in all honesty, I have no intention of calculating how much I spend on the hobby. If I did I suspect I would run screaming from the room and be very quickly divorced.

But then again, it's all relative. I don't spend nearly as much as I would if I played golf, or if I followed football, or many other things I could do. When I think how much I used to spend when I was (trying to) compete in triathlons, it is a fraction of the cost of a new bike!

EYIG

I budget my disposable income. I do not track that spending in detail. Just watch to confirm I'm within budget.

If I had details my behavior would be as described by "Embrace your inner geek"

I've said 10%, as I'm including all the extra stuff (paints, shows, magazines), which I'm assuming averages out to about 10% overall. But as above I don't really track it as such, I just keep an eye to make sure I can afford it at the time.

I generally only spend when a time limited deal appears that suits (sales, kickstarters, limited edition stuff), and now have a policy of trying not to spend much more at conventions than I make (which also helps me be brutal with clearing out the stuff I'll never use).

I'm writing up a sheet of stuff for a bring & buy at a show on Saturday, and if it all goes I'll get about $300, most of which will go on Bolt Action stuff and scenery

I looked at my excel spreadsheets from 2010 - after a quick check it looks like:


2010 - 20% - Starving College Student
2011 - 14% - Starving College Student
2012 - 2% - Career Money

Depends on your income. If you're making 50k+ a year and are living @ your parents house - You'll tend to be able to spend 1k+ a month on your hobbies and such. For me - I have bills to pay. I actually still spend around the same 1100-1200$ a year on wargaming (Same amount each year for the past 3 or so years). When I started salary I actually will spend less on Wargaming as the prices are raised, my bills go up, and my IRL costs of GF/other hobbies increase.

Last year - an Impulse buy of a Hordes army wouldn't have happened. Ever. Maybe two boxes a month. This year? It was tempting not to toss 300-400$ down on whim last week. I simply do not need to shell out 2-3k a year on the hobby. Interesting read Dakka

Spent about 250€ on my 1850 pts Necron force..over...uhm....5 months? So that's about 50€ / month, which relates to...well, overall, regarding the entire year, it's about 2%.

Sold my WHFB army though for about 300€...so...huarhuar.

I don't really set the line, the wife does. She likes to come to events and get pissed like everyone else, so that helps. It's the yearly forgeworld order that really draws her ire.

This thread makes me feel much less bad for the approx 5% I spend. I keep guilt tripping myself for that too, because I have a child on the way. This also means I have to complete my army in the next six months...

I honestly don't spend enough on this hobby. However, this is due to my current employment ending this December and I need to build up some money to keep me afloat till I get another job and am able to start paying back my student loans. Every $30 I save now will be that much more gas money once my income dries up.

Hanith wrote:
I honestly don't spend enough on this hobby. However, this is due to my current employment ending this December and I need to build up some money to keep me afloat till I get another job and am able to start paying back my student loans. Every $30 I save now will be that much more gas money once my income dries up.

Bad news for you and your job: Obama became president :/

I spend, At most, 60% of my disposable income on wargaming each month.
Now that may sound like alot,but really, its like 1 45$ purchase and one purchase somewhere below that
And i make sure to use vouchers i save up from playing at 40k night. (I know people who complain about not having money for new models, yet they just spent that 5$ voucher on 5 soda cans)

 Sigvatr wrote:

Hanith wrote:
I honestly don't spend enough on this hobby. However, this is due to my current employment ending this December and I need to build up some money to keep me afloat till I get another job and am able to start paying back my student loans. Every $30 I save now will be that much more gas money once my income dries up.

Bad news for you and your job: Obama became president :/

Challenge accepted.

Chart A:


Chart B:


Please notice in Chart A, that the period between 1980-1990 and 2000-2008 govt spending increased, especially as time approaches the 2008 mark. In chart B, total debt also increased during these same periods. It actually increased by an average of 30% of the GDP. These are the result of Bush era (both Jr. and Sr.) economics. Bush Jr. actually increased total spending by more than 10% and the debt vs. GDP by 45%. He and his father literally tripled the amount of money we are losing vs. our income.

Now look at the time span between 1990-2000 and 2008-present. During both of these times, government spending decreased (though not as much as it was previously increased) and the debt vs. GDP also decreased (again, not as much as it was previously increased). These are the result of Clinton and Obama.

All the charts of this government controlled website point toward the same thing, Bush's tax plan was hot garbage. Romney wanted to implement these historically-proven-to-fail plans. I wanted none of that. Our current national financial situation is little more than the outcome of Bush Jr.'s spending spree during his last 2 years in office. It could be argued that the deficit was caused by the war on terrorism. Yes, spending jumped in 2001 and 2002; but, it exploded in 2006 and 2007. Not since WW2 was the Federal Deficit higher than during the latter years of Bush Jr.'s administration. Since Obama took office, he reduced Bush's Federal Deficit to less than 1/2 of what it once was.

More charts that point toward what i just said:
Chart on Federal Revenue:
http://www.usgovernmentrevenue.com/revenue_chart_1900_2016USp_13s1li011lcn_F0f_US_Federal_Revenue

Chart on Federal Deficit:
http://www.usgovernmentdebt.us/spending_chart_1900_2016USp_13s1li011lcn_G0f

I think the key word to this question is "disposable." Meaning any money I have to spend on fun stuff rather than need stuff. Table top gaming is my primary source of entertainment so if I just count the wargaming aspect of that I probably spend 40% of my disposable income on wargaming. Sometimes 100% sometime 0% but average is probably 40%.

I have to say I didn't anticipate so many 20%+!