How much do you spend a month on the hobby?

[wolfdogstinkus]

1 minute ago, Wooders28 said:

Have you ever tried growing your own veg, and costed it? 

It's similar to getting married, and getting 'love' for free......🙄🤦‍♂️

Where are you buying your seeds from?

Just don't swap your cow for magic beans and I think you'll be fine.

[Wooders28]

26 minutes ago, wolfdogstinkus said:

Where are you buying your seeds from?

Just don't swap your cow for magic beans and I think you'll be fine.

Tried growing tomatoes, once I'd bought the wee Aldi poly green house thing, seedling pots, grow bags/compost , the liquid fertiliser etc and after a load of time and effort, I was around a quid a tomato...

[Nikko85]

I would say around £50... but I am sure if I went through all my eBay and amazon orders that might tell a different story. I might really think about a QD for £30, but then drop £40 on bearings, spray paint and a new servo without blinking.

This christmas I got CW01 as a November birthday/christmas present from wife and parents. Going forward I am going to limit myself to asking for a new kit every Christmas (I usually never know what to ask for so this is great) and then a buy a few used quick drives or Taiyos as cheaper projects and custom ideas.

For the CW01 I have tried to upgrade for free using 3D printer parts, and that has been quite fun, it's much better than stock and spent nothing! 

I prefer building to amassing a collection, so quite a few cars go in the loft for Felix. He's got a great collection for a 10 month old.

[wolfdogstinkus]

8 minutes ago, Wooders28 said:

Tried growing tomatoes, once I'd bought the wee Aldi poly green house thing, seedling pots, grow bags/compost , the liquid fertiliser etc and after a load of time and effort, I was around a quid a tomato...

But if you save the seeds, the cost goes down. I don't even like tomatoes or buy them in the shop but home grown ones are so much tastier..

Edit to add, did you know that you can graft a potato plant to a tomato plant and harvest potatoes and tomatoes from the same plant!!!!

[Saito2]

Practically nothing now. Every few months, I might need to buy some odd-n-ends to complete a project, but that usually under $30. At its peak, years back, it seemed like I was buying a kit or resto project every month. Did I really need to try that Kyosho Blizzard? Probably not since I hate snow and eventually sold it. My job at the time was a gaslighting, drama-filed horror show but the money was good so I was probably guilty of practicing some retail therapy. 

Today, with yearly skyrocketing insurance rates, inflation and utterly stagnant wages, I buy virtually nothing. All extra money goes into retirement. People in the blue collar working class like to bitterly joke that we'll work until we drop dead on the job but the reality is our bodies may give out before that, so every bit of future planning helps. 

On the bright side, my collection is practically complete. Also there's a certain thrill of building stuff with what I have on hand and the trash I pull out of the dumpster at work. Its how I found the carbon fiber to make a Bandit chassis. Plus, for a borderline hoarder like myself, there is an unbeatable sense of satisfaction to pull a part I've been holding onto for 20 years out of a hat and put it to use. Beats buying stuff hands down.

[Mad Ax]

My spendage is on the higher end at £350 per month, but that doesn't just cover RC, it covers all "leisure."

As that seems a little higher than some, let's add some context:

A few years back, the wife and I went through our income and expenditure and worked out what we needed to put where to see all commitments were taken care of, and what was left over was leisure, and we got half each.  As our income has fluctuated, we've done our best to stick to that figure as it pays for us both to do the things we want to do.

My "leisure" pot is fairly broad.  Any and all RC cars, parts, tools, paints, screws, sundries etc comes from that budget, also entry fees, non-household food*, hotels, club fees, licence fees, etc.  Fuel is the big one - it can cost over £100 to go to some race meets at today's prices.  My trip to Carlisle for the Iconic Cup will cost nearly £300 in fuel alone (admittedly that allows for some driving around while I'm there, as I'm spending a couple of days there to make the journey worthwhile).  If I want to ride my motorcycle to the coast for the day, I have to pay for the fuel out of my leisure budget.  If I buy myself some fish & chips while I'm there, that comes out of my leisure budget.  I drive 18 miles per week to get to my favourite walking spot - I even pay for that distance out of my leisure budget.  All alcoholic beverages come from my leisure budget unless they were specifically bought for a recipe.  Clothes, shoes, barber shop visits, all comes from leisure.  If my motorcycle helmet or jacket need replacing, that comes out of my leisure budget - that can be a month's leisure budget in one go.  For that matter, if I want to replace my motorcycle with a new one, that comes out of leisure too - I'd have to save it up and cut back on my RC parts, race meets and drinks for a couple of years.  If my personal laptop dies and needs replacing, as it did back in 2020, just out of warranty, that comes out of leisure.  If I want a new keyboard or mixer or other equipment for my studio, that's leisure.  If I want a new mobile phone, that's leisure.  Books, CDs / MP3s, etc are leisure.  (Fortunately Netflix and Prime are covered out of the household budget as the wife and I both use them).

On the flip side, if I do any work outside of my regular paid gig, I'm allowed to keep that for myself.  I've had a little non-RC-related side-hustle which is netting me a couple of hundred quid extra every month (enough that I have to pay income tax on it this year!) - I don't know how long it'll last or if I'll get tired of doing it, but it's paid for me to do some pretty cool stuff that I'd never have done otherwise, so it's been worth getting up at 6am every day of the week so far.

Even so, it feels like a lot of money for someone who isn't earning anywhere near a 6 figure salary.  But when I take myself to RC events, I meet plenty of people who have way nicer transmitters than me, their cars are kitted out with the latest top-end brushless systems and race servos, they've got fancy gazebos, D-SLR cameras with big lenses, the latest iPhone, and a 1:1 car that's less than 5 years old.  For that matter, there's plenty of camper-converted Volkswagen T5s and T6s at race meets - those are worth more than my annual salary these days.

