let's talk about something super uncomfortable: MONEY.
Oh, is that too uncomfortable? Then let's talk about Sex. Last night the wife and I....
Let's stick to money. It won't be that bad.
New Year, New Hobby
January is the month for new years resolutions. Hobby resolutions are all the same; get more stuff painted, play more games, finish X project blah blah BLAH.
Before I come off all snide (whaddya mean too late?) I should point out that I have all the same hobby resolutions. I'm no better. I wanna get more stuff painted, I wanna play miniature games more often, I wanna finish that project that's been sitting around for too long. I wanna feel like I'm actually enjoying my life from time to time.
It's kinda like how all of us men in our late 40s have the same resolutions; lose weight, be healthier, be a better parent and husband. I'm looking at you Dai. You too David. It's like looking in the mirror.
We all got the same goals but we're gonna go about them in different ways. To achieve my goals I'm gonna use the most powerful concept that man has ever invented: Budgeting. And you thought the most powerful concept man ever invented was freedom. Pffffft. Freedom only works on a budget.
Hobby Dollars
For a long time now I haven't kept track of how much money I am spending on this silly hobby. Perhaps that is an appalling thing to admit as I am a grown man, with a job, the sole provider for the family with other responsibilities. So maybe it's important to know how much money is being wasted on plastic Vikings versus groceries.
Previously I've told myself that I can buy whatever I want when I want but 'don't go crazy because there is such a thing as too much.' Because after all, I am a grown man, with a job, the sole provider for the family with other responsibilities. So if I want a box of plastic Vikings who's to say no? Not my family, because I'm not gonna tell them. Not you guys, you're complicit.
Yet money is the limited resource that will be used to achieve these hobby goals of mine. Actually all hobby goals are achieved through the limited resources of money and time, usually in a reverse relationship. Less money spent equals more time needed to completion; more money spent means less time needed.
Because I recently turned a year older and wiser, and greyer and somehow more attractive; I've become suddenly very attentive to money and time. But this is a hobby blog so we'll focus on that aspect of life over the serious stuff. No need to get bummed out by the inevitability of death (whaddya mean too late?) .
I'm fairly sure I have little more time to give. I'm a fairly busy man (aren't we all). The time that I do spend is already chiseled out of a fairly packed schedule. Instead I'll focus on the money which will be easier to track, with the idea that by paying closer attention; any money spent will be more effective in completing goals.
An effective budget needs a limit. I decided to set my budget at $1000 for the whole year. that will include everything for this hobby for the year; buying miniatures, paint supplies, Only Fans accounts, attending out of town conventions, everything. Depending on your own Socio Economic Status a thousand dollars for luxury goods for 1 person either seems a pittance, the just right amount, or an extravagance. Feel free to judge me. I'm just a stranger on the internet and I don't have real feelings.
I'll be using the blog to track expenses. I don't have any yet, it's only January and I have quite the backlog stored up... as I think it might be fun and somewhat interesting to track throughout the year.
CURRENT TOTAL: $1000
Side topic: Bonus Moneys:
Work Overtime: Anytime that I work overtime; half of the extra income may be applied to the hobby budget. I don't do overtime a lot because it's a pain in the ass and in my profession I do overtime by signing up to be 'On-call" for all hours for any Mental Health Emergencies. It usually means working on weekends and stinks, but it does pay decently.
Time to Go
I bet you did not expect such a Cents -sational post about a budget. I'm sure it's got a high Interest Rate. It remains to be seen if this Investment will pay Dividends.
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| Ha! Proves that I don't need memes as a crutch. |
Hey Stew, interesting post. I allow myself €200 per month which I categorise as « piss up the wall » money. Just lately however my hobby spending has dropped off a cliff because (whisper it) I seem to have all the miniatures I need for now. Will you just be expanding on what you’ve got already or branching out into pastures new with that 1000 dollars?
ReplyDeletethanks Mark. Piss up the wall money is a great way to put it.
