Making a hobby budget for the year

[El Gecko]

My budget is always "as cheap as possible", and over the last nearly 2 years I've just been doing a slow drip each month of the various miscellany in order to get my old cars running--parts that were broken/unfixable or missing entirely: wheels, tires, shocks, gears, electronics, batteries, a boatload of ball bearings, etc. etc. etc.

The only "new to me" car I've bought since I've been back in the hobby was a used Grasshopper chassis to match one of my old bodies. I intended it as a basher, and I've definitely gotten my moneys worth out of it already. It has become "one of my cars" which means it's not getting sold ever.

For my old Traxxas Hawk, I splurged on a set of vintage HPI wheels for my birthday, which felt positively decadent (but greatly increased my enjoyment of that car)

I used to get sucked down the window shopping rabbit hole of Amazon/Ebay "suggested for you" listings from time to time, but now whenever I find myself scrolling, I just close the browser and walk away. I can't let myself succumb to "upgrade-itis"--my wallet won't allow it. (can't look at Ebay fixer-uppers either... I'm still working on all my other junkers!)

This year now that my wife has been on a bunch of trail walks with me, she wants a crawler which will be right around $200, and then maybe I'll get myself one later in the year (or I may wait until 2023 or longer). Hers will be first so she can have something to drive on our walks and because her birthday is coming up soon. I can still drive the Sledgehammer anywhere we go, and I'm in no rush to replace it.

So her crawler will be the big purchase for the year, and like last year I'll probably allow myself around $50 a month for random parts for the rest of them, which may fluctuate depending where our household finances are that month. For example, my 1:1 truck decided to shed its brakes the last time I drove it, which has forced a reshuffling of priorities at the moment.

[Mad Ax]

6 hours ago, alvinlwh said:

@Mad Ax I think in 2020, things appear very uncertain, we all are very careful about how we spend. Then things seem to settle down and WFH (for those who can) seem to work and is mostly stable, we relaxed and started to enjoy life (as much as possible) again. And WFHing allows us much more chances to build, and saved on travel time to work for most (not me as I live 5 minutes walk to work), thus speeding up many build time. If I am not WFHing, I will have to get home at 5pm, spray paint something, have dinner while the paint dry, and spray/work after dinner. With WFH, I can wake up, spray, work, spray again at lunchtime, work, and get into the dinner routine at 5pm, with bits sneak in like "making a cup of tea" time.

There is a certain benefit to WFH, but I miss office life.  Before the pandemic, I would WFH 2-3 days per week, the other days in the office.

My office was in central Bath.  That's 35 minutes pleasant country ride on a motorcycle.  I own a motorcycle because I like riding it, and that's 70 minutes of every day when I could ride that bike without anyone saying I was off wasting time, killing polar bears or shirking work, because it was part of work.  I could park for free right outside my office.  At lunch, I could go for a walk around the park, or a walk by the river, or a walk into town.  If I needed something from the shops, they were on my doorstep.  If I didn't want to make my own sandwich, I had a big choice of deli counters, sandwich stores or takeaways, or if the weather was nice we could take an extended lunch meeting and have a cider at the Boater.  So, yeah, I'd "lose" 70 minutes for every day I was in the office, but I really treasured those 70 minutes.

That office is now closed.  The nearest office is 60 minutes away in central Bristol, and it's a horrible 60 minutes.  Half of it is motorway, which is dull as badword on a bike, and cold.  For the other half, I have to cross two rivers and a railway line.  It doesn't matter which way I go, the roads are narrow and congested.  To narrow to safely filter past on a motorcycle, so I spend much of it sitting in the queue getting cold, getting cramp in my clutch hand and an ache in my neck.  So I can go to Bristol (I can even get paid for the mileage) but it's 120 minutes I lose every day, because I hate the journey.

So yeah, now that I'm home, I can get a lot of RC stuff done.  But these days my wife only works away 2 days per week, so 3 days of the week she's here.  It's not that I don't like my wife or that she's a hard task-master, but I can't get away with those "coffee-break builds" when she's around.  Plus I now get roped into getting my daughter up and dressed (because I'm always up early) and doing school collections, because I'm home.  That means I have to make sure I'm done working by 5pm every day (actually 4:55 to be safe - school isn't far but the traffic can be bad) and that means my working time gets compressed - so it's harder to get my hourly quota in, even though I'm not commuting.  That commute time (which I enjoyed) has just got taken up with chores that I don't enjoy.