So I spend a lot on RC and other throwaway leisure stuff, but by choice, my camper is over 20 years old and I converted it myself, the family car is over 10 years old, my phone is at least 6 years old, I get all my clothes from Tesco and charity shops, we eat simple foods and don't get takeaway very often, and I don't have any other expensive hobbies like cycling, photography, fishing or fitness.  (Music was once an expensive hobby, but all I need these days is a half-decent laptop and some software, which I already paid for).

*if I make a packed lunch out of the same food we'd buy to eat at home, that's OK, but if I buy a burger from the van, that's leisure

[Nobbi1977]

A lot less than I spend on motorcycles 😂

[Tamiyastef]

More than I expected. On average € 135,00 each month for the past 4 years. On average, as a low budget year seems to be followed by a high budget year so numbers differ a lot depending on the year you look at. Also the "normal" rc spending are rather low, between € 5,00 and € 30,00. And then, mostly short after getting a bonus at work 😁 I spend a higher amount = mostly buying new kits.

I must remember 2023 is a low budget year 😂

[bRIBEGuy]

On 1/14/2023 at 5:56 PM, tim.senecal said:

that is impossible to calculate.  some months i will spend zero dollars, and just work on things i have in the stash.  other months, i will burn through hundreds of dollars collecting things to go in the stash.

^^^ This sounds similar to me.  

 

On 1/14/2023 at 6:01 PM, Novamadcars said:

Come on your one of the members I'm very curious as to how much you spend lol 

Come on @Novamadcars, if you wanna know how much @Willy iine spends, just shoot him a PM (and realize you likely still won't get an answer), or grab a calculator and try to keep up with his posts. 

In all seriousness though, to me it's like asking someone how much money they make... you might be curious, but it's a bit tacky...

 

On 1/15/2023 at 1:51 AM, Tamiyabigstuff said:

Some months nothing, some months more than I'm prepared to admit...

I think this probably reflects many of us.  I try to spend as little as possible (and 2023 will see this become more regulated as our monthly expenses have risen drastically), but it does definitely sort of go in spurts.  Part of it will depend on cash on hand (I try to keep my "hobby" money separate from my "life" money), part of this will depend on projects, and part of this will depend on what's been released. 

Define it with a number?  Pass. 

Lets go with "More than I should, less than I want to..."  

[Willy iine]

I will note that I am also running out of time.. my vision is not good and it was honestly a pretty intense struggle to assemble my last car as I just can’t see well any more.   Black screws over black parts is like trying to find a public toilet light switch when it times out..    I had to build almost the entire car under the magnifying lamp with light ring.  

On the other hand, working with styrene is great because I can see white pretty well.

That said, my future RC purchases will be more focused towards RTR.. and only do electronics swaps to run off my radio, suspension tuning to my liking.. speaking of which, I should be getting my Mini-Z EVO AWD and 1:10 drift car later in the week.     

[Sogogi]

3 hours ago, Willy iine said:

I will note that I am also running out of time.. my vision is not good and it was honestly a pretty intense struggle to assemble my last car as I just can’t see well any more.   Black screws over black parts is like trying to find a public toilet light switch when it times out..    I had to build almost the entire car under the magnifying lamp with light ring.  

On the other hand, working with styrene is great because I can see white pretty well.

That said, my future RC purchases will be more focused towards RTR.. and only do electronics swaps to run off my radio, suspension tuning to my liking.. speaking of which, I should be getting my Mini-Z EVO AWD and 1:10 drift car later in the week.     

Look forward to see your mini z! I also am thinking of getting into mini z so that i can enjoy those on rainy days.

[lsear2905]

I've found that I am spending less, but the occasional large purchase is inevitable.

With a fleet of almost 30 cars, and almost 10 boats, at this point it's mostly just maintenance - batteries, tires, that kind of thing and the odd bit of bling, if the shipping is already paid for!!

[M 800STD]

Not as much as I use to as I have not seen any interesting cars, apart from Slide Reloaded (originally SMP Slide) and Capricorn.  Both of these car manufacturers are really expensive and I just can't justify it.

Having other interests such as RC boats and Motorcycles, the spending pot gets smaller.

[BuggyDad]

I've only been back into this hobby for 18 months. This thread has made me think a bit and highlighted a rather obvious pattern. It looks roughly like this:

RC may not be unique in this regard. 

[TwistedxSlayer]

Erm. I don't really have a monthly budget. It's just as and when I've got some free money and I need something or spot something I really want. Like the R34 Skyline body in the F/S section

[moffman]

Oh I never have had a budget for my rc hobby on a monthly basis I normally tell myself at the beginning of each year I'm going to try and spend less than the previous year......it never happens! Some months I spend very little to nothing and some months like December when I had to pick up my debt card with oven gloves because the egress black appeared and associated  parafinalia to go with it and a carbon fibre kit for my optima mid appeared plus my spektrum dx4s started switching itself off so I invested it a flysky noble nb4! As I'm writing this and thinking about it I'm having to lie down

[Juls1]

These days my collection grows by 4-5 kits a year, at least a couple of those will be treated to full hopups.  Probably 1 might be a runner. 
 

 

[Sogogi]

I accumulated 10 cars (including as gifts) with 6 of them already built in 4months.. haha.. Initially I was too excited where I had to try at least some of iconic kits. Now I need to slow down and enjoy what I have already built. One thing I keep in mind is if car(s) that stay on the shelf for too long, I will purge it and/or replace it with something I would enjoy.