Funding for your hobby, how much to set aside and how do you do it?

[to2leo]

Hi everyone,

I am sure many of us do not have a limitless wallet to fuel our hobbies.  I am wondering how do you finance it? 

Do you set money aside from every paycheque?

Do you invest in the stockmarket and use the earnings to purchase?

Do you splurge it all and worry about it the next day?

 

For me I think I am doing the first one but seriously thinking about the second method. 

At times, I might spent up to 1% on trains, 7% on overseas travel, 2% on entertainment of my yearly earning.

[CaptOblivious]

I usually have a small monthly allowance, from which I save money for trains. Of course, I can only afford one or two sets per year, at most. I also do DCC installations in exchange for models :D

[sedril]

Right now it's limited to money I would normally spend on take-out food, video games, and more computers...

I should look into keeping a dedicated fund, would make things much more consistent. 

[Martijn Meerts]

I don't set anything aside really. When I see something I want/need, I (pre-)order it as long as I have the money for it. I'm spending a bit less on rolling stock these days though, and more on tools and stuff like wood and cork etc. I've also started buying more loco decoders, function decoders, turnout/servo decoders, occupancy detectors etc, which I'll need soon.

[Bernard]

Leo - This is an interesting question.....there are a lot of times I look at my collection and say, "I can't believe I spend "X" amount of dollars on all these trains.....then I say, "but they brought me so much happiness that I can't put a price on that."

 

What I try to do is set up a reserve fund and "bonus money". (Bonus money is funds that I didn't expect like points for using my cc.)

 

I have a list of I what trains or other supplies I need or would like to have. (Right now buses and boats.) What I'm trying to do is curb "great deal" impulse buy, with the reasoning if I buy something that I hadn't planned on, it will take away from something that I really wanted.

[Kamiyacho]

When I was younger I spent most of my money on liquor and women - the rest I would just waste.

 

As I get older I've cut back on the liquor to finance trains.

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Funding is a mixture. I am a fairly simple beast, and don't spend large sums of money going out or clothes etc. - some of my colleagues will easily spend the equivalent of a Kato DD51, or EF200, or suchlike down the pub or at a night-club. I don't service massive debts, and own my car outright, so after essentials and other one-offs such as purchases for the house etc. I have some disposable income for things like model railways.

 

In addition, I have been selling off a large UK N Gauge collection, which has help fund quite a rapid growth of Japanese trains...

 

A sizable amount of the layout I have funded myself, however the club does contribute and has provided track and electrics/controllers etc.

[HST.]

  I sold most of my OO/HO stock just before Christmas which gave my funds a healthy boost.  I also quit smoking in April 2010, so that makes it a lot easier to save on a monthly basis, but it's still not easy, there's always something that crops up that requires funding.....still, there's always the Lottery!!!

 

Dave.

[cteno4]

I have to agree with bernard, sometimes i look at the train boxes and say OMG what have i done over the years! But then its my hobby and enjoyment and I think Claude and I live very similarly with not spending much on fancy outings, clothes and stuff. shop the sales all the time to get a good bang for the buck (the wife use to laugh at me comparing prices and stocking up at the grocery store on the sales items, but she now realizes it does cut $20 or so from each trip and i see that as free train money!). always keeping the debt at zero (well bit of a mortgage left on the house, but that is on the final legs), so i guess in balance its not so horrible.

 

I try to keep the spending in check with the monies coming in, but since i have lived as a free lancer for a long time i dont totally get into the spend no money in the dry times as i know my usual cycle, but i do get much more conservative. I have gotten better i think at only doing the preordering/ordering of bigger ticket trains on an only do i really really want/need that. Luckily the tomytec stuff seems to be staying in stock now so less of should i buy two of those in case they go OOS or OOP...

 

i guess you could look at them as a bit of an investment if you buy the trains that go OOP really fast as quite a few of those i have are now selling for more than i paid for them, especially with the yen at its current price!

 

Last i do try to streatch the train dollars as well. on pre-orders i always check to see if HW has it with their 26% off first. i know some laugh at trying to save 6%, but that amounts to $10 on a train set and thats a tomytec house for free! Also almost always ship SAL and avoid EMS if i can. patience pays off as i have easily saved a few thousand dollars with this over the years and thats a lot of free trains!