DeleteI also will tell you in hushed tones that I have *plenty* of unpainted miniatures lying around. So I don't think I'll be heading off into any new pastures until I have all these old pastures fully seeded. But who knows, I have 2 or 3 big projects that I'm planning on hammering out this year. I just want to spend the money wisely. 😁
Stew, speaking from a UK perspective, but I imagine the same is global, the knock on effects from Covid, supply problems, notably high inflation and a sluggish economy, I sense more people are budget conscious now than they have been for a generation. I am sensing sentiments that take me back to the late 60’s and 70’s with regards to family budgets.
ReplyDeleteMy neighbour just told me that the jobber he gets in for building work, has not had a customer for 6 weeks! At the same time coffee shops are full and the holiday industry is doing very well. News commentary suggests people are cutting back on clothes buying, changing the car and getting jobs done and instead spending spare money on leisure for pleasure.
So I am guessing that means that wargame spend is in rather than out. I suppose a tipping point for gamers who are factoring budget is whether they have a lead / plastic mountain and whether they are happy to keep feeding that mountain for a while. I am guessing many of us could take a year out from spend while we get that mountain sorted.
It will be really interesting to see how your budget holds up. For figures, I am having a year of entrenching as I have enough of a stash for now …… but, on the boardgame side of things, several ‘I want’ games have all appeared at once! But spending is still being relatively controlled.
Norm, are wargamers more budget conscious now or did many of us simply overspend during lockdowns when there was nothing else to do?
DeleteThanks Norm and Jon. maybe it is an effect of all those things you mentioned coming together, coupled with my depressing decent into mid life and wanting to feel like I have control over something in a time when many things feel out of reach. 😁
Deletefor me, it's not so much that I want to stop spending but have a better idea on what I am spending on, and if I'm making the best use of the limited funds. I also thought it would be a fun thought experiment and to track over time, and give the blog an over arching plotline.
Jonathan, I think both of those are real things and the heavy stash is now feeding into the current situation of budgets being a consideration for more people. A third dimension also plays into this - the point at which the older wargamer starts to think about collections, what they have and what they want and related decisions on possible downsizing or reduced pension based incomes etc. i.e there are age related points of reflection at 68 that one didn’t have at 38.
DeleteI recently learned that this is called SELE. as in Stash Exceeds Life Expectancy. 😁
Delete(see comments below.)
As Norm mentions I have reached the limit of what I can store let alone paint, so my hobby budget this year will be much reduced. The thing that will blow that out is when I pull a new project from the pile and find I need to add something here or there.
ReplyDeleteLawrence, you are hardly a typical example - how many thousands did you spend when you were in the UK - and how many unpainted armies have you still got sitting there to paint, a decade or two later?!
DeleteThanks Lawrence and Keith. I'm fortunate in that I still have plenty of storage space, but it's well known that I don't particularly enjoy the painting. I'm sure some of my hobby budget will be used to have someone else paint the miniatures for me. There's always *something* to spend hobby money on. New projects always cost more don't they. 😁
DeleteStew, what about your earnings from your Only Fans account? Should this be added to your budget? 😂
ReplyDeleteWhen I retired I gave myself a budget for our financial year (July 23 to June 24) of $1,000. I still have $700 left. I feel that my available time will limit how much I spend unless I invest in a couple of big $ items or recklessly increase the lead mountain. I also did a check on my figures and terrain and have decided that I should be a lot more careful in what I buy as there does seem to be a lot of it. 😁
Thanks Ben, and double thanks for thinking that my only fans account would actually make any money. I think that for a lot of wargamers the amount of time you have to actually play / paint is not really related to what you spend, which is why we all have this backlog of miniatures just sitting around staring at us. wasted money in most cases.
Deletethough I am thinking that if i manage to quit smoking (part of 'be healthier') then funds saved can be added to the hobby budget as a reward. 😁
Seriously though, a budget will help you spend more thoughtfully, so maybe help stop the lead mountain growing with stuff that will never get painted or looked at again.
DeleteYou are lucky you are in the states, here in Australia you can only afford one sin, smoking or miniatures. I have friends who easily spend $100+ a week on smokes for 2-3 packets. 😊
Just another thought. The budget will remove some of the self imposed "guilt" you have on your spending. I had this too and I think if I had had a budget I may have spent my money more wisely and also without the remorse.
Deletethanks Ben. I do have 1 sin too many. something ought to go....