[alvinlwh]

.

[Super ally]

I have bought 7 buggies since i got back into the hobby a few years ago,6 re releases and 1 original.I hope to get the wild one and lunchbox this year and then thats it for me as i am happy with that.I think 9 cars are plenty for me as room is a problem and you can only drive 1 at a time.I will only spend more money if i need parts for what i have.

[Mad Zero]

Part way through a big sell-off so even though I’m building a new kit I start the year 900 spons up.

 <— smug face

[Mad Ax]

14 hours ago, alvinlwh said:

I have the same problem too, just because I am WFH, to my wife it means I have the time to do the dishes, cooking, laundry, cleaning, etc... So now when she is WFH, I go into the office, only 5 minutes walk away. I used to bike when I was living in SE Asia, but now I bought a house this close to work, I cannot possibly justify another vehicle (2 or 4 wheels). My wife is now the Mondeo woman and I am the walking man 

WFH was, and still is great for everyone concerned, as there is a racist, sexist, homophobic bullying manager in the office that no one likes. Not needing to be anywhere near him was great. No one miss that awful place, except maybe management. 

Without wishing to derail the thread any further - yes, same here!  When my wife is on "creative days" she doesn't get out of bed until midday, I've already done half a day's work plus put the washing on and tidied the kitchen, I ask her if she's making sandwiches and she invariably says no, she's not hungry, so I go to make my own and get "oh, your making sandwiches?  can you make me one, please?"   but I say it in jest, we're both just as lazy as each other when it comes to chores, nothing ever gets done around here.  The only reason I do the cooking is because I don't want to starve to death (if I left it to my wife she'd say she's not hungry and then go eat a pack of biscuits for dinner).

I've worked in some pretty toxic environments before - in fact I didn't realise just how toxic until I started at my current workplace 4 years ago - but given the choice now, I'd go back to those offices for 2 days a week instead of being stuck at home for 5.  I didn't socialise that much before the pandemic and these days it's very hard to find someone to commit to even a socially-distanced walk in the fields.  I can go several weeks at a time and the only people I see besides wife and child are the Tesco Click & Collect staff and the after school club teacher.

[jonboy1]

16 hours ago, alvinlwh said:

I have the same problem too, just because I am WFH, to my wife it means I have the time to do the dishes, cooking, laundry, cleaning, etc... So now when she is WFH, I go into the office, only 5 minutes walk away. I used to bike when I was living in SE Asia, but now I bought a house this close to work, I cannot possibly justify another vehicle (2 or 4 wheels). My wife is now the Mondeo woman and I am the walking man 

WFH was, and still is great for everyone concerned, as there is a racist, sexist, homophobic bullying manager in the office that no one likes. Not needing to be anywhere near him was great. No one miss that awful place, except maybe management. 

 

1 hour ago, Mad Ax said:

Without wishing to derail the thread any further - yes, same here!  When my wife is on "creative days" she doesn't get out of bed until midday, I've already done half a day's work plus put the washing on and tidied the kitchen, I ask her if she's making sandwiches and she invariably says no, she's not hungry, so I go to make my own and get "oh, your making sandwiches?  can you make me one, please?"   but I say it in jest, we're both just as lazy as each other when it comes to chores, nothing ever gets done around here.  The only reason I do the cooking is because I don't want to starve to death (if I left it to my wife she'd say she's not hungry and then go eat a pack of biscuits for dinner).

I've worked in some pretty toxic environments before - in fact I didn't realise just how toxic until I started at my current workplace 4 years ago - but given the choice now, I'd go back to those offices for 2 days a week instead of being stuck at home for 5.  I didn't socialise that much before the pandemic and these days it's very hard to find someone to commit to even a socially-distanced walk in the fields.  I can go several weeks at a time and the only people I see besides wife and child are the Tesco Click & Collect staff and the after school club teacher.