 

cheers

 

jeff

 

cheers

 

jeff

[spacecadet]

I don't fund it.  Which is why I don't have much, especially relative to some people here.  As far as Japanese trains go I have a table, a grass mat, two loops of track, a station, two trains and some people.  I also have some American HO stuff, some of which I'm trying to sell right now (anyone want a Walther's 20th Century Limited set?) to pay for some new Japanese trains.

 

I buy train stuff whenever I come into extra money that I wasn't expecting or didn't otherwise budget for, which isn't very often.  Like, if I get a bigger tax refund than I thought I would, or I have an extra paycheck that I forgot about (I get 3 paychecks a month twice a year - since I get paid every 2 weeks - and sometimes I forget that one of those months is coming up, so I've already budgeted the month without that money).  Or if I sell something.  Most of my current Japanese stuff was funded from the sale of a camera lens.

[keiman]

Train stuff is as and when funds are spare.

1st hobby expense is my other hobby that is being quite expensive just at the moment- 2x MOT (Uk guys know what I mean)Annual Inspection to the rest of you, had to buy new tyres for one car and the other needs a new exhaust before it's test. May have to get new intercooler as well.

Price of fuel in the UK is one of my pet hates, Shell 99 RON is now £1.38 a litre at my local garage. :angry5: :angry5: :angry5: :angry5:

[spacecadet]

Train stuff is as and when funds are spare.

1st hobby expense is my other hobby that is being quite expensive just at the moment- 2x MOT (Uk guys know what I mean)Annual Inspection to the rest of you, had to buy new tyres for one car and the other needs a new exhaust before it's test.

 

Alright, I googled it and came up with nothing - what is 2X MOT??

 

I'm imagining it's racing or something... but I still sort of know what you mean, I just spent $1,000 on tires for both of my cars (all of my tires seemed to go to hell at the same time, the rubber just fell apart this winter), and that was money that I was otherwise hoping to buy some train stuff with :(

 

Real life sucks sometimes.

[Martijn Meerts]

Hmm.. I don't smoke, don't drink much at all, don't like going to pubs, don't have a car either, so I guess I'm saving a lot on that. On the other, I do like going on spur of the moment trips, although that's cooled down a lot after moving back to the Netherlands. I used to regularly take the boat from Oslo to Kiel and back, they've got some amazing ships on that line.

 

I also sometimes get a new locomotive or a set of cars for my father, but I guess that counts as train costs rather than something else ;)

[CaptOblivious]

Interesting that some of the funding here comes from selling off other things. I funded my initial foray into model railroading by selling off the majority of my anime collection: Was enough for several trains, sets of Tomix FineTrack, and a Digitrax Zephyr. Now it's catch as catch can…

[dickturpin]

I fund mine from the profits of my other hobby, portrait painting.

[ShinCanadaSen]

Space Cadet - MOT = Ministry of Transport. In the UK they have to pay yearly taxes on their vehicles and display a tax disk on their windshield (may have changed.... been a long time since I lived in the uk :) )

 

Keiman - What kind of Subarus? and I thought we had it bad at $1.10 CAD a Litre :(

 

As for funding hobbies, I don't actually spend much money on everyday stuff.  In between looking after my son (wife works lots of nights) and playing WoW I don't really get out to spend money much. Also I try to limit myself to one lense or major Camera purchase a year so I have some money extra in the budget every month that usualy gets spent on my son (above and beyond all the stuff he normaly gets, he's spoiled ! ) that I can spend on trains. Wife is ok with it cause it keeps me in the house :)

[IST]

I fund my hobbies from my salary which is not too much compared to for example Western-Europe salaries, but enough to buy sometimes 1-2 train sets. I have an exact amount in every month from which I can finance my computer games (train simulators mainly), magazines (mainly from the UK), traveling by train through the country in the weekends and model trains.

And in the end of every year we have long-long conversation with my wife about how much would be this exact money in the next year. 

[ToniBabelony]

I fund it not too much, so I look for cheaper and alternative methods of making layouts, rather than the more expensive options. I allow myself a few inexpensive trains per year, but that's it. I'm quite quickly satisfied with what I already have.