DeleteI don't really have any guilt about buying stuff. I think the guilt we're discussing elsewhere in the comments is just feeling guilty if some bonus cash comes in and we hog it all for miniatures. but that's alright. What I don't want is buyers remorse, and I hope that by paying more attention to the budget I won't make needless purchases that I regret later. 😁
That is quite thought provoking Stew.
ReplyDeleteUntil the beginning of this year two terms were unknown in my vocabulary: "completed" and "hobby budget". But you got me thinking and I went back through my credit card records for the last three months of 2023... I gave myself quite a fright when those purchases totalled $NZ2200 (about $US1100)! Now that doesn't mean that the twelve month total is four times that because of the five main figure orders I placed last year, two (and the two biggest) fell in that last quarter. Nonetheless the figure was large, although previous years were possibly bigger.
But all that has changed with the New Year. Retirement later this year will slash thd household income by nearly two thirds, so that kind of expenditure is gone. In addition I have all the figures I need to play games in all of the periods I am interested in (plus more than a few in periods of limited interest) so I don't actually NEED any more figures. So I setting my hobby budget for the year at around $NZ600 ($US300).
Of course all of this will be irrelevant if the man that has been selling me faulty lottery tickets sells me one that actually works...
LOL, thanks Mark. though in your case as someone who really cranks out the painted miniatures, I think large purchases can be entirely justified because they actually get painted. for mere mortals like myself who take 7 months to paint 100 miniatures... creates lead mountains. 😁
Deleteretirement naturally invokes reduced spending though I do envy your position of having vast collections already done, so the need for more miniatures is limited anyway.
My hobby budget will include miniatures purchases naturally, but I'll count anything that is bought for the hobby for the year.
Wow! A call out in a post. I feel like a celebrity. I do, in fact, keep track of my expenses. It's with a nervous tug at my colour and evasive glances to the corners that I applaud your.....frugal...limit. I know that my most successful years of being on a budget involved not getting to buy something until I finished something. One in, one out type situation. With a couple of cheats/jokers over the year. I am looking at a large changes in the budget this year, so it might be a good one to tighten the belt. *sigh* I'm sad already....and contemplating a spending extravaganza 'before the budget starts'.
ReplyDeleteLOL, thanks Dave. The one out / one in method would certainly be effective for managing a budget by slowing down the purchases. I don't really have any large changes in budget coming up as my life is stuck in rut and I'll be working for many years to come. However, knowing that I was gonna keep track this year of the budget, in December I did make some pre-budget purchases justifying that it was Christmas and my birthday. 😁
DeleteYour deep wisdom is constantly revealed in your writings sir. Well played.
DeleteI only spend about £40 in pounds. (I have hundreds of unpainted models and I have to stop :)
ReplyDelete). What worries me is that, unfortunately, orders from the UK are subject to additional customs duties...
Thanks Michal. Don't worry about hundreds of unpainted minis; you're in good company. 😁
DeleteUS$1000 seems like a reasonable amount to me Stew - its more than I spend (at the current Kiwi/Greenback exchange rate!). I set up a separate account about three years ago and "take" a varying amount from my pay each month on the 10th, before half of it disappears to insurance companies, utility companies and local government (very short Anglo Saxon expletive deleted)....the exact amount is normally governed by what's already there eg if I have $328 in the account, I might take $172 to make it a round figure (that's how my mind works!) I don't buy stuff every month, so it builds up - by the beginning of this year I had NZ$950 - THEN, I went on an online splurge and at the moment I have NZ$221! So, on 10 Feb, I might add $X79, with the X to be decided - I have a quarterly bonus payment coming (miracle of miracles) BUT we have just arranged another bloody overseas holiday in Oct, so being a grown man, with a job, the sole provider for the family with other responsibilities, I suppose I have to take THAT into account. (I have been tempted to have a rule that, say 10% of any bonus goes to me, because I earn the bonus by being so fantastically good at my job - but sometimes they have been really quite good bonuses - and I can't bring myself to take a couple of grand in one quarter for toy soldiers!)