Yup to both! My work environment had become extremely toxic - I had a manager who decided that because I expressed my opinions on matters I was a trouble maker. So when a new bloke joined the team that was incredibly rude on top of incompetent, I was forced to raise the issue with my manager. What happened? It was all my fault - I wasn't a team player, I was aggressive, I needed to be more tolerant and helpful if he didn't know how to do a or b. Then when things went wrong - yet again it was my fault. Finally well into covid other people had noticed that I was right about the other guy and my manager and helped me get a transfer to another team - but not before my manager told me it was his doing because I wasn't a good fit in his team. It took a long time to build up enthusiasm for work after that but I work with a great bunch of people now and am getting close to finding some interest in my work again. I certainly don't miss being in the office though - the current plan is it'll be 2 days in the office and 3 from home when things go back to "normal" and in my mind that's still 3 days in the office too many. I'm have severe social anxiety, and it's only been made worse by the lockdowns and wfh so I really don't miss being around people, but I do miss chatting to some of them. I can go weeks with the only face to face contact being my wife and my dog.

Back to the original topic!

Having a budget is a very sensible thing. Much like @Mad Ax once pay day comes I pay all the bills and whatever is left over is for "nice to haves" -  new clothes, shoes, tools, "luxury" food and drink and of course RC stuff. My serious weakness is hopups. I don't have a huge collection of cars - 16 I think - and I really can't get anymore as I don't have space for them all as it is - it's only because I've still got to build/finish 4 of them that it's not a huge issue already! If I didn't have a budget I stuck to I know my garage would be floor to ceiling with kits - and I'd probably be living in there too! So I scratch my RC itch with getting hop ups for what I have, and it's an endless obsession! Tracking down those hard to get bits, deciding whether to go for flourine coated low friction or anodised blue ball nuts, racing to beat @Badcrumble to the last pack of 3x10 socket screws  - and then you get the fun of taking it apart to put the new bits on - what's not to love!? I'll tell you - the ****ht you get when you add up the spend column in your spreadsheet of how much you've spent on each car doing that!  I've stopped updating the total box on the spreadsheet for my Durga because it's just got embarrassing! 

[alvinlwh]

.

[Nikko85]

I've got a baby on the way, so I'm really done for new cars. If I find an absolute bargain used QD Thunder Dragon, or GF01/WRO2 chassis I might get it, but can't really justify any more. It's been a fun ride for 18 months, and go me through lockdown and working at home. I plan to stick around and modify and edit what I've got, but I think I am done with more.

Oh, and it looks like the RC making project for kids in the local community is being green lighted, so I'll be buying enough through work soon!!!!

 

[87lc2]

52 minutes ago, Nikko85 said:

I've got a baby on the way, so I'm really done for new cars.

 

Had my daughter in August 2020 and I've spent a lot more time & money in the RC hobby since she was born.  Time is a lot more valuable to me at this point in my life than money and my 1:1 car hobbies (drag racing, etc.) just took me away from home too much with the new baby.  RC has been the perfect hobby that keeps me home and can be dropped at any point to deal with life's chores while still satisfying my "things with motors and wheels" obsession.  Not sure what you're current lifestyle is like, but I think you'll find more time and money on hand for RC once the baby comes.  

[Nikko85]

2 minutes ago, 87lc2 said:

Had my daughter in August 2020 and I've spent a lot more time & money in the RC hobby since she was born.  Time is a lot more valuable to me at this point in my life than money and my 1:1 car hobbies (drag racing, etc.) just took me away from home too much with the new baby.  RC has been the perfect hobby that keeps me home and can be dropped at any point to deal with life's chores while still satisfying my "things with motors and wheels" obsession.  Not sure what you're current lifestyle is like, but I think you'll find more time and money on hand for RC once the baby comes.  

To be honest for me RC cars are toys, once I get the brio train set out and Lego, that'll probably cover the urge. It's probably more space (2 bed) and money (wife will not be earning for a year) than time per se. I also want to get into hobbies that make less of a mess; I'm very very bad at tidying up after myself too, so when I "do" RC I tend to have bit in all rooms and over the house, not great with a baby. I know myself! 