[keiman]

Space Cadet - MOT = Ministry of Transport. In the UK they have to pay yearly taxes on their vehicles and display a tax disk on their windshield (may have changed.... been a long time since I lived in the uk :) )

 

Keiman - What kind of Subarus? and I thought we had it bad at $1.10 CAD a Litre :(

Space Cadet, yep you got it right Tax Discs in the windshield, and on cars 3 years and over we have to have an Annual Roadworthyness inspection as well.

 

Subaru  no 1 is a  2007 Kei Car,  660cc FWD Auto.  Subaru R2 - one of 2 in the UK  0-60 in around 13 seconds 55-60 mpg -  little black one

Subaru no 2 is a 1994 Impreza WRX, 2000cc,AWD, Turbo,  another Jap Import.  0-60 in  around 5.3 seconds  20mpg on a good day - large silver one

[bill937ca]

Hmm.. I don't smoke, don't drink much at all, don't like going to pubs, don't have a car either, so I guess I'm saving a lot on that.

 

I'm very much like Martin.  I've always spent some money on tram or streetcar related items, once largely books, CDs and magazines.  The last few years the money has gone into trains and trams from Japan. But after four years the pace is slowing down.  I usually order what I want and then put it on my line of credit.  Until I pay off the LOC I buy very little.  Sometimes I would miss something good, but after four years I have most of the stuff I really wanted.

[ShinCanadaSen]

Nice cars Keiman !!!! I'm jealous of you Kei, although I have wanted a Subaru sambar van since I first saw one in japan on 2006. I used to have justy, it was great 3 cylinders and full 4wd ;) and I currently have an old legacy.

 

To return to our regularly scheduled topic, I have about $ 50-100 a month for hobbies and in the last little while it's been going to trains.

[westfalen]

Space Cadet - MOT = Ministry of Transport. In the UK they have to pay yearly taxes on their vehicles and display a tax disk on their windshield (may have changed.... been a long time since I lived in the uk :) )

 

Keiman - What kind of Subarus? and I thought we had it bad at $1.10 CAD a Litre :(

Space Cadet, yep you got it right Tax Discs in the windshield, and on cars 3 years and over we have to have an Annual Roadworthyness inspection as well.

 

Subaru  no 1 is a  2007 Kei Car,   660cc FWD Auto.  Subaru R2 - one of 2 in the UK  0-60 in around 13 seconds 55-60 mpg -  little black one

Subaru no 2 is a 1994 Impreza WRX, 2000cc,AWD, Turbo,  another Jap Import.  0-60 in  around 5.3 seconds   20mpg on a good day - large silver one

Your rubbish bins are the same colour as mine.

 

Seeing as I don't drink, smoke or engage in other vices more expensive than trains I have more to spend on said trains but I still think "holy c@#p" when the Visa statement comes.

[marknewton]

Like a lot of the other members, I don't spend much on things like alcohol, entertainment, clothes or other non-essentials. The car's paid for, so's the house. So I can set aside a bit of cash each payday for discretionary spending, and if I work any overtime that also goes in. There are plenty of things in life I can happily live without, but not my trains! 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[cteno4]

one friend is into cars as his big hobby and another boats, and they are in totally different leagues in terms of money!!!! Also (especially with the boats) money in seems to go poof as the price usually keeps dropping on the investment! i grew up on boats and learned early to just enjoy others' boats (at worst rent them) and never get tied to one myself!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[to2leo]

Wow thanks for sharing some tips as to how to find funding.

 

I think one important thing that I learn is the willingness to sell some older items to get newer items.  It is always easy to buy but hard to let go.

 

I really like the fact that some of you use your other hobby to earn profit like dickturpin.  I wish I can call my work a hobby but it is more like a career.

 

Yikes, ShinCanadaSen is right.  Owning a vehicle is even more expensive o/s of N. America.  With expenses like that, I can go to an all inclusive trip every year if I decide to take transit or walk to work.

 

One thing I also found interesting is that from observation, single ladies or guys should find partners who are into model trains.  I mean a lot of members here go to bar less, care for their kids more and are willing to go to the extra miles to save.  Hey in way, those who are married should put this on the table when negotiating for an increase in budget for model trains in the next family budget meeting!