ReplyDeleteI hope your budgeting goes well and it assists you to achieve your hobby goals - it all makes perfect cents to me!
thanks Keith. I also think in round numbers. I thought about making a sperate account just for the hobby budget but then it sounded like effort and I got tired. I'll just keep track of purchases and post them here as time goes on. It will make exciting reading. 😁
DeleteI know EXCATLY what you mean with the bonuses. Though I don't get bonus per se. Whenever the wife earns some cash for doing whatever I'm always like "you should take that and do something fun with it, or buy something you want. you earned it." But if I earn anything extra I feel guilty if I use all of it for selfish reasons. though to be fair if I work any extra it means that she has to work extra as well with the children, as I'm not around to help.
I too always used to work in round numbers, but an old boss of mine once said that you should always avoid round number and add a few figures at the end (like 1021 instead of 1000) because it looks like you have spent more time working on it!
DeleteWell I look forward to seeing how this year goes on the spend front Stew and how your budget holds up. Next month will be 5 years since I 'retired' to become a full time parent/carer. The significant drop in income (about 2/3) meant that I did have to think about purchases more than before, but then I never was a big spender before that. I still treated myself as a bit of retail therapy is good for the soul and all that. But since Covid and the time to take stock of my hobby, I realised that I had way more stuff than I could ever paint, store or need in all honesty. So recently it's been rather cathartic to have a good clear out and re-focus on the gaming front. In all likelyhood spend on miniatures will drop to virtually zero, with any spend going on fleshing out projects on an as needs basis. Books will continue to be the main purchases and the odd materials for terrain building. Maybe I will keep a tab on this years spend just to see what it actually amounts to and whether it is surprisingly high or not!
ReplyDeleteI would add too that the budget would stretch much further say if you were into 6mm gaming compared to say GW and their big ticket items. Now with the 'epic' range from Warlord Games and I believe GW getting back into this market too, it will be interesting to see if there is more uptake with the smaller 'scales'...
Deletethanks Steve. Thats quite a drop income. I'm nit sure my family could survive a 2/3 drop in income.
DeleteI'm a big fan of the cathartic clear out, so that one can focus on the stuff that bring s to most fun and get rid of the noise and distractions. My budget will cover ALL hobby purchases so even if I don't buy any miniatures this year (I guess that's possible) it's still gonna be spent on something. though what you say is true, the style of gaming you're into will effect how far a dollar will go. More bang for the buck at the smaller scales. 😁
All very sensible Stew.......but......I'm not listening.....lalalalalalala ☺
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid my willpower is weak and I still have a "wants" list.
I justify it to myself as building up the surplus now so I don't need to buy stuff when I'm retired.....
It's rather like not worrying whether I make retirement........lalalala....I'm not listening again! ☺
Neil
LOL, thanks Neil. I'm not saying your justification is wrong. I might do the same when I get close to retirement. IF I ever make it to retirement. 😁
DeleteI actually spend very little on the hobby now. I have been actively culling gaming items over the past years and anything I have bought has been paid for by the proceeds. My better half who is a crafter amongst other things came across a blog a few years ago entitled SELE. It stands for Stash Exceeds Life Expectancy. It was a sobering read and got me thinking on my growing hoard of unused gaming items. So action was taken to purge the collection. It has been quite cathartic and I have missed virtually nothing that has been purged. I do feel for gaming manufacturers and traders now. If no 9ne is buying much the future for them looks grim. I read it’s beginning to be the same for the model railway hobby, at least here in the UK. Simon
ReplyDeleteHello Simon. Thanks for taking the time to write a comment. I appreciate it.
DeleteSELE is a fantastic term and I shall be stealing it. I'm not at that point yet as I'd like to think that I have 3ish decades left in me and my lead pile is not big, no certainly not that big. AS i say above, I'm a big fan of the cathartic clear out; makes it easier to focus on the stuff that is fun versus the clutter. When I have cleared stuff out, I have never missed it either. 😁
An interesting post Stewart, reminds me of the joke I saw, "What's your biggest fear ? That my wife will sell all my models when I die, for what I told her I spent on them ! LOL" Personally I don't have that problem as my wife knows exactly how much they're all worth, Through the year I don't actually spend that much on the hobby, and tend to rely on what I get for Birthday and Christmas to bolster my forces, that or build them myself ! LOL
ReplyDeleteThanks Dave. My wife also knows exactly how much this stuff is worth (nothing).
