As someone who just purchased her first pair of skis after years of chickening out at the sticker shock for years, it is completely worth to buy instead of rent.

Your legs will be less tired, your feet will be less sore, you’ll actually be able to get your money’s worth out of your lift ticket, and won’t waste half the day in the rental line.

I would recommend nobody rent boots or skis more than once to try it out (or buy them up front if you have reasonable confidence you’ll like it. Really. Rental boots hurt that much).

Of course, there’s no reason for a newbie to buy anything better than last year’s beginner gear on clearance, but that’s still a huge step up from rentals.

I’m trying to think if I can generalize this point – Some of it goes along the lines of people saying don’t buy the cheapest guitar, or base your opinion on the worn out school tools, More than that, skiing already has a high entry cost, and is very equipment based. It’s sort of analogous to taking a vacation to paris then eating at mcdonalds to save money.

JD let me know if you want to ever get rid of cards (affordably). Cuz, ya know, they’re probably tied in with painful memories of overspending and all

My husband does this. He’s an avid windsurfer. Windsurfing requires all kinds of expensive equipment, and most of the people he windsurfs with spend many thousands of dollars on equipment every few years. MrP buys their discard equipment when they replace, and pays a fraction of the initial cost. And yet, he still out-surfs them!

Obviously this isn’t intended to justify outlandish spending; it’s just a way to realize the true value of your interest in order to determine whether its pursuit is worth it to you.

(BTW, GIMP is just as good as Photoshop for most amateurs.)

JD, what equipment do you have, and are you interested in selling any of it?

It’s also easier to stick with a new hobby until it becomes useful if you have someone of like mind who’s also interested, and when hobbies are messy, cleaning up from a session of sculpture or painting is just as easy, I’ve found, from a couple of people or a small group as it is for yourself (as long as you don’t go overboard with refreshments)— and if you’re lucky enough to find compadres with similar standards for neatness and diligence, the work and time involved is halved or better.

In hindsight, I now know that I could have rented a machine at the shop where I took my quilting class, and that should have been the way to go. So the class advice is the best one, and now I tell people to take a class and rent the machine before investing.

One of the “problems” with quilting (and I believe the same is true for most crafting hobbies) is that the fabric line changes so frequently. So if you like something now, it’s very possible you won’t be able to find it in 6 months. This leads to “stashes” – collections of fabric to use later. Fortunately, for me, I dislike clutter more than anything, so I don’t have a crazy stash like some of my quilter friends. I always ask questions before I purchase: do I have a project in mind for this fabric already, does it coordinate with fabric I already have in my stash, and finally can I afford it with my monthly budget. When it comes to hobbies, the monthly cash budget has worked the best for me.

When I took up stained glass, I again took a short course from my local junior college. I got to use their tools & equipment to discover whether or not it was something I would truly enjoy & stick with. I almost didn’t keep it up because the school tools were so worn it made the tasks more difficult. When I mentioned it to the instructor, she let me try her personal tools & I became hooked. I would surf the net for the best prices on various start-up tools, print out the info sheets & take them to class to see what she thought. I bought exactly the right quality tools for the craft without buying junk or more than I needed. Now I supplement my avocations by selling some of my work or donating it for charitable organizations to sell or raffle.

Because of the utility theory of information, we tend to value later information less and quit searching for information once our expected gain is less than the cost of the new information (time, effort, or currency). So even if it’s free information from a conflicted party, there is a good marketer behind that information who knows the high value of framing your search for a solution.

The flip side of this is that parties who are not conflicted with their advice tend to be less knowledgeable (not always; please no hate mail). Also, those who do not stand to gain from sharing the information are usually harder to find.

In a nutshell, that’s why informational advantages are usually abused.

Oh, you may be wondering about me. I first tell people not to take everything I say at face value, I give information which I blatantly have no financial interest in, and I often send people to other professional resources first.

But maybe deep down, when you get into a hobby, you know when it’s time to invest little more or when you’re just buying to buy. I’d be buying to buy, he’s buying because he’s trying to save his knees and foot and still run…

Most people get so excited at the start they jump in too fast. Go slow people.

One hobby I have that is expensive is gardening, but at least I can get some food out of the deal. However when you have bad soil you can spend hundreds each year on compost/mulch etc. I do try to save seeds & propogate my own plants, but it’s still expensive, I just try not to visit nurseries. At least it’s a hobby that keeps me fit as well.

Another great way to afford a hobby is to try to make money at it. I have a friend that does custom scrapbooks to support her hobby. DH loved making videos and started getting jobs to help buy new equipment. A year later, he quit his job and 5 years later it’s a full-time job for both of us.

My two hobbies are blogging (cheap and self-funding) and also I play the viola and the oboe. The viola is virtually free as I have quite a lot of music and a good instrument already. The oboe on the other hand, I’m taking lessons (£10 a time), then I have to buy reeds (£7+ a time, and I go through 1-2 a month) then there’s music.

Finally, I don’t actually own an oboe, I’m borrowing my teachers old student model. Unfortunately, I’m turning out to be quite good and I’m progressing quickly. The standard of oboe that it would be worth buying is increasing rapidly and I’m looking at saving up and spending about £3k (~$6k) on one and they go up to around £5k. I need to bear in mind that although I really enjoy playing and need a good instrument, I’m not going to be a professional and don’t need one of that quality.

As far as photography goes, my top tip would be to buy a second-hand film SLR. You can pick them up off eBay incredibly cheaply. Or ask around – if you have a friend who is a keen amateur photographer and has already upgraded to a digital SLR, then there’s a good chance they’ll have an old film SLR lying around.

Some brands have lenses that can be used on their old film models and their new digital ones, but some film lenses are obsolete and thus can be found cheaply on the secondhand market.

Your images will be just as good as a digital SLR, and better than a cheap digital camera. And you can always scan images later, or get the photo shop to do it if you get the film processed commercially.

J.D. you know this makes the second article I’ve read about expensive hobbies that includes tips on Magic. But both fail to mention one of the most basic forms of affording hobbies like MTG: trading/selling.

My husband knows we’re on a budget. So he takes cards he gets from prize packs (from winning Friday night Magic… and even when he doesn’t win, it’s $5/week for 3 hours of fun and socializing) and I help him find the best price online. He can then use any money he gets to buy whatever he wants — but only as long as he sells enough to cover it.

This has worked well for the past three months that he has been unemployed. We spend $28 per month on Friday Night Magic and we budget for the quarterly release of new editions, since he always gets a ton of cards, plus almost a whole day of activity. Last time he went to one of those, he spent $20 for 7 hours of playing.

I know that a hobby based on items constantly rotating “out” constantly may seem like a bad choice for hobbies. But this is really his one vice. If he had to choose a single hobby — even giving up his beloved Xbox 360 (whose games we finance by trading in old games) — Magic would undoubtedly be the choice. And I believe that every budget needs a small amount of room called a “sanity fund.”

RDS
http://financialvalues.blogspot.com/

I was about to say, don’t forget Goodwill for hobby supplies! Especially good for crafting supplies and books, if hunting through racks and bins to find hidden treasures brings you joy… well I guess you probably already shop there then

@db – Try freecycle.