I'll still continue to drive and tinker, but it'll be slow upgrades to the cars I've got (2 x MF01x, 1 x WD MT, 1 x GF01) instead of more cars. I've also got a few radio shacks and a Nikko I need to get rid of, I just don't need or have the space for 8 cars, I can just about justify four. However if a bargain GF01 chassis presents itself, well, it would be rude not to.

 

 

 

[alvinlwh]

.

[Mad Ax]

31 minutes ago, 87lc2 said:

Had my daughter in August 2020 and I've spent a lot more time & money in the RC hobby since she was born

It was the same for me, too.  Before my daughter was born, if you'd asked me how I identified, I'd have said I was a science fiction writer and electronic music producer, and sometimes I built and raced RC cars for fun.  A year after she was born, I'd say what I say now: I'm an RC modeller and racer who also writes fiction and music sometimes.  Lack of time is not really an issue when you have a new child - if anything, I had more spare time.  What I didn't have was long periods of quality,  uninterrupted time.  I remember speaking to an older colleague (remember colleagues?  I used to chat to them all the time!  It's a wonder I know anything without people to talk to any more) about parenthood worries, mostly over money and time, and he said, well, your RC cars, those are just a hobby - you can stop that if you have to, and focus on your writing and music.  Actually the opposite happened.  It's hard to consistently edit a 300,000 word novel with three different storylines when my time is broken up into 2 hour segments 3 nights per week, especially when I might be called away to help with a difficult feed or failed bedtime.  It's not worth turning on and setting up the studio equipment if I haven't got a few long hours to really get into the groove.  But I can wrench on some projects in the evenings while I keep an eye on the baby monitor, I can build cars on the sofa while I'm watching Disney films, I can take my daughter for woodland walks with my trail trucks, she can chase my monster trucks around the garden, and I can justify a 3 hour+ round trip to the beach on the household fuel budget because "I'm taking my daughter to the sea-side" (oh, and racing my buggies on the sand when I get there).

When I put so much time and focus into music and writing, I didn't go out that much.  Going out and socialising was a chore, it took me away from where I wanted to be.  (And in those days I got plenty of socialisation in the office).  But since my daughter was born, until the pandemic, once a month I'd load up my van and set off for a weekend of racing or bashing or whatever, somewhere that isn't home.  It doesn't matter how much you love being a parent (and it definitely has its plus points), sometimes it's really nice to not be Daddy for a couple of days.  And once a month I'd repay the favour, so my wife could go away for a couple of days.  Sometimes it was hard to decide what I preferred - those weekends when I went across the country to camp in a field and race buggies, or those weekends when it was just me and my daughter, pushing her buggy around the safari park, eating all-day breakfasts at roadside cafes, stopping in to visit relatives that I never had time to see before, having the house to myself after her 7pm bedtime when my wife was away camping, spending a rainy day snuggled up on the sofa to watch Beauty and the Beast for the millionth time.

[87lc2]

5 minutes ago, Mad Ax said:

What I didn't have was long periods of quality,  uninterrupted time. 

Your entire post is well said, but this line is perfect...That's why RC has become my hobby of choice at the moment.  It takes a lot more uninterupted time to set up my 1:1 car for a weekend of racing (not to mention being away for an entire weekend which just isn't going to happen these days) than building or modifying a few RCs.  I think I took my old car out of the garage twice in 2021 and put a grand total of 40 miles on it.  I never really drove it much in the past, but some years I'd at least put a few hundred on it with the wife cruising and that's just not an option aymore for a few reasons.  I'm not complaining since I really enjoy RC for many reasons but at some point I'd like to get back to it when my daughter is old enough to be a bit more self-sufficient. 

[Mad Ax]

4 minutes ago, 87lc2 said:

being away for an entire weekend which just isn't going to happen these days

One thing we noticed before our daughter was born, was people telling us all the stuff we couldn't do.  Fact is, if you really want to do stuff, you can.  There are pro athletes with young children, there are touring musicians with young children.  And much as I go on about not getting quality time, JK Rowling managed to create one of the best-loved fiction franchises of the last few decades while being a single parent and doing a paid job.  Part of what kept me sane as a new parent was having one weekend a month to get away, and I got it because I was prepared to give it in return.  I think it was a good few months before I was left alone with the baby (not because I wasn't trusted, but because mummy was afraid she'd wake up and not understand why mummy wasn't there) but once my wife and I took those first steps - of being alone with baby, and of trusting that the other would cope just fine alone with baby - it opened up a whole new world of possibilities.  Throughout 2018 and 2019 my wife would spend one weekend of every month camping in the countryside and exploring cave systems with her friends (she only stopped because of the pandemic, and hasn't started again because of health issues, but she still gets time off / away every month).