DeleteIf i could make miniatures as you can, I'm nit sure I would need to buy any either. 😁
Budgeting is useful for some but fraught with peril for others. Budget? We don't need no stinking budget! Actually, I am going to try to paint more than I buy this year in an effort to slow the growth of The Lead Pile. As a corollary, I am tempted to see how far into the year I get before buying figures. So far so good but if Newline offers a January Sale (it is getting late in the month!), these plans may be toast.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jonathon. Knowledge is always scary, perilous to actually know something, like how much money I am wasting on miniatures not painted. 😁
DeleteI don't now how long I'm gonna go before buying something, and the budget will include all things hobby and not just miniatures.
uh.. yeah, if there is a Jan sale then they better get on it. you should probably check the website everyday. 😁
Budget? "You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means."
ReplyDeleteInconceivable!
DeleteI know what all the words mean. I just don't always mean them when I say them.
thanks Iain. Trouble with blogger I see. I thought mining the lead mountain was like getting something new? like finding money in a pants pocket. 😁
ReplyDeleteOof budget. That is certainly a fraught topic.
ReplyDeleteFor several years I have maintained a spreadsheet to try to reduce the spending. I make a wish list of miniatures spending for the year, track money coming in from ebay sales etc., and then shudder at the indicated totals so that I rarely actually buy what I want. Which is good, because I paint even more slowly than you do... with said spreadsheet I also can "fantasy army build" where I plan out all the purchases and then never make them, or do it late when it all costs more. It is not an ideal system.
It does get more complicated with the kid now interested in the Warhamms, because then not only are birthday/holiday purchases directed to plastic, but my wife has someone pressuring her to buy something or other for me. Which is great! But also does not reduce the spending, and skews my yearly wish list as indicated above.
I know EXCATLY what you mean with the bonuses. Though I don't get bonus per se. Whenever the wife earns some cash for doing whatever I'm always like "you should take that and do something fun with it, or buy something you want. you earned it." But if I earn anything extra I feel guilty if I use all of it for selfish reasons. though to be fair if I work any extra it means that she has to work extra as well with the children, as I'm not around to help. Yeah, that is how I feel exactly... my wife can keep all her "extra" money, but I feel too guilty to take any of mine. (other than ebay).
Thanks David. Maybe when my kids get into miniatures I'll have the same problem. perhaps a nice problem to have. though I am not exactly looking to reduce spending, but just direct it better into achieving what I want, which means tracking.
DeleteNice to know someone who paints more slowly than I do. 😁
And if you cut out smoking, not only is it healthier, for you and the kids (guilt) but it also is more money that can be injected into miniatures! (reward)
ReplyDeleteyeah, that's the plan. But I never do it around he wife and kids. which is why you're sworn to secrecy. Forever. also everyone n the internet. Good thing the internet is good at keeping secrets and the wife never reads the blog. 😁
DeleteI have forgotten already🙂
Deletethat's the spirit Norm. Never doubted you.
DeleteI try to watch my hobby budget - as it grows and grows...
ReplyDeleteThanks Grego. That can tend to happen. 😁
DeleteBut what if instead of spending on OnlyFans, you created content on OnlyFans? Then you could add more to the hobby budget? *insert "Modern problems require modern solutions" meme*
ReplyDeletethanks SD. double thanks for suggesting that if I did have an only fans account that it would make any money. do men even create stuff on Only fans? I dunno. I have very limited information and honestly, don't need more.
DeleteInteresting. For me, the budget is more about time than money. I don't have enough, and what I do have, I tend to waste. Good luck on yours!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jennifer. I also never have enough time, but I'm fairly certain that I have no more to give. However, I don't feel like I waste it, as I'm pretty good at selecting a project and sticking to it until it reaches the next level. 😁
DeleteI think this is a great idea to track in 2023, Stew! I'm fairly wasteful in my hobby spending to be perfectly honest and I'm not sure what I would find if I started totaling up my spending. If I run into a hobby problem, I tend to solve it with money which surely doesn't help my bottom line. I look forward to seeing how you get on with budgeting this year and what we all can learn from your triumphs and tribulations :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Jeff. I have found that many problems in this hobby and sometimes life can be solved by throwing money at it. 😀
DeleteWe’ll see how this year of Spending goes.