I know what works for one family doesn't always work for another, but it's always worth investigating.  My wife always tells me, if there's something I want to do, not to say "I can't do that", but to ask "how can I make that happen?"

Now we're swinging way off-topic once again, but I think budgeting time is as important as budgeting money when considering hobby / leisure plans for the year ahead, and I hope this sort of discussion is helpful to anyone who strolls in here  

[Willy iine]

For me, the only thing I 'cancelled' from my daily life while my kids were small was watching TV.  It's a big waste of time anyway.  I stopped watching completely to the point I gave my working CRT TV (at the time) to my in-laws as my kids were watching TV at their place often.     I did not watch for one full decade (no joke).. but it's okay, I spent 5-6years watching reruns  as new episodes later.   

I kept my RC, music, and 1:1 car hobbies going.. especially my car hobby was going all out with mods done to my street cars all the time back then..  partially in hopes my kids would also pick it up later..  that never happened.   

 

[Grumpy pants]

Hahaha you guys are funny 😂😂😂😂

Yes, a hobby budget, that you will stick too...

[Willy iine]

3 minutes ago, Grumpy pants said:

Hahaha you guys are funny 😂😂😂😂

Yes, a hobby budget, that you will stick too...

Must be nice to have an endless money tree forest!  Please mail me a seed to try?  

[markbt73]

Wow, you guys have strayed WAY off topic for me... I don't get to work from home, and we don't have any kids. We have two dogs, but they don't care how much time I spend in my workshop...

[Jonathon Gillham]

5 hours ago, markbt73 said:

Wow, you guys have strayed WAY off topic for me... I don't get to work from home, and we don't have any kids. We have two dogs, but they don't care how much time I spend in my workshop...

Haha, often happens here eh!

This is an interesting topic as everyone has a different take.

For me its more a goodwill budget - what will my wife put up with. I have my collection sorted really so now its some nice builds like the sand scorcher I got for my birthday last year. In saying that, if I bought stuff like some people I know i would be on a strict budget! Spares, tyres, fuel, batteries etc don't raise an eyebrow, even though the new tyres for the 2022 race season will run the cost of a sand scorcher, she knows thats part of racing (and we also ruined $500 of tyres in 3 hours in the 1:1 race car, so she also knows this is cheap racing!).

Time for me comes back to the time I spend with my son. He races with me and it means that we get a few days a month where its just us. Its a great leveller too as somany sports/hobbies/activities are solo or age related. We can race pur own classes and spend the day together without competing against each other. This has the potential to carry on for the next 50 years when he is bringing his grandkids along and I get to go watch.

Obviously money is an issue, we're in the fortunate position that after mortgage, food etc we still save more than we spend on entertainment so I dont have a major restriction on the money side, other than goodwill above...

[alvinlwh]

.

[Grumpy pants]

On 1/6/2022 at 6:16 PM, Willy iine said:

Must be nice to have an endless money tree forest!  Please mail me a seed to try?  

Sadly I’ve run out of seeds otherwise I would gladly share  @Willy iine

1 x Expensive Ex-wife

1 x Expensive New wife

5 x Expensive Teenagers

1 x Career change @ 48 YO

Multiple house moves and an extension all make for a lot less of everything, except stress and weight gain 😂

Happy to post out some kids to you or my 1st wife? 💥 

 

[alvinlwh]

.

[Grumpy pants]

1 hour ago, alvinlwh said:

You know how wrong this sounds? 

Yes, I would have chosen another word! 

But I didn’t want to lose the context of the conversation 😂

[Nobbi1977]

I have a bank account with Monzo which lets me have “pots” for different things. Each month I move money about and I try to stick to keeping each pot in the black. Some months I take out more than I put in, others the other way around. I do this for insurance, car expenses, motorcycles and other hobbies. It is not to limit me as much as to keep track without really keeping track.